[SOLVED] Need some guidance with first installation

nicolaih · Sep 18, 2014, 6:26 AM

Hello

We bought a new server based on a ASRock C2550D4I motherboard with an Avoton CPU. The server has no harddisk installed, the plan was to run pfSense from a USB-stick.

My first problem was that I got a kernel error with the 2.1.5 version, so I guess I have to run with the 2.2 Development version?

I tried downloading the newest amd64 memstick and amd64 nanobsd images. The memstick version boots fine, and I can configure the IP addresses and so on. But after that I don't know what to do. I suppose that I need to save the configuration to the USB stick somehow, but if I run option 99 to install on harddisk etc. the installation fails (both the quick and the manual install), I guess it may be looking for a harddrive? I tried inserting another empty USB stick (FAT32 formatted), but that doesn't change anything. Is what I'm trying to do even possible?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Best Regards
Nicolai

jasonlitka · Sep 19, 2014, 10:50 AM

Option 99 would install to a different disk. As of now, that disk would need to be plugged into a USB 2.0 port, not a 3.0 port. I'm not sure what your board has, but that could be why you are having issues.

Beyond that, the typical recommendation is that you should use NanoBSD for USB flash drives, not the full install. If you've got a high-quality drive then it's probably ok, but if you don't, it may not last long.

nicolaih · Sep 22, 2014, 12:38 PM

Turned out to be quite simple. I downloaded the newest development version of the NanoBSD, the first one I downloaded was without VGA so it didn't work very well. With the NanoBSD there is no need to install anything, there isn't even an 99 option in the menu.

Also I was using USB 3.0 ports, so that might be why I couldn't make the install from the memstick image.

Thank you Jason!

jasonlitka · Sep 22, 2014, 2:58 PM

@nicolaih:

Turned out to be quite simple. I downloaded the newest development version of the NanoBSD, the first one I downloaded was without VGA so it didn't work very well. With the NanoBSD there is no need to install anything, there isn't even an 99 option in the menu.

Also I was using USB 3.0 ports, so that might be why I couldn't make the install from the memstick image.

Thank you Jason!

No problem. The 2.2 snapshots might actually work in the USB 3.0 ports, I haven't tested it yet.