Boot issues 19.7

[kirkrr]

Except for the NANO version, I cannot get the current release download to boot on any computer. I have 3 test machines, all different brands. The checksum validates, and I have also downloaded from a couple different mirrors just in case. (not that I don't trust checksums, but drawing at straws here.)

The same 4gb USB stick will boots in the same ports on all 3 of these computers, with pfSense.

But OPNSense will no boot.... except for the NANO image, which boots fine.

I have legacy boot turned on, and the USB stick as #1 in the boot priority. I've installed Ubuntu and pfSense on these machines, as a test case to see that everything is working. OPNSense seems to be the only exception.

Neither the HP T620+ or the Sager laptop recognizes the USB as a bootable device. The Lenovo T73 goes gibberish batsh_t on the screen when attempting to boot and hangs (and this box has an earlier OPNSense installed!)

Note that I burned the USB stick with BalenaEtcher on MacOS - the same way I burned an earlier OPNSense USB stick and installed on the Lenovo. I have not tried RUFUS on Windows, as a path, or even a dd at the command prompt; as Etcher has been flawless on everything else.

What am I missing in this process? The T620 is the end game target for the OPNSense machine, replacing the Lenovo T63 primarily due to USB2 based ethernet as the dual nic option (no PCIe slot, except for a mini-PCIe, but then no place to pull the RJ45 and cable to the outside of the box. - and idk if this option is even supported)
 

[l0stnyc]

I had the same issue with the T620 plus.  The only way I could get it to work was boot up via nano then open a shell.

Once you have the shell, type: opnsense-installer and run the installer off the USB drive.  Here is the cut and paste from opnsense docs.

Should the installer user not work for any reason, log in as user “root”, select option 8 from the menu and type “opnsense-installer”. The “opnsense-importer” can be run this way as well should you require to run the import again.

https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/install.html

I am however interested to learn the correct way to do it.

[kirkrr]

Thanks !! Finally had a few minutes to try this out, and it worked perfectly!! All is well in the world.

The OPNSense web site might be stronger in their emphasis of the alternative path to install if you have problems like these. A sentence in the middle of a long page, does not stand out.....

I'd still like to know why pfSense would boot from USB, but OPNSense (except NANO) would NOT boot.  ?

[l0stnyc]

my uneducated guess is it has to do with the drivers built into the installer?