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    How can I install Midnight Commander on pfSense?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    31 Posts 19 Posters 12.0k Views
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    • K
      kpa
      last edited by

      It's supposedly an easy to use file manager (for being an ncurses application) but since there are better ones like Filezilla, WinSCP and others that can use an SFTP connection and offer a proper GUI on your workstation I don't see why you would want to install it on pfSense.

      provelsP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • jimpJ
        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
        last edited by

        Yeah, I've used it a little here and there, and just reinstalled it to check how it runs and what dependencies the package ends up using. It's nice, sure, but I'm not convinced it belongs on a firewall but perhaps I'm overlooking a potential use case that isn't obvious since I don't use it.

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        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • B
          Balanga
          last edited by

          @jimp:

          Granted I never did sip the Midnight Commander kool-aid so my exposure is minimal, but what about it is so important that you'd need it on a firewall?

          With X11 support disabled its dependencies don't appear to be too bad, so there's a chance we could maybe make it available in our pkg repository.

          When I don't have access to Midnight Commander at the console it's very tiresome looking around the system to see what's going on - constant cd  dir cd dir and then you misspell one of those unrememberable long file names.  With MC you just need to use the arrow keys and enter, and it has a built in editor and viewer, as well as 1000's of other features most of which I have even tried.

          Please, please, please make it available as a pkg. It is so useful that Freenas now has it built in to the base build.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • B
            Balanga
            last edited by

            Any update about having Midnight Commander available as an installable pkg?

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • K
              kobzar
              last edited by

              why are you wont do it manual?

              pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/xproto-7.0.28.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/kbproto-1.0.7.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libXdmcp-1.1.2.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libpthread-stubs-...
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libXau-1.0.8_3.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libxcb-1.11.1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libX11-1.6.3,1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/png-1.6.20.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libslang2-2.3.0.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/xextproto-7.3.0.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libXext-1.3.3_1,1...

pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/mc-4.8.15.txz

              WatchGuard x750e + 2GB + SATA-IDE 320GB

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • N
                Nullity
                last edited by

                @Balanga:

                When I don't have access to Midnight Commander at the console it's very tiresome looking around the system to see what's going on - constant cd  dir cd dir and then you misspell one of those unrememberable long file names.  With MC you just need to use the arrow keys and enter, and it has a built in editor and viewer, as well as 1000's of other features most of which I have even tried.

                Please, please, please make it available as a pkg. It is so useful that Freenas now has it built in to the base build.

                Use the "Tab" key to auto-complete directories & filenames.

                Please correct any obvious misinformation in my posts.
                -Not a professional; an arrogant ignoramous.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • P
                  pfBasic Banned
                  last edited by

                  Have you asked here?

                  https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=6.550

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • B
                    Balanga
                    last edited by

                    @kobzar:

                    why are you wont do it manual?

                    pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/xproto-7.0.28.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/kbproto-1.0.7.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libXdmcp-1.1.2.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libpthread-stubs-...
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libXau-1.0.8_3.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libxcb-1.11.1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libX11-1.6.3,1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/png-1.6.20.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libslang2-2.3.0.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/xextproto-7.3.0.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/libXext-1.3.3_1,1...

pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release_3/All/mc-4.8.15.txz

                    Thanks for the list. Unfortunately two of these items are truncated, but I managed to figure out what they were, although there are a couple of dependencies missing… I have got mc installed though.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • D
                      dgcom
                      last edited by

                      For people who used to certain tools, they become essential.
                      You can't compare mc to any other - Winscp is clumsy and not too keyboard oriented.
                      Using ls and tab for directory competition? Good at times, but full ncurses file manager is way better.

                      Many other BSD/Linux distros now include it by default and it should be either part of pfSense or one of the available packages.

                      That and nano editor as well.

                      Installing manually may work, but may also break with upgrades…

                      DG

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • P
                        pfBasic Banned
                        last edited by

                        +1. I don't know what the technical or security implications (if any) would be, but this does seem like it would be a nice to have package for pfSense. It would make it more accessible.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • ssbarneaS
                          ssbarnea
                          last edited by

                          Is there a better place to register requests for adding packages like mc (midnightcommander) on pfsense.

                          Somehow I find that adding comments to a single forum thread named package whishlist as useful as sending them to /dev/null. Nobody sane would be able to watch a thread like this and also if people would want to work on addresing this, they would not be able join efforts.

                          Isn't better to use a bug tracker for this? How about https://redmine.pfsense.org/projects/pfsense-packages/ ?

                          For the moment this worked on pfsense-2.4.1:

                          pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:11:x86:64/latest/All/libslang2-2.3.1_1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:11:x86:64/latest/All/mc-4.8.19_3.txz
                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • S
                            stilez
                            last edited by

                            @ssbarnea:

                            Is there a better place to register requests for adding packages like mc (midnightcommander) on pfsense.
                            Somehow I find that adding comments to a single forum thread named package whishlist as useful as sending them to /dev/null.

                            This wouldn't be a "package" in the sense of a pfsense-GUI addon. It's a FreeBSD port that you want included in the build script. For that, a feature/enhancement request on the pfsense bug+feature tracker (redmine.pfsense.org) is probably the way to go. It's not a big thing to include a ported pkg and won't disrupt the builds to do so, so if there's a reasonable case for it (which there probably is: it's generally useful!), the devs might well do so.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • B
                              Balanga
                              last edited by

                              I'm trying to set up pfSense (2.3.5-RELEASE (i386)) on a ThinkPad T60 for test purposes and have come across a thread I started over a year ago, and wondered if there is a simple way to install Midnight Commander on pfSense yet…

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • C
                                cmbc
                                last edited by

                                Tested of pfSense 2.4.4-RELEASE-p3

                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/png-1.6.34.txz
                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libslang2-2.3.1_3.txz
                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/kbproto-1.0.7.txz
                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/xproto-7.0.31.txz
                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libXau-1.0.8_3.txz
                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libXdmcp-1.1.2.txz
                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libpthread-stubs-0.4.txz
                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libxcb-1.12_2.txz
                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libX11-1.6.5,1.txz
                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/xextproto-7.3.0.txz
                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libXext-1.3.3_1,1.txz
                                pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/mc-4.8.20_2.txz
                                /usr/local/bin/mc

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

                                  I don't see a feature request open for this yet. https://redmine.pfsense.org/

                                  Steve

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • T
                                    tristangrimaux
                                    last edited by

                                    Tested on pfSense 2.4.4-RELEASE-p3
                                    Packages to install (Cmbc's answer is missing libssh2 pkg)

                                    pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/png-1.6.34.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libslang2-2.3.1_3.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/kbproto-1.0.7.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/xproto-7.0.31.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libXau-1.0.8_3.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libXdmcp-1.1.2.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libpthread-stubs-0.4.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libxcb-1.12_2.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libX11-1.6.5,1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/xextproto-7.3.0.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libXext-1.3.3_1,1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libssh2-1.8.0,3.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/mc-4.8.20_2.txz

                                    Then to have a proper shell in mc, execute this

                                    mv /usr/local/bin/mc /usr/local/bin/mc.real
echo 'sh -c "export SHELL=/bin/tcsh ; /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc-wrapper.sh"' > /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc
chmod +x /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc
sed -i.bak 's;/usr/local/bin/mc -P;/usr/local/bin/mc.real -P;' /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc-wrapper.sh
ln -s /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc /usr/local/bin/mc
                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                    • K
                                      KARLAGIN
                                      last edited by

                                      Tested on 2.4.5-RELEASE

                                      pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/png-1.6.34.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libslang2-2.3.1_3.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/kbproto-1.0.7.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/xproto-7.0.31.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libXau-1.0.8_3.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libXdmcp-1.1.2.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libpthread-stubs-0.4.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libxcb-1.12_2.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libX11-1.6.5,1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/xextproto-7.3.0.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libXext-1.3.3_1,1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/libssh2-1.8.0,3.txz
pkg install python27
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/release_2/All/mc-4.8.20_2.txz

                                      mv /usr/local/bin/mc /usr/local/bin/mc.real
echo 'sh -c "export SHELL=/bin/tcsh ; /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc-wrapper.sh"' > /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc
chmod +x /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc
sed -i.bak 's;/usr/local/bin/mc -P;/usr/local/bin/mc.real -P;' /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc-wrapper.sh
ln -s /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc /usr/local/bin/mc

                                      Google help you

                                      GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                      • GertjanG
                                        Gertjan @KARLAGIN
                                        last edited by Gertjan

                                        @KARLAGIN said in How can I install Midnight Commander on pfSense?:

                                        Tested on 2.4.5-RELEASE

                                        That's old ......
                                        p1 is there ;)

                                        edit : with another FreeBSD kernel version, so other ? libs etc.

                                        No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                                        Edit : and where are the logs ??

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • T
                                          tristangrimaux
                                          last edited by

                                          Tested on 2.5.0-RELEASE

                                          pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/png-1.6.37.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libslang2-2.3.2_2.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libXau-1.0.9.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libXdmcp-1.1.3.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libpthread-stubs-0.4.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libxcb-1.14_1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libX11-1.6.12,1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libXext-1.3.4,1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libssh2-1.9.0_3,3.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libsigsegv-2.12.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/diffutils-3.7.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/mc-4.8.24.txz

mv /usr/local/bin/mc /usr/local/bin/mc.real
echo 'sh -c "export SHELL=/bin/tcsh ; /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc-wrapper.sh"' > /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc
chmod +x /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc
sed -i.bak 's;/usr/local/bin/mc -P;/usr/local/bin/mc.real -P;' /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc-wrapper.sh
ln -s /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc /usr/local/bin/mc
                                          bmeeksB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • bmeeksB
                                            bmeeks @tristangrimaux
                                            last edited by

                                            @tristangrimaux said in How can I install Midnight Commander on pfSense?:

                                            Tested on 2.5.0-RELEASE

                                            pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/png-1.6.37.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libslang2-2.3.2_2.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libXau-1.0.9.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libXdmcp-1.1.3.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libpthread-stubs-0.4.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libxcb-1.14_1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libX11-1.6.12,1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libXext-1.3.4,1.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libssh2-1.9.0_3,3.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/libsigsegv-2.12.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/diffutils-3.7.txz
pkg add http://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/release_2/All/mc-4.8.24.txz

mv /usr/local/bin/mc /usr/local/bin/mc.real
echo 'sh -c "export SHELL=/bin/tcsh ; /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc-wrapper.sh"' > /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc
chmod +x /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc
sed -i.bak 's;/usr/local/bin/mc -P;/usr/local/bin/mc.real -P;' /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc-wrapper.sh
ln -s /usr/local/libexec/mc/mc /usr/local/bin/mc

                                            Just FYI. This can be very dangerous (installing packages from repos other than the official pfSense one). Notice how installing Midnight Commander pulled in a bunch of other dependency packages? If any of those pulled in packages happens to overwrite a critical pfSense system library with a different version, you could break your firewall.

                                            GertjanG T 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
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