Installation of pfSense on Thin Client (T5735)

pfsparc

Hi,

I want to share my installation process with you, to help if someone would ever need it.

Initially I wanted to use the installation hints from here:
http://www.hammerweb.com/blog/2011/11/pfsense-on-neoware-thin-client/ and
http://www.hammerweb.com/blog/2011/11/installing-pfsense-2-0-on-an-embedded-platform-the-easy-way/
but I didn't want to go look for my Null Modem cable.

Hardware: HP T5735 1Gb Flash, 1Gb Mem, 1Gb LAN and WLAN interface including an expansion Kit: Extra 1Gb NIC. (Both found separately on e-bay).

Needed for installation:
keyboard (usb or ps2)
2 usb sticks (2Gb each is enough)
monitor
base system to download and 'burn' sticks

I downloaded a Live linux version (Centos Live 6.4 for this matter, but I think any distro would do the trick, you only need "dd") and installed it on USB stick 1.

Since I'm using a Mac, I first had to convert the ISO file into a IMG file:

hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o CentOS-6.4-i386-LiveCD.img CentOS-6.4-i386-LiveCD.iso

Then installed the image file to stick 1 , which was on my system /dev/disk1

sudo dd if=CentOS-6.4-i386-LiveCD.img.dmg of=/dev/rdisk1 bs=1M

Placed the pfSense 2.0.3 nano-vga (1gb) on the 2nd stick.

sudo dd if=pfSense-2.0.3-RELEASE-1g-i386-nanobsd_vga-20130412-1022.img of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1M

Then I inserted the first stick in the Thin Client and booted Centos in text only mode, and waited for the command line.

Next step was determining which disk would be the DOM/Flashdrive, by usingfdisk -land```
dmesg|grep "SCSI"


Inserted the second stick in a free USB slot and again checked for which device it would given.```
fdisk -l
```and```
dmesg|tail

After knowing from which device to which device to copy, I simply typed:

dd if=/dev/sdc of=/dev/sda bs=1M

Waiting for the prompt again, halted the system, removed the sticks… and turned on the power again.

A fresh installed pfSense nano with vga on my Thin Client 5735 with DOM Flash up and running.

Have fun.

Dr_Drache

just a FYI,
macs can DD iso's directly, no need to convert.
actually some images are made unbootable when converting. (obviously not true in this case, but i've had it happen in the past)