MiniITX wih 4 GB CF to IDE Adapter - Soooper slow boot

[dnky_bones]

Hello again,

I am attempting to install Pfsense 1.0.1 to CF card, but not the embedded version, installing from a live cd.  I'm installing on a Epia-LN 1 GHz Mini-ITX board with a 4 GB CF card in an IDE Adapter.  Everything appears to install fine, however, the boot process takes about an hour.  I have run the same hardware before, but with a hard drive, and it obviously didn't take an hour to boot.

I have also installed Trixbox (linux based PBX software) on identical hardware (including CF card and adapter) without issue.  Any ideas what might my problem be?

Thanks!

-M@

[GruensFroeschli]

@http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic:

If you're installing to a CF Card use the embedded version.
A fullinstall to a CF will kill the card. The CF should be minimum 128 MB (more works too but the space is not used).

If you want to use packages you need to use the full version –> install to a HD. Alternatively you can use a Microdrive (Harddisk in CF format)

The embedded version does not have any VGA output. Connect and configue per Serial port.

[dnky_bones]

Its a calculated risk, the card is supposed to be good for 2 million writes, and its 4 gig, and spreads the writes over the whole card, so as not to wear out one section faster than another.  So it should last for several years, and keep in mind, hard drives don't last forever either.

That being said however, I'm just wondering if anyone has successfully installed the full version to a CF through an IDE adapter?

-M@

[gmckinney]

@dnky_bones:

Its a calculated risk, the card is supposed to be good for 2 million writes, and its 4 gig, and spreads the writes over the whole card, so as not to wear out one section faster than another.  So it should last for several years, and keep in mind, hard drives don't last forever either.

That being said however, I'm just wondering if anyone has successfully installed the full version to a CF through an IDE adapter?

-M@

Yes - I have an 8-gig CF card loaded with the pfsense development system which is the full version with addition pieces needed to compile the different "flavors" (IE: embedded, HD, etc).

You can find the thread here: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,6469.msg37122.html#msg37122

BTW: The search function on the board is working again ;)

gm…

[dnky_bones]

Well, after several more hours of banging my head against this problem, I finally found a solution Thanks Mike! to the problem in these very forums.

The thread lives here: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=6840.0

And the meat of it revolves around running these commands after Live cd boot before installing, and once again on first boot from the CF after installing.

set hw.ata.ata_dma=0
boot

Rather than copy/paste and possibly diverging the original thread, I'll just let anyone curious follow the link to the thread above.

Once safely running off the CF card, you may then enter this into the boot loader .conf file, and it works every time.  :)

-M@