Which dist should I download?

chali

Hi

I have a real noob question but I am a little confused. ??? (This has probable bein askt many time, so sorry that I haft to do it again :-[. )

I'm going to install pfsense on a server I built, but which one should I download? I'll install from usb and would then have one named arch but I can not find one with arch in the name.

it's an i3 on a supermicro mother board with dual network cards, 8gig ram. so it should reasonably be a x64 bit dist I should have? but which one? :-\

very grateful for the help.
ps: excuse the bad grammar, I use google translate

/ Sincerely Chali

cmb

arch = i386 for 32 bit, amd64 for 64 bit.

biggsy

I've often wondered, is the naming convention of "i386" and "amd64" one that's well past its use by date?

Maybe they could be just "32bit" and "64bit" - or "ia32" and "ia64" if you want to plan for the possibility that ARM will eat Intel's lunch :)

Perhaps these things are just too ingrained to change now. Just wondering.

cmb

ia64 is Itanium, completely different architecture.

i386 and amd64 are technically the proper architecture names and how BSD and Linux distros refer to them.

biggsy

I'd forgotten about Itanium. Must be developing Ellison's Syndrome.

chali

thank you very much for the answers :)

ok it should be amd x64, but it should be with nonobsd in the name or not? and it should be 1g, 2g, 4g, 512mb? or something else?

excuse the noob questions, but the Download page makes me dizzy ???

**Hi

I think I found right now (sorry, I should continued read, it says that the different sizes is for flash memory) ::)

Thanks for your help in finding the correct file

/ Sincerely Chali**

@cmb:

arch = i386 for 32 bit, amd64 for 64 bit.

johnpoz

are you going to be installing to hard drive? If so then no you wouldn't use a nanbsd/embedded image

have you looked at
http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=44

This goes over all the different versions

example
Embedded (NanoBSD)
The embedded version is specifically tailored for use with any hardware using Compact Flash rather than a hard drive.

Architectures
Starting with pfSense 2.0, there are versions for both i386 (32-bit) and amd64 (64-bit) architectures. This architecture is noted in each of the filenames for download. If you are unsure which version to use, then use i386. It is the most mature and well-tested architecture, and it will work on both 32-bit and 64-bit capable systems. The amd64 architecture (which does work even on Intel 64-bit CPUs) can address more memory and may have other performance advantages, but requires a compatible CPU.

Now with that 8GB ram you have - if you want to have full use of that 64bit should be used. But 8GB seems a bit high for a pfsense box.. Are you planning on running stuff like squid and snort, ntop, etc.?