Apologies for using vendor names that may cause irritation.
Got an older Netgate appliance, based on PCengines APU2c SBC
It runs pfSense well enough, using a USB->ethernet dongle as the “DMZ” port..
Any chance IPFire will load and work? It’s not on the approved list, that I can see. Worth a try, or, abusing a deceased equine?
Ultimately I wish to replace a Sophos XG-85 (first gen) appliance that has not been supported for a while. I guess a similar question applies to that appliance, but I have not clue as to the “innerds” of that one.
I must be confused. Created a bootable USB stick using RUFUS. When presented with SeaBIOS blurb Press F10 key now for boot menu, I select my USB device, which boots and presents a setup dialog.
I don’t see how to install this to the Device in the box.
As is stated in www.ipfire.org - Step 3: Run the installer the installation lets you chose the HD IPFire is installed on.
In your case you’ll see only one, the SSD on the mSATA module.
Thanks for the tip, I seem to have missed the docs you linked to, though I did look for them before starting I plead infirmity of years.
Upon boot I do not see those options, only a text screen with options. Which “menus” are not easy to navigate, appearing as I have seen when the wrong terminal is selected.
I should add that the device does not have a “video port”, for a monitor, I connect via a serial port and terminal emulator.
Perhaps I should review the image creation procedure and start again.
Yes, the system console is the serial port of the APU board.
Serial port means, you have to set both end points of the connection to the same parameters ( 115200 Baud, 8N1, flow control XON/XOFF in case of IPFire ).
First try to set the APU to these. Best done in the BIOS boot menu, F10 at boot.
The default settings are the same as IPFire’s. So you could read the boot messages in your terminal emulator.
If there are weird characters, try another baudrate in the emulator. Then set the params to IPFire’s values. Switch your emulator back to this.
Now you should be able to follow the setup process.
To be sure select the boot order
USB HDD
mSATA HDD
This ensures that the USB stick is used, when connected. Without an USB stick the system boots from the internal mSATA device.
For installation these settings mean that an old contents of the mSATA device are ignored.
It appears to boot into a “runnable” system of IPfire, running through a complete (typical) Linux boot sequence, ending up asking me to select keyboard, timezone, etc, all in a text mode.
I should really review the basics on what image to use and the proper USB creation method.
The second is the file to make a installation medium.
The .img.gz is an image to flash directly to the system disk. The flashing is the install. This needed only, if the system doesn’t support booting from an USB stick.
That works better. Better still when I remembered to edit the Terminal Emulator (putty), so now I have a screen. that reminds me of the IPCop daze., See? Memory has not failed completely.
Apparently I am still missing a basic step, as I noticed no option to install to the existing media, so reboot, without USB installed, brings up pfSense, still.
So, it appears the “clue by four” is required., yet again. But, for now, I will take a break to attend to other duties.
Please feel free to comment, I’m sure they will be helpful.
