Hello Everyone! I bid you a happy New Year!
I am writing on this forum because I am unsure what is happening during the setup, and I was wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same issues. I downloaded OPNsense 25.7 iso vga amd 64, and I have downloaded the zip file 10 times, and then I did a few other ones to see why I was getting this error, to see if they are all showing the same thing, and turns out they are all saying the file is corrupted upon downloading, and I attempt to install. Is anyone else getting this,s or is there a special way that I need to do this that is not in the instructions or the manual that comes with this thing? I have downloaded an old software that I have used in the past, and it downloads that, so it's not my system. Also, when I download it, it shows 0 KB when it is completed, and it shows empty in VirtualBox when I open it through there.
Quote from: DigitalSquirrel01 on January 10, 2026, 02:19:43 AMI downloaded OPNsense 25.7 iso vga amd 64, and I have downloaded the zip file 10 times
[...]
Also, when I download it, it shows 0 KB when it is completed, and it shows empty in VirtualBox when I open it through there.
Definitely doesn't sound right. For one thing the OPNsense images are not distributed as zip files, only as bz2. If you really did get a .zip file then that's not an official image.
To unpack the .img file from the .bz2 file you'll need a program that understands the bz2 format. On Windows for example, you can use 7zip as mentioned in the OPNsense docs.
If you're getting a 0KB file then something went wrong on your end but it's hard to tell what without more information. Maybe the program you used doesn't unpack the bz2 file correctly, or your download is failing for some reason. Try again with a different download mirror.
Hello Sir. How are you doing? I hope you are doing better than I, I am about to lose my mind! :-)
No, not really, I am not losing my mind, but I am just REALLY confused. I worked on this all day, and now it time to go to sleep. I feel a bit defeated.
For more info, I have mispoke; it's not zipped, but it's similar to zipped, as it's compressed. Its a compressed image. I have tried it every which way, and it still will not populate in the VM. The DVD, VGA, they all come up as either a corrupted file when I try to run it on the Windows machine, and when I try to run it in VM, it either shows up, and then when I open it, it's empty. Then, on the VM, I tried changing the setting, thinking that maybe if I put BSD in the format, maybe that was why it's not working, and that turned out to be a flop, too. I was reading the material, and the material states that it can be run on an OS, and also booted off of a Bootable Drive, and use the entire computer for this purpose. So, I tried to run the VM just off that SW itself, and nope, that did not work. For the University Project, we used WAZUH for a project we had in class. Now I am doing this independent lab as a portfolio project. I extracted the compressed file, but there is nothing inside it. I downloaded it from the OPNSense platform, so I trust its okay file. I ran it through Virus Total, and everything checked out well there. This is so confusing to me because I did not have any problems running Kali or Parrot, and everything just boots fine. In my mind, I am thinking this should be the easiest part of the entire process, but now I am completely stumped. :-( I even got desperate and went to AI to help, and now I am in circular thinking and arguments in my head.
I am going to start new tomorrow and re-read the material. Maybe I missed something I should not have. Could you help me understand why these things failed and perhaps put me on a different way of thinking? Thank you. Maybe I am just my own worst enemy here, and I'm thinking this is like other SW, and in reality, it is not, and I should be thinking differently. Anyway, any help is help right now because I am starting from scratch tomorrow.
If you could help, I would be really grateful. Even if it just some thoughts. Maybe just maybe there is something in those thoughts that might help. :-)
Thank you for your time, Sir. And Thanks for helping.
Quote from: DigitalSquirrel01 on January 10, 2026, 05:54:43 AMThe DVD, VGA, they all come up as either a corrupted file when I try to run it on the Windows machine, and when I try to run it in VM, it either shows up, and then when I open it, it's empty.
Just to be clear-
You cannot run OPNsense as an application on Windows, so if you are trying to run the installer directly that will not work. OPNsense is an OS (FreeBSD) and therefore you can only either install it on a separate computer or in a hypervisor, such as VirtualBox.
Have you installed 7-zip (https://www.7-zip.org/)? You could attach a screenshot to show us where it is failing.
Greetings Sir! I bid you a great day! I hope all is going for you today!
Okay. So that solves some of the problems that I was confused about. I have not downloaded 7 Zip because I thought that I did not have to because my computer was extracting everything as normal. And there is an option to zip a file if I have a big file to send, which the email will not send because of it being too big, so I assumed that it was on the computer already, and that it was not needed.
Let me check this fixes things?! :-)
Thank you!
May I contact you again if I have any more questions, Sir?
Addendum: So is it possible that I can make like a bootable drive USB using YUMI || RUFUS and then boot from the Oracle VirtualBox? Where do you think the problem is? Why is it not showing up on Virtual Box? What would cause this to occure.
Hello,
Quote from: DigitalSquirrel01 on January 10, 2026, 09:23:27 PMSo is it possible that I can make like a bootable drive USB using YUMI || RUFUS and then boot from the Oracle VirtualBox?
If you want to boot on a PC then you need to make a bootable USB, yes, such as with Rufus.
If you want to boot on a VM then you need only the uncompressed .img file (no USB drive). You can mount the .img as a virtual CD-ROM within the VM settings and boot from it.
That should be it.
P.S.: I don't want honorific titles, man :) I'm just another user trying to help out.