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    Installing pfSense on SmoothWall Appliances

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    • U
      usaiat
      last edited by

      Got an old un-licensed and unused SmoothWall (SmoothGuard 1000 UTM) and was thinking of reusing the appliance with pfSense loaded. Anyone done this before ?
      Have change the boot order to USB FDD first and got the the pfSense-CE-memstick-serial-2.4.4-RELEASE-p3-amd64.img written to the USB flash drive with Rufus. Can see that it detects the USB FDD at boot but never load for installation
      Would love to reuse this appliance (good specs) so any help will be really appreciated

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        @usaiat said in Installing pfSense on SmoothWall Appliances:

        SmoothGuard 1000 UTM

        What are the specs on that? It's probably possible. Most of their other boxes are just rebadged Portwell/CASwell devices. The one I have (S4) was not really even locked down at all, I just installed to it.

        Steve

        U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • U
          usaiat @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10 Intel 2.12GHz with 2Gb RAM and 120Gb HD

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            It looks like that's probably a Core2 CPU but they may have made more than one version. If so that's 64bit, so it should just install.

            Steve

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            • U
              usaiat @stephenw10
              last edited by

              Thanks @stephenw10. So probably I'm using the wrong image or something Im missing on the BIOS setting ? I've tried the ISO on USB and also pfSense-CE-memstick-serial-2.4.4-RELEASE-p3-amd64.img written to the USB flash drive with Rufus without much luck.

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                Use the CE memstick-serial image and write it with Etcher.

                Do you see anything on the serial port? Does it have a VGA port you could use?

                Steve

                U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • U
                  usaiat @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10 Thanks. Yes I can see things via the serial port. That was how I access the BIOS and change the boot order. It has the slot but doesn't have VGA card

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Is it even trying to boot the USB stick then? Or just fail to find anything to boot?

                    I expect it to see the USB image as HDD rather than a FDD.

                    Steve

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                    • U
                      usaiat @stephenw10
                      last edited by stephenw10

                      @stephenw10 That, I'm not sure but I can see that it detects the USB FD attached. Here is my first few boot-up screen. If I press any key itll continue with smoothwall, but if I ESC itll redirect me to a menu to choose "SmoothWall-smp" or "SmoothWall-up" or "C" to access GRUB

                         Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG, An Energy Star Ally
                         Copyright (C) 1984-2006, Phoenix Technologies, LTD
                      
                      8A820 Ver.A12.10.0
                      
                      Main Processor : Intel(R) 2.12GHz(266x8.0)
                      Memory Testing : 2088960K OK +  8M shared memory
                      CPU Brand Name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU          6400  @ 2.13GH
                      EM64T CPU
                      
                        Memory Frequency For DDR2 667  (Dual Channel Mode Enabled)
                      Detecting IDE drives ...
                      IDE Channel 2 Master : None
                      IDE Channel 2 Slave  : Hitachi HTE722012K9A300 DCCOC76A
                      IDE Channel 3 Master : None
                      IDE Channel 3 Slave  : None
                                                 Phoenix Technologies, LTD
                                                   System Configurations
                      +==============================================================================+
                      | CPU Type          : Intel(R)            Base Memory       :    640K          |
                      | CPU ID/ucode ID   : 06F6/44             Extended Memory   :2087936K          |
                      | CPU Clock         : 2.12GHz             Cache Memory      :   2048K          |
                      |------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
                      | Diskette Drive A  : None                Display Type      : EGA/VGA          |
                      | Diskette Drive B  : None                Serial Port(s)    : 3F8 2F8          |
                      | Pri. Master Disk  : None                Parallel Port(s)  : None             |
                      | Pri. Slave  Disk  : None                DDR2 at Bank(s)   : 0 2              |
                      | Sec. Master Disk  : None                                                     |
                      | Sec. Slave  Disk  : None                                                     |
                      +==============================================================================+
                      
                      USB Storage Device : VerbatimSTORE N GO      PMAP...Full Speed device 1.X
                      IDE Channel 2 . Slave  Disk  : LBA,ATA 100,  120GB
                      
                      PCI device listing ...
                      Bus No. Device No. Func No. Vendor/Device Class Device Class               IRQ
                      --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          0       2         0     8086   2772   0300  Display Cntrlr               7
                          0      29         0     8086   27C8   0C03  USB 1.0/1.1 UHCI Cntrlr     11
                          0      29         1     8086   27C9   0C03  USB 1.0/1.1 UHCI Cntrlr     11
                      Press any key to continue.  8086   109A   0200  ACPI Controllertrlrtrlr      9
                      Press any key to continue.
                      Press any key to continue.
                      Press `ESC' to enter the menu... 0
                        Booting 'SmoothWall-smp'
                      
                      kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32.26+drm33.12-3-smp root=UUID=dd4c6aa6-6828-11dd-8d88-ff86
                      85556314  console=tty0 console=ttyS0,9600n8
                         [Linux-bzImage, setup=0x3400, size=0x1edc90]
                      initrd /initrd-2.6.32.26+drm33.12-3-smp.bz2
                         [Linux-initrd @ 0x7f397000, 0x448088 bytes]
                      
                      Linux version 2.6.32.26+drm33.12-3-smp (root@DSHBuild) (gcc version 3.3.5) #1 SMP Tue Dec 13 16:15:48 GMT 2011 ()
                      KERNEL supported cpus:
                        Intel GenuineIntel
                        AMD AuthenticAMD
                        Cyrix CyrixInstead
                        NSC Geode by NSC
                        Centaur CentaurHauls
                        Transmeta GenuineTMx86
                        Transmeta TransmetaCPU
                        UMC UMC UMC UMC
                      BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
                       BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f400 (usable)
                       BIOS-e820: 000000000009f400 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
                       BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
                       BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000007f7f0000 (usable)
                       BIOS-e820: 000000007f7f0000 - 000000007f7f3000 (ACPI NVS)
                       BIOS-e820: 000000007f7f3000 - 000000007f800000 (ACPI data)
                       BIOS-e820: 00000000e0000000 - 00000000f0000000 (reserved)
                       BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
                      
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                      • provelsP
                        provels
                        last edited by

                        Any SATA port options to connect a DVD/CD-ROM and select DVD/CD-ROM as boot device?

                        Peder

                        MAIN - pfSense+ 24.11-RELEASE - Adlink MXE-5401, i7, 16 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD. 500 GB HDD for SyslogNG
                        BACKUP - pfSense+ 23.01-RELEASE - Hyper-V Virtual Machine, Gen 1, 2 v-CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 8GB VHDX (Dynamic)

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          Seems like you might just need to change the boot order in the BIOS.

                          It's usually the TAB key to enter the BIOS setup via serial.

                          Or failing that try disconnecting the hard drive so it has no other boot options. That won't help you install but will prove it can boot from USB.

                          Steve

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                          • U
                            usaiat @provels
                            last edited by

                            @provels Let me try to attach that to the USB and see if I can boot from the CD ROM. Thanks by the way :)

                            provelsP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • U
                              usaiat @stephenw10
                              last edited by

                              @stephenw10 Yeah, I've tried that with USB FDD as the 1st in the boot order then HDD as the 2nd boot order.

                              Let me try to disconnect the HDD. Thanks

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                              • provelsP
                                provels @usaiat
                                last edited by

                                @usaiat Another option may be to use a second PC to install to the HDD, then put the HDD back in the Smoothwall. I did that way back when with my Nokia ip530 and pfSense 1.2.3. Ah, memories.

                                Peder

                                MAIN - pfSense+ 24.11-RELEASE - Adlink MXE-5401, i7, 16 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD. 500 GB HDD for SyslogNG
                                BACKUP - pfSense+ 23.01-RELEASE - Hyper-V Virtual Machine, Gen 1, 2 v-CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 8GB VHDX (Dynamic)

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

                                  Yup, that would work. I've done that a few times. Though not with 1.2.3, I was all about Nano back then. 😉

                                  Steve

                                  U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • U
                                    usaiat @provels
                                    last edited by

                                    @provels got it install that way :) Works now. Thanks

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                                    • U
                                      usaiat @stephenw10
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10 Thanks :) Work now

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