USB Installation Help - Automatically Booting Into Live Environment

[Famousjaxx]

Hi all,

Need some help installing Opnsense on a Topton PC purchased form Aliexpress.

Hardware: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007199191153.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.4.65d0f19cRYrUL6

I've downloaded the vga USB installer from this site and verified the checksum. Output below:

C:\Users\jayso\Downloads>certutil -hashfile OPNsense-24.7-vga-amd64.img.bz2 SHA256
SHA256 hash of OPNsense-24.7-vga-amd64.img.bz2:
11031aecabce97f6d5502f943d347704b5a888ec213d7f9229200877d72f297c
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

I burned the ISO to USB using Rufus v4.6 with the default settings successfully (screenshot attached)

I'm able to boot off the USB without changing any settings in the BIOS.

My issue is that while it boots off the USB, I'm never prompted to log in with a username and password. After carefully reading the installtion guide and watching a few Youtube videos, everyone at this point gets prompted to login as either 'root' to continue to the live environment, or 'installer' to trigger unpacking and installing the OS onto the internal harddrive.

I get given the 16 options (screenshot attached) but can't trigger the opnsense-installer.

If I press '0' it just refreshes and takes me to the same 16 option menu.

If I press '8' and go to shell a "whoami" command clearly shows I'm logged in as root and I'm unable to 'su installer' (username not found).

I'm unable to execute 'opnsense-installer' in Shell either as root (Command not found). Furthermore I have SSH'd into it from my laptop but get the same results (no user 'installer')

Am tearing my hair out here - can anyone point me in the right direction? Why would the USB boot not give the option to go into installer mode and just go directly to live boot?

Thanks so much in advance

[MikeH]

You are running pfsense... Check your screenshot.

Let me take a guess:

• You got your miniPC with SSD and RAM on Aliexpress
• pfSense was installed on the SSD by the factory
• Somehow you are not booting from USB.

Either try to boot OPNsense from USB (check BIOS), wipe the SSD with GParted or something similar (needs booting from USB), or remove that SSD and wipe it in a different machine (or get a new SSD, but thats a bit exaggerated).

[Famousjaxx]

Holy crap... you're definitely onto something. I kept seeing the word Pfsense coming up everywhere but assumed since Opnsense was a fork of sorts that Pfsense was still referenced in some installation locations/code.

I will report back shortly - you might have just resolved an embarrassing amount of troubleshooting hours on my part.

[Famousjaxx]

Confirming MikeH was on the money. Thanks so much mate, really appreciate it. Working like a charm now.
How embarrassing... 

[MikeH]

You know, this happens to the best of us
Glad I could help!