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    New computer with PFSense?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    26 Posts 7 Posters 5.4k Views
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    • K
      kejianshi
      last edited by

      Perhaps I should have added:

      …and sold it on ebay to an unsuspecting customer.

      Anyway - I'd put Mint on it with a simple MATE interface.  Its free and works beautifully on older hardware.
      OR - Perhaps even better...  Use it for pfsense.

      Pfsense is a very nice firewall/router.  Its a good chance to get acquainted with it.

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      • N
        N00b
        last edited by

        @bones123:

        You bought a used computer that boots to pfsense and don't know how to load an OS cause you want it to be used as a PC correct?  :P

        You going to need an OS install disc of your choice which will be Windows XP, 7.. Or even Ubuntu. Boot to the CD and follow the instructions.  You will definitely need an installation disc,  look around on the computer does it have a Microsoft sticker on it with the product keys?  Cause you'll need that too if you going to run windows or you could buy a fresh copy.

        Why would someone sell a PC that still has a firewall installation on it?  Seems silly to me,  they could have at least told you what you were buying.

        So all I need to do is Have another OS install disk (With the product key) and stick it in the disk tray during start-up? Or do I have to press a certain key at start-up to keep it from going into the PFSense menu? Thank you all for the help.

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        • K
          kejianshi
          last edited by

          Often, just need to get an OS disk, drop in the DVD tray and reboot.

          IF it doesn't boot from CD, might need to go into bios, usually either delete or f2 during boot, and change and save bios setting to boot from cd.

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          • N
            N00b
            last edited by

            Verifying DMI Pool Data…...........
            Boot from CD:

            F1 FreeBDG

            F1
            /

            Then alijndvciajncajnfdjdf And i bunch of other stuff I cant understand. Then:

            Welcome to PFSense!  >:(

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            • T
              timthetortoise
              last edited by

              The boot menu is usually between F9-F12. Press each one individually over and over at startup to see if you can get a boot menu to show up. Put in your preferred OS disk, and boot from CD.

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              • K
                kejianshi
                last edited by

                The funny thing is for most people on this forum that would be a good thing.  :P

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                • K
                  kathampy
                  last edited by

                  He probably doesn't have email notifications enabled either.

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                  • K
                    kejianshi
                    last edited by

                    You think?

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                    • B
                      bones123
                      last edited by

                      @kejianshi:

                      The funny thing is for most people on this forum that would be a good thing.  :P

                      Lol that is funny

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                      • K
                        kejianshi
                        last edited by

                        What kind of disk did you have in the CD tray when you booted up?

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                        • B
                          bones123
                          last edited by

                          @N00b:

                          Verifying DMI Pool Data…...........
                          Boot from CD:
                          Uo
                          F1 FreeBDG

                          F1
                          /

                          Then alijndvciajncajnfdjdf And i bunch of other stuff I cant understand. Then:

                          Welcome to PFSense!  >:(

                          I wouldn't even bother with that computer if I was you,  one of pfsense's major advantages is that it can run on old outdated hardware.  I'm not going to waste any more time till you post exactly what you got.  I want manufacture, model, and if its a dell the service tag number so we can see what hardware is installed in it.

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                          • K
                            kejianshi
                            last edited by

                            It would be cool if we could get that angry face added to the end of the boot sequence of pfsense.  Its cute.

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                            • N
                              N00b
                              last edited by

                              @bones123:

                              @N00b:

                              Verifying DMI Pool Data…...........
                              Boot from CD:
                              Uo
                              F1 FreeBDG

                              F1
                              /

                              Then alijndvciajncajnfdjdf And i bunch of other stuff I cant understand. Then:

                              Welcome to PFSense!  >:(

                              I wouldn't even bother with that computer if I was you,  one of pfsense's major advantages is that it can run on old outdated hardware.  I'm not going to waste any more time till you post exactly what you got.  I want manufacture, model, and if its a dell the service tag number so we can see what hardware is installed in it.

                              emachines- Model No.ET1161-03
                              Origanally had Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1
                              AMD Athlon X2 4400 Processor
                              Nividia GeForce 6150 SE
                              Some High end disk tray thing
                              320 GB Hard Drive
                              3GB DDR2
                              15-in-1 Memory Card Reader? (If that's even remotely relevent)

                              Also burned a Windows Vista Home Premium Disk 32 bit and slapped that into the disk drive. Then went into the advanced Bios and set it so it read the disk first, then pressed some F-whatever key and also had the boot-up start with the disk in the disk tray. Here is the message I received: DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

                              Anyone have a clue what I did wrong here?

                              Thanks thus far.

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                              • N
                                N00b
                                last edited by

                                ALSO burned on a DVD+R Memorex disk holding 4.7 GB total memory. If that's any help as well.

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                                • K
                                  kejianshi
                                  last edited by

                                  If you are very new to this kind of stuff, and you want a cheap and fast computer that is very secure, try linux MINT with MATE desktop.  It will make good use of that computer and will run very well on its limited resources compared to windows.  And its free.

                                  I suspect you didn't set up the correct boot order in bios.

                                  I'd suspect that pressing the del key on boot gets you into bios.

                                  I'd bet that advanced bios is where you can select boot order (Which you should set to CD 1st and HDD 2nd)

                                  Then press the F10 key and save and reboot.

                                  (BTW - How to blow away pfsense and replace it with a Desktop OS isn't strictly speaking what people do here)

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                                  • N
                                    N00b
                                    last edited by

                                    @stephenw10:

                                    That is a new question!  ;)

                                    It may be setup to dual boot pfSense and some other OS (like Windows, Ubuntu etc) but that is not normally the case. By default pfSense removes everything else when it's installed. Do you see a boot loader menu before pfSense starts booting? It will be plain white text on a black background.

                                    Steve

                                    I do! But it automatically shifts to PFSense after 5 seconds I think and it doesn't look like anything OS related.

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                                    • N
                                      N00b
                                      last edited by

                                      @bones123:

                                      You bought a used computer that boots to pfsense and don't know how to load an OS cause you want it to be used as a PC correct?  :P

                                      You going to need an OS install disc of your choice which will be Windows XP, 7.. Or even Ubuntu. Boot to the CD and follow the instructions.  You will definitely need an installation disc,  look around on the computer does it have a Microsoft sticker on it with the product keys?  Cause you'll need that too if you going to run windows or you could buy a fresh copy.

                                      Why would someone sell a PC that still has a firewall installation on it?  Seems silly to me,  they could have at least told you what you were buying.

                                      I've also tried an Ubuntu Installation Disk, however, it was a CD+R and putting that in the disk drive yielded no results whereas putting the Windows

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • stephenw10S
                                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                        last edited by

                                        I'd be surprised if it was setup to dual boot. pfSense has a boot menu of sorts itself, that's probably what you're seeing.

                                        Getting down to basics here, perhaps the DVD drive has been disconnected? That is something someone might do for security purposes to prevent a random OS being booted when it was serving as a firewall. Or the cable might have just fallen out!
                                        When you go into the BIOS setup does it show the DVD drive as being connected anywhere?
                                        The DVD drive might be broken or very dusty so it's not recognising the disk. You could try booting from a USB drive with Ubuntu on it (see ubuntu website for instructions).

                                        Steve

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                                        • A
                                          Azoic
                                          last edited by

                                          My 2 cents….

                                          Download an ISO Image of Hiren's BootCD, Version 9 or older ( this is more simple to use ) and burn to CD

                                          Check the BIOS as mentioned in the posts above. Make CD/DVD boot BEFORE HDD or use F12 to select boot options and choose boot from CD/DVD.

                                          Reboot into the Hiren's Disc, on screen one, hit enter on the MORE line in options, on the SECOND DOS screen select MBR Tools, on the next screen select option 1
                                          MBR Work 1.04b. Click enter on all options CHANGE NOTHING including swap files and it will open.

                                          When it opens, select option 3, then enter then Y then enter, then select option 4 click Y and then enter, then select option 5 click Y then select number 2 click Y then enter. This makes the HDD read as NEW (RAW) and any data that was once on it is unrecoverable. This method is like a level 9 DOD wipe, and any previous data on it is gone forever, i have tried this many times, and NO DATA RECOVERY SOFTWARE available has ever found anything on any HDD i have wiped this way, so you should have no trouble installing anything new.

                                          Click E to exit MBRWork the screen will come up to R:// with a blinking cursor.

                                          Remove the Hiren's disc from the CD/DVD drive, and replace it with your Windows,Ubuntu or other O/S disc.
                                          Type reboot and it should start into the install of the O/S you have chosen, then just follow the prompts to install your new system.

                                          Overall this is not a bad PC, would be fine for most user's not into games

                                          Specs :

                                          Processor
                                          Processor type Athlon 64 X2 4400+
                                          Processor speed 2300.0 MHz
                                          Memory
                                          Memory size 3072.0 MB
                                          Display
                                          Included monitor No
                                          Graphics
                                          Primary Graphics Chipset Nvidia GeForce 6150SE
                                          Video Bus Integrated
                                          Video Memory Type Using main memory
                                          Storage
                                          Raid type none
                                          Drive size 320.0 GB
                                          Expansion slots
                                          Open PCI Express X16 Slots 2.0
                                          Open PCI Express X1 Slots 1.0
                                          Number of PCI slots 3.0
                                          Number of PCI-Express Slots 1.0
                                          Green
                                          Energy Star compliant 0.0
                                          Optical Drive
                                          Optical Drive Type DVD±RW
                                          Included Software
                                          Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
                                          Ports and Connections
                                          Ethernet Type Ethernet (10/100 Mbps)
                                          Available Interfaces

                                          USB - Universal Serial Bus (rear) (x4)
                                              USB - Universal Serial Bus (front) (x2)

                                          Slots 3
                                          Parallel Port No
                                          Case
                                          Chassis style Tower (Mini)
                                          Internal Drive Bays 2
                                          External Drive Bays 3

                                          As a general use, or student PC this would be fine. Would make an excellent Office PC as was wanted aswell.

                                          Drivers for Windows are here :

                                          http://support.gateway.com/us/en/emac/product/default.aspx?modelId=1299

                                          I would install Vista Ultimate as the O/S, to make use of the shared memory and easier security control. If you need a copy let me know by PM.

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