Installation 1.2 stable liveCD and chosing embedded kernel [SOLVED]

warpke

hi,

my setup:
-a 'recycled' server motherboard (asus psch-l)
-an old p4 2.26GHz cpu
-1G ECC memory
-2 intelpro/1000 quad port cards pci-x
-an 40 pin delock ide flash module 1024MB
i booted the live cd stable release 1.2, and after some basic settings i chose 99 install to disk

while partitioning, i choose no swap partiton, only a root partition

in the final steps of the installation i took the embedded kernel, and in the last screen i checked on packetmode

the firewall boots succesfully from compact flash, with no keyboard an no monitor

did i make the right install for an acceptable lifespan for my flashmodule? (i can see the hd activityled blink in about every 3 seconds…)

or do i need to manualy flash the flashmodule with the embedded image...

gionni

I guess not.

Does the web interface displays "embedded" as interface ?

The fact you have installed the embedded kernel does not mean pfsense is working as the embedded version.

warpke

i wondered if there was a shell tool like top for monitoring disk i/o activity

i think vmstat reports disk activity, allthough i dont know its write or read activity

vmstat 1

procs memory page disk faults cpu
r b w avm fre flt re pi po fr sr ad0 in sy cs us sy id
3 9 0 58372 953860 612 0 0 0 525 0 0 343 2717 418 2 2 96
0 8 0 57972 954060 6942 0 0 0 5987 0 0 489 37341 4044 36 22 42
0 8 0 57972 954060 2917 0 0 0 2494 0 0 401 15836 1753 16 11 73
0 8 0 57972 954060 2581 0 0 0 2217 0 1 402 13399 1514 16 5 78
1 8 0 57972 954060 2115 0 0 0 1801 0 0 410 11671 1302 13 7 80
1 8 0 57972 954060 1237 0 0 0 1063 0 0 349 2548 399 2 4 95
0 8 0 57972 954060 324 0 0 0 276 0 0 344 1412 354 2 1 98
0 8 0 57972 954060 507 0 0 0 434 0 0 355 2639 405 2 2 96
0 8 0 57972 954060 593 0 0 0 510 0 1 358 2756 407 5 1 95
0 8 0 57972 954060 324 0 0 0 276 0 0 346 1415 360 0 2 98
0 8 0 57972 954060 507 0 0 0 434 0 0 356 2637 406 2 2 96
0 8 0 57972 954060 486 0 0 0 414 0 0 358 2504 422 3 1 96
0 8 0 57972 954060 1561 0 0 0 1336 0 0 366 3838 503 5 12 84
0 8 0 57972 954060 593 0 0 0 514 0 21 371 2756 457 2 2 95
0 8 0 57972 954060 324 0 0 0 276 0 0 352 1414 375 2 1 98
0 8 0 57972 954060 507 0 0 0 434 0 0 357 2632 402 3 1 96
2 9 0 59004 953628 498 0 0 0 321 0 0 362 2487 404 3 2 95
0 8 0 57972 954060 333 0 0 0 389 0 0 349 1594 369 2 2 97
0 8 0 57972 954060 755 0 0 0 648 0 1 369 3843 477 3 3 94
0 8 0 57972 954060 1378 0 0 0 1181 0 3 355 2609 455 4 1 95
0 8 0 57972 954060 507 0 0 0 434 0 0 364 2665 417 2 2 96
0 8 0 57972 954060 507 0 0 0 434 0 0 355 2632 398 2 2 95
0 8 0 57972 954060 324 0 0 0 276 0 0 347 1416 364 0 3 97
0 8 0 57972 954060 593 0 0 0 510 0 1 357 2756 410 2 4 95
0 8 0 57972 954060 507 0 0 0 434 0 0 356 2640 407 2 3 95
0 8 0 57972 954060 486 0 0 0 414 0 0 358 2504 426 1 2 97
2 8 0 57972 954060 4694 0 0 0 4033 0 0 434 21310 2275 21 15 64
2 8 0 57972 954060 8701 0 0 0 7460 0 0 520 47365 5022 54 25 21
2 8 0 57972 954060 9569 0 0 0 8208 0 1 527 52431 5437 57 31 12
2 8 0 57972 954060 6856 0 0 0 5884 0 0 491 36783 3788 36 26 37
2 8 0 57972 954060 8539 0 0 0 7329 0 0 514 47080 4981 48 31 21

pfsense kernel info:

uname -a

FreeBSD pftest.*********.net 6.2-RELEASE-p11 FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE-p11 #0: Sun Feb 24 16:38:29 EST 2008 sullrich@builder6.pfsense.com:/usr/obj.pfSense/usr/src/sys/pfSense_wrap.6 i386

warpke

i think i found the solution here: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=6828.msg38794

quote:

The trick to convert it to "embedded" is to run this command:
echo embedded > /etc/platform
and reboot.

and now things look a lot better, and no diskactivity with vmstat, the hdled is blinking anymore ;D

warpke

to be sure:
echo pfSense > /etc/platform
/etc/platform: Read-only file system.

;D

usefull tip to install packages later:

save some settings in the webinterface, while saving the filesystem gets mounted writable for a short while and you can then set the platform back to pfSense (i dont know the remount command that sets it writable)

reboot, and you can remove or install packages.

dont forget to set to embedded afterwards…

gionni

@warpke:

save some settings in the webinterface, while saving the filesystem gets mounted writable for a short while

From : http://devwiki.pfsense.org/Tuning

If you are running on embedded platforms, start of by issuing the command: /etc/rc.conf_mount_rw
And when you are done editing files, issue the command: /etc/rc.conf_mount_ro
This is only needed for embedded platform !