Trouble installing PFSense on Soekris 6501-70
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Hmm, the boot loader in 2.2 somehow incompatible? Seems odd though.
Steve
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Hope it helps: I am running a net6501-70 with pfSense 2.2.2 i386 nanoBSD on a compact flash card.
I marched the whole upgrade path: 2.1.5 -> 2.2 -> 2.2.1 -> 2.2.2, no experience so far with a fresh installation. Luckily I never had a reboot issue.
Peter
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Adding another data point, I see the same issue only with a fresh 2.2 install on my net6501. I installed 2.1.x and then upgraded and it runs fine that way, probably not worth the effort tracking it down further at the moment. There are some installer changes happening for 2.3 that might make for an interesting test once they materialize in full.
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May want to add an installation note somewhere in the official documentation at doc.pfsense.org for the Soekris installs out there.
We know it affects the 6501-30 and 70 whatever jimp has.
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Has anyone tried a NanoBSD install to see if that works? Or if it's just a full install?
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I've got a net6501-50 running 2.2.2-nano-i386 off USB.
As far as I remember, I just wrote nano to the stick and popped it in. The x64 build did not work.edit-the issue with x64 is the missing mptable support in the kernel (see http://wiki.soekris.info/Net6501_freebsd)
Should work with these additions-
deviceĀ Ā Ā atpicĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā # Optional legacy pic support
deviceĀ Ā Ā mptableĀ Ā Ā Ā # Optional MPSPEC mptable support -
I just started having the same issue with a clean install on a Soerkis6501 using pfSense-CE-memstick-serial-2.3.1-RELEASE-i386.img from a USB to install pfSense 2.3.1 on a CFā¦.
Any ideas?Ā ??? -
I've loaded 2.3-i386 nano on a usb stick and just popped it in, works fine. Haven't tried 2.3.1, or an msata yet. (Hardware is 6501-50)
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I've loaded 2.3-i386 nano on a usb stick and just popped it in, works fine. Haven't tried 2.3.1, or an msata yet. (Hardware is 6501-50)
Yes, mine works too with USB stick however I want to use my CF since it I have it and it was working fine beforeā¦
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I had a net6501 back in for a little polishing up, so I did a few tests-
2.3.1-nano-i386 on a USB works fine.
Installing 2.3.1 to msata is still broken and won't boot.
2.1.5 appears to be the last version that would boot properly from msata on a net6501. You may be able to load 2.1.5 and upgrade- untested.
Others have reported success by installing the msata in a laptop, installing, then changing fstab and installing in the net6501- untested.
As this appears to be a quirk will Soekris hardware, I don't see this getting fixed unless someone figures it out and submits a reasonable patch.
I'm just going to run nano on mine. -
What I actually did and solved the problem was to install 2.1.5 from memstick to my CF, then use the web UI to upgrade directly to 2.3.1 and restored my config! :)
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Solution/Workaround:
I had the exact same continuous reset problem described in this thread.Ā I found a solution/workaround allowing me to do a brand new install on my Soekris 6501 of pfSense version 2.3.1 using an mSATA drive as the storage.The workaround is to download the 4GB embedded version, and use Physdiskwrite to push the disk image to the mSATA drive (using PhysDiskWrite and an inexpensive USB mSATA adapter), just like the mSATA disk were a CF card.Ā I'd have preferred to run the 'full' version, on this ample mSATA drive, but at least I'll keep this Rackmount Soekris employed for a few more years.
I would not hold your breath for a 'real' fix since this the 6501 doesn't appear to have been very popular.Ā Also, don't bother buying an mSATA drive larger than 4GB.Ā My 30GB Intel 525 runs a 4GB image just fine.
I hope this helps someone.
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I am running a 6501-70 still with version 2.2.6 nanoBSD (i386) on a 32 GB Transcend mSATA.
I did this installation after booting the pfSense-memstick-serial-2.2.6-RELEASE-i386.img.gz from a USB stick and fetching the nanoBSD image and gunzip it to mSATA on the fly. I had no reboot issues.
I am interested in the current state of pfSense 2.3.x with this hardware, because I am planing to make a full install on the same mSATA as soon as NUT package is ported to 2.3.x.
When scanning this thread, it's hard to see what is not working as expected. Have I got it right that full installations of versions 2..2.x and 2.3.x are affected only?
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I am just failing to boot a 2.2.6 or a 2.3.2 full installation (i386) on mSATA of my Soekris 6501-70. Though installation just goes fine my machine is caught in a boot cycle where right after the loader selecting
F1 pfSensethe machine straightly reboots.
I would like to install from the 2.1.5 memstick serial to subsequently upgrade to 2.3.2Ā but I am unable to find it. Could anybody please help me with the old version?
Update:
May be I should make a full installation to an 8 GB Sandisk Cruzer Fit. Will the USB stick be more sensitive to write operations than the mSATA or vice versa?Update2:
I am no longer looking for the 2.1.5 image und would like to give feedback: I have used the memstick-serial installer (version 2.3.2, i386) to install to an USB stick placed inside the Soekris case. This full installation starts just fine. -
Hi guys, did anybody report this to FreeBSD (hxxps://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/)? They might be able to resolve it.
I have the same issue on 6501-50 and it seems if affects 6501 in general. -
Did you try it with a vanilla FreeBSD install? It was my impression the issue was pfSense specific and not a FreeBSD problem.
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I have exactly the same issue - stuck rebooting if trying to run from mSATA, OK from external USB stick. :(
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It seems there are hardware compatibility issues with net6501 that the pfSense team is not willing to resolve since they don't support hardware other than what they sell at store.pfsense.org ā¦Ā :( :-\
This is the main reason so far to make me start looking for alternatives, distros not hardware.
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@/CS:
It seems there are hardware compatibility issues with net6501 that the pfSense team is not willing to resolve since they don't support hardware other than what they sell at store.pfsense.org ā¦Ā :( :-\
This is the main reason so far to make me start looking for alternatives, distros not hardware.
It's not that we are not willing, we don't have any of the hardware that still works. We didn't go out of our way to break it, but if we don't have the hardware, there isn't much we can do in the way of testing/troubleshooting.
We used to have two net6501's but they have both died after a few years of (ab)use for testing.
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It's not that we are not willing, we don't have any of the hardware that still works. We didn't go out of our way to break it, but if we don't have the hardware, there isn't much we can do in the way of testing/troubleshooting.
We used to have two net6501's but they have both died after a few years of (ab)use for testing.
Hi Jim! I asked the guys from the soekris mailing list if they are willing to donate a net6501 to your team and I got a few positive responses back.
One of the guys told me that he already sent you a PM. Let me know how it goes and I'll be more than happy to assist on this! :)
