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    Running pfSense on a meraki MX400

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    • I Offline
      interrupt
      last edited by

      I have seen this successfully implemented. I have a project for my kid and his friends to do just that. Problem I don't have any real direction to provide to them. They are 9 and i am very old school going back to actually knowing Hollerith and being a beast with amigas. Having said that, is there any guide or support page that someone could direct me to so that I can give them a lead on how to either implement ore brick the mx400. Here is an image of the result "supposedly" .

      dd0ed17c-c44e-4dde-89d9-381267f1f96f-image.png

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      • stephenw10S Online
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        Looking at it that seems to be a badged Lanner appliance so I'd expect to be able to boot pfSense just fine.

        First thing I would do is hook up a serial console and see what's shown. Can it boot from USB? Can you access the BIOS setup?

        If neither then you may have to move the boot drive into something else to install to it.

        Steve

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        • stephenw10S stephenw10 moved this topic from Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software on
        • I Offline
          interrupt @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10 you are absolutely correct. I forgot that it is lanner system and just branded. I completely forgot. It won't be here until probably next week. I just got it from eBay. Thanks for reminding me about the hardware origin. I completely forgot that. I mixed my own self up in my own mind. I forgot I looked at lanner for info. I completely forgot. Thanks.

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          • provelsP Offline
            provels @interrupt
            last edited by provels

            @interrupt Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I used a second machine with video and a couple of throwaway NICs to install the base system and just get it on the Internet (and enable SSH), then moved the drive to the headless machine, connected to console port via serial, and reconfigured the new NICs when they were recognized at first boot. After that, I'd install packages, write rules, etc., from the web interface Fairly straightforward. Looks like a cool box! A little power hungry, but if the price is right.

            Datasheet

            Peder

            MAIN - pfSense+ 25.07.1-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 Online
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Merged the two threads here.

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              • J Offline
                jfaubin @interrupt
                last edited by

                @interrupt

                Have you installed psense on the meraki?

                Regards!

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                • I Offline
                  interrupt @jfaubin
                  last edited by

                  @jfaubin I've been so busy with other responsibilities and will plan on working on this project in April.

                  There is a CF170 4gig inside and I think that it is used for firmware? I really don't know. I'll ask a cisco friend to give me some info on that chip and what it is used for.

                  Cisco removed all ports for this device however I doubt they removed the functionality inside on the MB. I'll pick up a video cable and use that to see if I can get any video.

                  I'll report back.

                  This was originally a project for my kid and his friends but they blew it off and went back to playing roblox.

                  I'm an old man i guess but i'm raising a 10 year old and man is it a major trip.

                  Thanks for the inquiry.

                  Interrupt

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                  • I Offline
                    interrupt @jfaubin
                    last edited by interrupt

                    @jfaubin

                    i finally found the time and did successfully install pfsense on cisco/meraki mx400. i could'nt get the video via vga as i am colorblind and can't tell the pinout.

                    i can't display on the front panel because i don't know the config for this unit. if anyone could help with the led panel config i would love it.

                    this was originally for the kid and his friends to do but they prefered roblox, hot wheels unleashed, or live home 3d.

                    thanks for identifying the manufacturer cause i some how found a manual that gave all the engineering for the mx400 (less the cisco butchering).

                    i love it

                    image0.jpeg

                    nicecapture-10-11-2025_at_16-08-47.png

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                    • I Offline
                      interrupt @interrupt
                      last edited by

                      i have lcdproc configured and its fully functional. i will post a pic later.

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                      • I Offline
                        interrupt
                        last edited by

                        Re: Running pfSense on a meraki MX400
                        i have lcdproc configured and its fully functional. i will post a pic later.

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                        • NC1N Offline
                          NC1 @interrupt
                          last edited by

                          @interrupt said in Running pfSense on a meraki MX400:

                          i have lcdproc configured and its fully functional. i will post a pic later.

                          Thank you in advance for that! Looking forward to it. If possible, could you also post a brief hardware overview (I can see from the screenshot that the processor is Xeon E3-1275 v2, but there no information about stock memory and storage) and Lanner motherboard model number?

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