Thanks for the utterly broken 2.1 update.
-
Not to bug you with what is probably a silly question, but what kind of install are you running? Full or something like nano? (I'd expect nano - but thats a lota ram and a big drive)
-
Its a Soekris 6501-70 in a rackmount (I have 2, one is currently down due to the update)
The HDD's were cheaper than a 30GB SSD or something similar so I went with those, also keeping in mind the limited read/writes on SSDs. But yeah, theres only a 4Gb partition for pfSense. Otherwise the disks are empty.
I run the embedded version on it as that seemed to run more low key for the hardware. Not sure if Full version is better but I assumed it's for more full featured PC's. So I went with embedded.
-
Ummmmm - On your system, while you are chilling - Why not try the full install.
Then just stay out of the web gui most of the time. As an experiment it would be interesting to see what happens.
I'm betting it will boot right up and run.
In the end, embedded version seems like it might be better? Maybe? I'm not sure how much overhead a web gui adds to the system when you aren't using it and don't have a bunch of graphs running. i bet its not much. I think mainly memory is the issue for embedded systems but 2GB is what you have right? Thats seems plenty.
I think the primary advantage of embedded systems is they don't do alot of writes to the CF Card (which you aren't running) and lower memory required (Which is also not an issue for you). But yeah - Don't load every package you see…
-
How would i stay out of the webgui with no screen and such? Does the entire thing come over serial?
(I'm fairly new to pfSense, only ever used embedded) -
This thing doesn't have a VGA does it?
No - Even with full install you are just looking at a bunch of text at install but with no VGA I've no idea if you can do it over serial with live CD.
I have never tried. Just seems a shame to have so much disk and ram handy and have to run embedded install.
-
Nope, just 1x USB, 4x NIC, 2x COM
I'm guessing this image may work - pfSense-memstick-serial-2.1-RELEASE-i386.img.gz
In the setup I could just dd it to the HDD instead of the USB stick I assume.But doesn't that load all kinds of hardware modules the Soekris doesn't have? Or is that a dynamic thing these days?
Also, is the "full" version different where the update/2.1 install works better? Or has a higher chance of working?
eg. would it be worth the trouble to try? Or is it just a wild experiment? -
Wild experiment based purely on the fact that you seemed to have given up on 2.1 embedded.
But with no SSD or CF Card to destroy with frequent writes, I'm not sure I'd want embedded unless I just couldn't do full install? -
What would the benefit be, assuming it works?
-
Primarily, right of the bat… First thing that jumps into my mind is squid. Lots big huge cache. Also RRD data storage. You could use disk for cache instead of some big ram disk and memory for fast squid cache also.
Assuming your CPU doesn’t cry...
But I would not load too much on it.
(Down-side is that a full install is more prone to corruption if you have a nasty habit of throwing the power switch without shut-down often)
-
Each Soekris will do; firewalling, load balancing (2x 40mbit dsl), DHCP, DNS, NTP and captive portal (Radius) and perhaps VPN on one of the machines.
I could give it a go… I didn't fix the downed Soekris yet - Doing some other stuff now to lower the frustration levels :).
Could I use the Memstick install (pfSense-memstick-serial-2.1-RELEASE-i386.img.gz)? Or what do you suggest? -
I'm the wrong person to ask for the best embedded install type… But I'd assume memstick will throw away most of your drive capacity, but work.
-
But I kinda need serial capability, if the regular download has that then that would work too I think ;)
-
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Console_Types
I'm not in love with the prospect of trying to do an install without a monitor!
-
Right, so for my hardware im limited to the nanobsd images or the memstick version.
I'll is the memstick version more full featured than embedded that you know of? -
Well - I think the nano versions are for particular sized CF cards so I'd think memstick is more flexible that way.
-
I see, i'll poke around a bit more and try to find out what's what.
Thanks for your answers and advise.
I've noticed there are a lot of people having trouble with 2.1, I hope it gets resolved soon :)
I think I'm gonna dust off my old soekris (4801) to test out the differences between the various images.If I don't forget I'll post my findings in a thread somewhere on the forums here.
-
The memstick serial image is to write onto a usb stick. Then you boot from the USB stick, all the output is on the serial console, and install to the HD just like the CD. If you select the embedded kernel during the install you will then have a serial console by default when you then boot from the HD.
Alternatively you can remove the HD and install pfSense to it in another machine from the CD. Once you have it installed and running you can enable a serial console in the webgui so that you have console access when you transfer it back to the soekris box.
Steve
-
"Alternatively you can remove the HD and install pfSense to it in another machine from the CD. Once you have it installed and running you can enable a serial console in the webgui so that you have console access when you transfer it back to the soekris box."
So you end up with a full install and a working console? Correct? I like this plan for a 250GB WD HDD.
-
Yes, exactly. I'm not sure quite what you get by selecting the embedded kernel, it used to be no packages but that isn't the case now, everything seems available - more than nano even. I have used this process for HD install on a firebox X-core-e but it's more difficult in that box. The process is described for an older box, and older pfSense, here:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Soekris_4801_Hard_Drive_InstallationSome stuff in that document no longer applies; you can choose the standard install and select serial console later, you don't need to do any VLAN stuff because you only need one interface to get up and running.
When you tarnsfer back the HD and boot the box it will dump you at the assign interfaces dialogue because the NICs will (probably) be different in the Soekris box to the laptop.
Steve
-
When I did this before (Transplanting a HDD) It worked right away because I went from having an EM0 and EM1 to a totally different box that still had an EM0 and EM1. Just dumb luck.
