Install the full FreeBSD-GENERIC on pfSense 2.2

dreamcat4

Hello.
I am very pleased to announce:

Support for the pfSense platform* is now added to the Finch Project.
*Requirements: 2.2-beta dated 16th-April-2014, or NEWER. Embedded image OK / supported.

More information is available at:

http://documentup.com/dreamcat4/finch

Project Homepage:
http://dreamcat4.github.io/finch

The purpose of this tool is to make everything as easy as possible to setup a fully-blown FreeBSD server. Finch pre-configures pkg-ng, FreeBSD jails, and a consistent shell environment. By installing the "Finch" tool onto a supported* liveUSB-based FreeBSD distribution, the whole end-to-end installation process can be much simpler. The approach cuts down the time and efforts required. In particular all those little manual pieces of 1-time setup. Yet the end result remains a very powerful and professional FreeBSD server. You get the full and official release of the FreeBSD operating system (a.k.a. "FreeBSD-GENERIC"). Whilst also keeping intact the convenience features of the host system.

Kind Regards

Dreamcat4
Creator of Finch.

dreamcat4

You know. It would also be nice to create a package for installing Finch onto pfSense. Unfortunately (I myself) do not have the necessary experience in that specific area. And my pfSense VM is very slow. (I'm actually on the FreeNAS platform).

If anyone else here is interested to start writing a package for this, still I would be very happy to support them and answer any questions they might have…

I am guessing that the package would be to provide some kind of installation Wizard (as a php web interface). It might incorporate the following functions:

Guide the user through the pre-installation steps (detect or mount a UFS-formatted hard disk).
Run the Finch installer "finch bootstrap".
Display installation status / progress (e.g. Finch: "Not installed", "Installing", "Installed").
Guide the user through the post-installation steps (configure admin user accounts as "wheel", and with "bash" or "sh" login shell).

Note: All the necessary instructions are already published up on the Finch Website. It isn't super-necessary for us to create a Package to install Finch. Anyone can do that right now. But a proper Package may be more convenient. You know, "Easy-install".

Like I said, I'm not sure I can write such a pfSense Package, because it is not something familiar to me. But please email for any questions and support, I'm happy to help. Contact info: http://dreamcat4.github.io/finch/support.

dreamcat4

Hello again :)

I've just improved to the procedure for installing Finch on pfSense. Now more resilient to upgrading of the pfSense host system. Before these changes, the Finch boot scripts could be wiped away after pfSense upgrade.

Now, the only manual thing a user needs to do after upgrading pfSense, is restore their "fstab" file from a Backup. But it's very easy and full instructions are given.

All new installation procedure is documented on Finch's website:

http://dreamcat4.github.io/finch/install/

Other improvements:

Better handling of admin user accounts.
The presence of a temporary file "$finch_realpath/var/db/finch/installing…" now allows a simple way to query Finch's installation progress (i.e. "not installed, installing, installed"). (Useful for pfSense pkg makers).