Boot problem ALIX 2D13 + IDE HDD
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In my OPNsense 2.1 firewall (Alix 2D13 board, 512MB CF-card) I want to use an old IDE harddisk for additional storage, while still booting the code image from CF. But with the HDD connected, it does not boot from CF anymore.
Without IDE disk, normal CF-boot:
PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.99l 640 KB Base Memory 261120 KB Extended Memory Waiting for HDD... 01F0 Master 044A CF 512MB Phys C/H/S 1007/16/63 Log C/H/S 1007/16/63 1 pfSense 2 pfSense F6 PXE Boot: 1 (spinner) boot.config: -h Consoles: serial port BIOS drive C: is disk0 BIOS 640kB/261120kB available memory FreeBSD/x86 bootstrap loader. Revision 1.1 (root@snapshots-8_3-i386.builders.pfsense.org, Wed Sep 11 18:59:49 EDT2013) [...]With the IDE disk, fails to boot:
PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.99l 640 KB Base Memory 261120 KB Extended Memory Waiting for HDD... 01F0 Master 044A CF 512MB Phys C/H/S 1007/16/63 Log C/H/S 1007/16/63 1 2 5 F6 PXE Boot: 1 ######################################### ###########################################...Any ideas?
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Ideas is - it just won't boot as you noticed. Either boot from the HDD and ditch the unusably small CF, or get a bigger CF card and ditch the HDD.
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Thanks for the quick reply!
So is there no way to configure boot priority and having an additional disk as non-boot storage?
If the IDE drive always gets boot priority, can't I put a small boot loader on the disk that forwards booting to the CF partition?Of course, I could buy a larger CF card, but flash storage is not suitable for frequent writes, that's why I wanted to use a harddisk.
To set up the harddisk also for booting, I guess I can't just simply copy the pfsense boot image to the disk and take the CF card out?
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- Backup the configuration.
- Remove CF. Install pfSense on the HDD.
- Restore configuration.
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But how to install pfSense image on the harddisk? The DVD in the package only contains four .img files for 4 different CF sizes. No setup program to install it on a harddisk. And a regular PC-install of pfsense won't do, I think, because the ALIX/AMD Geode platform is different, and I will need the proper drivers, also for the WiFi adapter in the box.
Could you please provide a link where to find an installer or the procedure how to do this manually? Thanks!
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No idea what package you mean.
- Download the i386 ISO from https://www.pfsense.org/download/
- Install on some PC/laptop. Set up the primary console to serial (System - Advanced - Admin Access tab)
- Shut down and attach the HDD to Alix.