[Continuation- Arm64] Can we install opnsense on existing FreeBSD installation?

[spikerguy]

Hello Devs,

I am continuing the topic I read here about bootstrap usage for installing Opnsense on existing FreeBSD installation which is for AMD64 but my question is form arm64.

Archived Topic: Can I install Opnsense in an existing FreeBSD installation ?
As I see rk3399 soc based on arm64/Aarch64 is ported to freebsd uboot and kernel, I was thinking to attempting bootstrap installation of opnsense over the running Freebsd, I do know the script have a arch validator in place which will not allow me to continue, But Maybe I can add arm64 and see what happens,

From my understanding I am aware that after the reboot it will never boot as the kernel will be replaced with the opnsense kernel, my next question is what configs are present in opnsense kernel ? Do you plan to add arm configs and rk3399 (in specific) to opnsense kernel? I don't think it will be major change to the opnsense kernel as it is already maintained in freebsd.

I would like to know such details from opnsense devs. I have few boards which I work on for development and I see that these boards will be a good replacement to use as Opnsense firewall instead of X64.

Some boards which will be a good options on RK3399.
Khadas Edge-V - FreeBSD already running on this.
Pine64 RockPro64 - Plan underway to make Router Hardware based on the same sbc
Radxa RockPi64
Other
BPi - R2 - Armv7 - Router hardware and Freebsd existing for this SOC.

Maybe I could be of any help to the opnsense community.

Thanks.

[franco]

Since arm64 is still a bit out of reach until 20.7 is here we do not know. For bootstrap to work we need interchangeable base, kernel and packages and all devices must adhere to it.

We are still reluctant to provide anything but "beta" builds for arm because releasing an arm image and regular updates to it would exceed our current release engineering capacity without doing the necessary preparations and having the right preconditions.


Cheers,
Franco

[spikerguy]

Since arm64 is still a bit out of reach until 20.7 is here we do not know. For bootstrap to work we need interchangeable base, kernel and packages and all devices must adhere to it.

We are still reluctant to provide anything but "beta" builds for arm because releasing an arm image and regular updates to it would exceed our current release engineering capacity without doing the necessary preparations and having the right preconditions.


Cheers,
Franco

I understand your situation. If there anyway I can help in porting to the devices I have which are already supported by Freebsd.

I am following on Arm Device threads, if there are any standard tutorial for me to follow then I would be happy to understand and follow the methods to build opnsense images for those devices.
I can source device uboot and dtb.

Do let me know. Thanks for the amazing work you're doing for opnsense.

Cheers.

[nekoprog]

to make this bootstrap works, we need to include all kernels for all type of armv7 manufacturer, that will do for kernel part. for base and packages, it will have no problem since it will all compiled with armv7 tools.