Installing pfSense on Soekris
Introduction
I spent too much time trying to find how to install pfSense on a Soekris net5501. Why? Because no PXE versions exist or are easily installable, and also due to configuration and connection issues. To help others save time and for my own reference, I've decided to write this article.
Installation
Let's say I have a hard drive to install pfSense on. I connected it to my Ubuntu Desktop laptop through a USB external 2.5" box and used KVM/QEMU. Here are the required packages:
Do not forget to add your user to the 'kvm' group.
Now use virt-manager to create a VM with:
- CDROM: the pfSense ISO
- HDD: the direct USB box
Then boot the VM and perform the installation.
Configuration
1st boot
For the first configuration part, you should install the hard drive in the Soekris box and boot it. I'm using minicom and I've set these serial parameters as: 9600 7E1
Then you'll likely encounter this issue:
This is because the device during installation didn't get the same device name on the Soekris. There is a way to fix this. Try something like this:
Now we're going to boot on the correct root slice:
Web interface
Now the web interface is available through port 0 on IP 192.168.1.1. The default credentials are:
- Login: admin
- Password: pfsense
Proceed with your desired configuration.
Remote connection
Now you're able to set default connections. I mean correct default serial parameters and no exotic ones, as well as the SSH server. Go to System -> Advanced to enable it.
Fstab
To avoid manually mounting the root filesystem at next boot, we'll change the fstab file through our new SSH connection. Change the device values to the correct ones. For me, I had to change from ad0 to ad1 (/etc/fstab
):
Soekris
Now reboot and set the connection parameters to 9600 to get the hardware and OS at the same configuration level.
That's all :-)