WebGUI on the same appliance

[ovidius]

I am building a pfsense appliance. I have setup pfsense on an Asrock Q1900B-ITX motherboard with a Logilink 2-port NIC. The case that I use is custom made and I am thinking to incorporate a 3.5 '' or a 5" hdmi monitor. Is there a way to show the web Interface of the pfsense appliance directly to this monitor so that I can always see what's going on without opening another device?

[Gertjan]

@ovidius said in WebGUI on the same appliance:

to show the web Interface of the pfsense appliance

To show a web interface, you'll be needing browser, a program that can do something useful with the received html.
On the other hand, pfSense contains a web server, the 'program' that makes these pages.
Impossible to install a browser on pfSense. It's a firewall, not a desktop OS.

Still, some VGA compatible card with a - for example - HDMI connection is useful.
The GUI is nice to see what happens - and mouse and keyboard are needed, though, but the console access is also very useful - if not actually even better.
A GUI 'windows' can be opened on any device on the network - or elsewhere.

[jimp]

To get a browser, at least one fancier than the text-based links which is built-in, you need an entire desktop environment. That's a bad idea for a firewall for a number of reasons, most of them security-related.

If you want to keep things isolated but still have a GUI nearby, that's a perfect job for a Raspberry Pi or similar inexpensive small-form computer.