PfSense on CF 1GB

Fabioo

I ve bought two kingston 4gb!

if you get a bigger and more faster card you can perform a "normal" installation without the embedded limitation ?

EDIT: OK Stupid question :P

robi

Yes you can, but don't forget to go to System > Advanced > Miscellaneous and check "Use RAM Disk".

What I did for my thin clients, is that I've installed my full pfSense on 1GB as I described above, entered the web interface, selected "reset to factory defaults", restarted the system but didn't allow it to boot up, instead, I took a DD image of the contents of the disk.

This way, I've created my own 1GB "nanobsd-ish" image.

PS: as an extra, I've modded the default config file with interface names matching my hardware, and pre-selected RAM Disk usage to be enabled by default. This way, each time I flash this image to any number of thin clients, I get a fresh system already prepared with these options, also skipping interface assignment at the console. 8)

Fabioo

Perfect ! this weekend I'll do the tests :)

Thanks !

robi

When installing "Full" on CF card or SD card (coming from NanoBSD), my advice would be to avoid creating a Swap partition.
If there's a swap partition present pfSense will mount it - and using flash media as swap space can be really hard on flash wear. Of course, if swap space is really used - but to be on the safe side, I'd suggest not to use swap at all - on NanoBSD it didn't exist anyway.

Fabioo

confirm :P

waldo22

@robi:

Is there an official statement on this? :o

Here's the official-ish statement:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Upgrade_Guide#NanoBSD

This is disappointing but understandable. I still have a handful of Intel Z-U130 SLC flash drives that are 1GiB. Most are 2 GiB, though.

I think I'll try following your advice and using the full version with no swap and check the Ram Disk option.

Thanks for the tips!

-Wes

kevindd992002

What RAM disk size is recommended for /tmp and /var?

robi

I use 90MB and 60MB on my embedded system (which has 1GB of RAM installed). But I don't use any special packages writing to these directories. It routes at around 500Mbit/sec, maxig out that single NIC it has for both WAN and multiple LANs (all through a VLAN-capable switch)

bbfrankopan

I have Dell FX160 with 1G RAM and 1GB SSD DOM, running 2.2.6 version.
When I tried install 2.3.3 (or 2.3.2) , during install after creating full partition (*), following robi advice, I got following error:

Execution of the command
/sbin/bsdlabel -B -r -w ada0s1 auto
Failed with a return code of 4.

Tried on two FX160, but result is the same.
Any advice?

BR/bbfrankopan

vbentley

I don't have a FX160 to try but I have built various BSDRP based systems on FX130 and seen some odd things in the past depending on what was on them before.

You could try wiping out all of the partitions on the DOM and creating a single FAT32 partition with DOS MBR. I use a bootable USB stick with Ultimate Boot CD on for wiping out partitions. Then try installing the pfSense software.

bsdlabel on my 2.3.3 appears to have -R as an option but not -r.

bbfrankopan

Using bootable linux on USB, did wiping all the partitions on DOM, crate one new FAT32 partition, but result is the same error.
Accessing logs, there is line at the end of logs:
Executing '/sbin/bsdlabel -B -r -w ada0s1 auto'
bsdlabel: /dev/ada0s1 read: Invalid argument

Did not try with Ultimate Boot CD, but effect should be the same.