Would like to setup a Dual Boot with pfsense on a Lap top.
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You don't actually need two NICs, you can use VLANs with one NIC and a managed switch.
Or install it in a VM as discussed above.
It really depends on what you're trying to do. Filter traffic for a whole office of PCs? Setup a VPN to allow all those PCs to connect to some remote site? It would be crazy to try to do that with software firewalls and VPN connections on each PC.Steve
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@stephenw10 I am still in the process of trying to patch VirtualBox sufficiently to a: get it working and, b: get it working with IPv6; so I may see about patching-in pfSense at some point, too, - thanks.
My setup is (now) a virtual linux webserver with Windows PC. Next will be a MAC (but they do not like virtual, apparently); so depending on how things progress I will either attempt to patch-in pfSense or I will simply buy a hardware box (which would, unfortunately, have to be one of the dearer models because of my networking requirements).
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I have run numerous pfSense instances in VBox with no issues. I would expect it to 'just work' there.
Steve
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@stephenw10 Good, - thanks, - but based on my unpleasant experiences with both VirtualBox and VMWare (especially) I do not expect the problem to be with pfSense.
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Since I got a Proxmox host setup I hardly ever use VBox anymore. I can recommend that, it was a game-changer for me.
Steve
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@stephenw10 Looks interesting, - another installer that requires an entire install device to itself, but if there is a chance that I can run my webserver without crippled IPv6 and DNSSEC it has got to be worth a look. - Thanks.
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Yeah it needs a dedicated host to run on, it's a true hypervisor.
But that means it moves all that load off you desktop. It also means you can physically position it anywhere there is Ethernet and power so it can be big and load etc. And it can be always on to host VMs that need that.
Steve
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@stephenw10 said in Would like to setup a Dual Boot with pfsense on a Lap top.:
Since I got a Proxmox host setup I hardly ever use VBox anymore. I can recommend that, it was a game-changer for me.
Steve
Love Proxmox, did you also use it for gaming like steam with video card pass through?
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Nope!
I have it running on a virtually silent low power NUC.
Steve
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@stephenw10 said in Would like to setup a Dual Boot with pfsense on a Lap top.:
Nope!
I have it running on a virtually silent low power NUC.
Steve
I am planning to do the same changing my server with low power server. My energy bill is unbearable.
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@stephenw10 I have now managed to install pfSense (thanks), but it is useless unless I can run it inside of something else (not possible to get it working alongside anything), and ProxMox is the worse pile of crp I have ever tried to use. - It has to be run from the command line ...and expects to be configured via a browser(???). I am not even going to ask. - The more I explore these hypervisors the more I wonder at the seriously fcked sense of humour behind these products.
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@2RTzC5KbQGH4aG said in Would like to setup a Dual Boot with pfsense on a Lap top.:
It has to be run from the command line ...and expects to be configured via a browser(???)
And how else would you design a headless VM host to be managed? Which btw is exactly how pfsense is managed via a browser.. ;)
As to run from the cmdline.. I take that to mean the box has no actual gui?? Well no shit why would I want my hypervisor to waste resources on a gui..
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@johnpoz The point I was making is that it is a bit difficult to configure something via a browser when, as you point out, the damn thing is headless. In other words, it has been designed in such a way as to make configuring it 100% impossible short of using a second machine and having a GUI OS on one machine and ProxMox on the other.
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And when would you not have a 2nd machine on a NETWORK that you admin and want to run a VM host on.. For gosh sake you could do it from your phone ;)
My take is you have no idea how any of this stuff is actually meant to be used.. No proxmox is a not hypervisor for a workstation.. Like vmware workstation or hyper-v you run on windows 10.
If you want that sort of thing then you want a type 2.. Esxi and Proxmox are both type 1..
If you want - you could install proxmox as a package with your existing linux OS.. Then it becomes more of type 2. But its really meant to be a type 1.
If you want type 2, use virtualbox, or vmware workstation/player or hyper-v for say windows 10.. Or say KVM..
esxi use to have a fat client you could use vs a browser.. But it has gone be dropped. You either manage esxi for example with its on control server a vserver that can run as a VM on your host or cluster of VM host. Or you if your just running a lab or small setup with 1 host, then you use a browser to manage it, etc.
If your looking for something to just firewall your 1 pc - no pfsense is not a logical choice. It is meant to be the firewall for a network.. Not a "network" with 1 device on it ;) Connected to your isp gateway/router/modem.. While it can be done with just a modem and 1 box, hyper-v would prob be your logical choice if your machine runs windows - or you could use virtualbox.. Both are pretty simple to setup.. Not sure what your problem has been with either of those. Its pretty clickity clickity with a basic understand of the concepts at play in such a setup.
I would suggest if you want to play with pfsense, get a box you can use as a vm host.. Say a nuc, or nas that can do virtual machines. Or some cheap box you bought on net that can run esxi or proxmox.. Then you can start with using it for your vms on that host.. And then at some point of so inclined you could use that as firewall/router for your network, which I take it at this time is your 1 PC? Or maybe a sg1100 would be a great starting box for you? Just to run pfsense..
I have run pfsense virtually on multiple platforms over the years. But it was always a 2nd vm host on my network.. Back in the day it use to be a dual P4 setup.. Man that thing could suck some power ;) I have currently graduated to a sg4860 for my home network - and love it.. If I want to play with snapshots or betas of pfsense. I just fire them up on my nas.. Since it can run virtual machines.
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@johnpoz I understand all that (thanks), but there is simply no way that it is working on my setup. - No problem, - I had my doubts about the feasibility of it all, and I can see that they were justified (more of the usual Linux), but obvious if you think about it: you cannot run a GUI on a command line OS, so the whole ProxyMox claim is absolute nonsense.
I can see that pfSense would work, though, but only virtualized; although I cannot see how it could be made to work alongside anything else because it would be just one of potentially several "guests" ...and it is only possible to have one guest running at any given time (ie: whilst pfSense can be installed it is absolutely useless unless you want it solely for interfacing with a remote machine and having no local OS - pointless).
VirtualBox is terrible and has crippled networking (especially on the IPv6 side). Also, what you are effectively saying is that ProxyMox is not a VM and cannot be used with Windows ...which makes no sense at all.
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@2RTzC5KbQGH4aG said in Would like to setup a Dual Boot with pfsense on a Lap top.:
I can see that pfSense would work, though, but only virtualized; although I cannot see how it could be made to work alongside anything else because it would be just one of potentially several "guests" ...and it is only possible to have one guest running at any given time
That's just wrong. You can have as many VMs running as the host will support.
Additionally you can use pfSense as a firewall for the host OS with the right virtual network setup so you don't even need more than one if that's your intention.Proxmox is a type 1 hypervisor intended to be installed on a dedicated machine. So, no, it's neither a VM nor can you install it in Windows.
Use Hyper-V if you only have one machine and it's running Windows. Though if that is the case I'm not sure why you would want to run pfSense at all TBH.
Steve
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@2RTzC5KbQGH4aG said in Would like to setup a Dual Boot with pfsense on a Lap top.:
.and it is only possible to have one guest running at any given time
You really need to do more research on what virtualization means.. I think your stuck in some old school mentality of dual booting..
And while you say you understand - sorry but its clear from your statements that you don't..
The only limitations of how many virtual machines you can run on any host comes down to the power and number of cpus it has, the amount of ram and the network connectivity... You could run hundreds of vms on a single host, if it had enough horsepower..
I use to have 5 different vms running on my little ds918+ nas with only 8 gig of ram.. Now they were all small little vms with not much requirements.. Now I am down to just 1 that I run 24/7 but I do fire up others when want to play with stuff that all run concurrent.. Some of the other stuff that I use to run on vms, have now moved to docker containers.. I have 3 of those running 24/7 on the nas..
And guess what - all managed via a browser, because the nas is headless - you don't connect a monitor or keyboard, etc. too it. Shoot it doesn't even have an option to connect a monitor..
And someone just kicked off streaming something from my plex server that is also running on my nas. And also managed just via a browser.
Notice all of that stuff running in containers, vm running, app streaming media to someone over the internet.. And the cpu and ram not all that taxed.. Even cheap small powered devices these days can support multiple vms and dockers and processes providing services via all kinds of different OSes and setups all on the same hardware.. Run 1 at a time? Yeah dude sorry but you really need to do some research on how this stuff works.. You clearly are not understanding it..
So, no, it's neither a VM nor can you install it in Windows.
You could if you want run proxmox as a nested hypervisor where the host machine was running windows ;)
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_VE_inside_VirtualBoxThere are many a scenario and people that run nested hypervisors.. All you need is the box with enough umph to do it.. This really not all that uncommon to be honest.. You just need some horsepower - or lots of patience ;)
Its common on esxi for example to run nested copy of esxi under esxi running on the host.. Back when 6.5 came out one of the bigger features of that release was that they made it much easier to do just that.. Even though they didn't officially support nested setups ;)
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
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SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11 -
I have a "little" NUC alike Acer RevoRN76 i3-7130 , that is my "Home ESXi 6.7" - 16G Ram + 500GB SSD + 1TB HD.
Only caveat is that it has Realtek Netcard , so i had to do a custom image.
I am gratefull for VMware allowing for a Free Home license , where most of the ESXi API stuff is disabled. I manage it via the HTML5 console , and use Ghetto-VCB for backup.
This little guy have given me the experience to manage our "large HP ESXi Iron" at the job (vCenter).
The investment in my "Job future" is one of the better i have made.
Currently running 5 x Deb10 servers on the home ESXi
Zabbix, Pi-Hole , DLNA , VPN , Ubiquiti Controller.The most amazing is that ESXi shows around 260MHz cycles are used most of the time, and i have 2 x 2.7G cycles available.
Lots of fun
Edit:
Was so addicted, that i had to get a refurb'ed barebone
HP Elitedesk 800 G2 - i3-6100U (2 x 2.3G) for the summerhouse , added 16G Ram + 1TB HDDNow running PI-Hole + 2 x VPN
Both machines was around $175 (barebone)
Focus was on Power usage & Fan noise - I'm happy there.I know i could setup my VPN on the pfSense , but this way i can totally "jail" a DEB10 VPN to a specific connection.
DEB10 has it's own DHCP + VPN-DNS for WiFi/Lan clients , that uses the DEB10 as def-gw. Making it totally self-contained.And it's easy to change to some other VPN dest ... Just fire up another ExpressVPN script.
And i had to have something to use my new toy for ..
If there wasn't a Free ESXi , i would prob. have gone for Proxmox.
Edit2: Sorry if this is OT - But i think ESXi was easy to start with.
/Bingo
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@johnpoz said in Would like to setup a Dual Boot with pfsense on a Lap top.:
I think your stuck in some old school mentality of dual booting..What's wrong with old school mentality?
Yes I am an old school person. In our time we donāt have thermal camera, we used our hand to feel the heat of broken component. We donāt have 100% isopropyl alcohol, we used vodka for cleaning. But at lease in our time you have the right to repair of your own devices and the manufacturers even gave blueprint of your devices. Nowadays, consumers treated like an idiot and because they accepted that, they also revoked your right of owning and repairing. You donāt own your device anymore, you get the feeling of owning them in reality you just renting them. What next, oxygen for rent?
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What the hell does the right to repair have to do with thinking this is late 90's early 2k an want to dual boot your shiny new copy of redhat 2.1 and windows XP your running.
Mainstream virtualization has been around for about 20 years.. What Xen came out in 2003, MS released virtual PC same year..
Dual booting is not how you best leverage the hardware you have.. It was ok when you were a windows guy and you wanted to play with linux.. Or a linux guy and wanted to check out what windows was.. All the kool kids were all triple booting hackintosh, linux and windows..
Today you just run all three at the same time ;) On the same hardware.. And you can just have them all up using whatever which one you want to use at the same time.
That has zero to do with you being able to self repair your $1k phone you carry around.
While I get you - hey should be able to replace the battery in your phone, or hey the screen, etc. etc. But guess what - making that thing as small as possible, and also keeping the price so that people can actually afford them - makes it harder to "self" repair.. Shit they prob don't even repair them - and just throw them out when part X fails.
You can't really do much on your new car either... Shit just changing the oil can be a real pain in the ass without the special tools.. And fuck they have to pull the engine to replace something you could of done back in the day in your garage with a buddy drinking beers in an hour or so..
If you want to play around with rebuilding your carb - then sure you can do that on your "classic" but your not doing that sort of thing on your new tesla ;)
Same goes with your new 1200$ new iphone ;) But sure you buy one of these and you can repair the shit out it ;)
Do you repair your 2k$ TV? Do you repair your 3k$ AVR? While I hear you - you should have the right to repair.. Problem is the tech is advancing to the point that if X fails you just replace X, not fix X.. And even if you wanted to repair it you would needf 100k worth of equipment to do so..
But that really has zero to do with this OP not understanding virtualization at a basic level ;)
