OPNsense on ARM

[Joonas42]

I have been searching for how to install OPNsense on ARM boxes. I see there are some topics around specific hardware like NanoPi R4S. I'm looking for a guide install OPNsense on any ARM device. Is the process so that I first install FreeBSD on my ARM device and then bootstrap OPNsense on? Does anyone have this guide to share?

Also I have a suggestion for the OPNsense project to have one official release image per version for one ARM device. What I gather from messages that general ARM release is difficult because different u-boot systems on each board. But having official ARM image and support even with just one reference board, would still benefit the whole ARM community by bringing official package/plugin support for all. This way one could get the "official" ARM hardware or figure out the booting for their own hardware.

There are quite many interesting hardware choices for ARM firewall boxes. Just a few
1.Macchiatobin(10Gig ports), Espressobin(cheap), Clearfog GT 8K(many 1Gig ports)
2.Raspberry PI 4 compute module(lot of compute module boards coming with multiple NICs)
3.NanoPi R4S (small, cheap, 6 core CPU)

[pakcjo]

I just got the NanoPi R4S and I'm trying to gather as much information as possible about how to proceed.

[Joonas42]

There are already ready made images available for NanoPi R4S https://mirror.fkardame.com/Linux/Images/FriendlyArm/NanoPi%20R4s/ and discussion here https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=20332.0

You can also compile your own ARM 64 bit packages and images with tools found here https://github.com/yrzr/tools/tree/preview and more detelais here https://www.yrzr.tk/opnsense-images-for-aarch64/ and discussion here https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=12186.0

The official OPNsense https://github.com/opnsense/tools/ here don't work on 64bit ARM at the moment on April 2021. The official code seems to refer to 64bit ARM as arm64 and aarch64 mixed in the code and that's why it mostly does not work(should be aarch64). Also some other issues fixed by yrzr.  Hopefully YRZR fixes will be merged there some day and we will get official repos like I suggested in the first post.

[pakcjo]

Thanks a lot Joonas42!

[lenny]

Hi, is there a list, with supported device?
i need a cheap backup system :)

[Joonas42]

I guess nothing officially supported at the moment. But the YRZR ARM64 code is now 26.7.2021 merged to official code base. So you can compile your own ARM64 based images by following the guide at https://github.com/opnsense/tools

I have the DFrobot carrier board with dual 1Gb PCI NIC's and RPI4 compute module with 8GB RAM trying to get that to work at some point. But I think that still needs the FreeBSD 13 base that is coming in OPNsense 22.1

[RoyK]

Now that 22.1 is out, how is the status of this?

[efetropy]

Now that 22.1 is out, how is the status of this?

Building base and kernel for generic ARM64 works without problems. We just ran into some issues trying to build the packages.
I kinda sorted out the latter and am currently building the packages. If all goes well and works on my devices, I will do some PR.

With 22.1 more devices can be supported (theoretically) since the new release is based on FreeBSD 13.
Even though the device configs are not upstreamed yet, writing them should only take a few minutes.
Just to mention, PINE 64, PINE 64 LTS, ROCK64, ROCKPRO64 and RPI 4B should work now.

NanoPI R4S vs R2S were already supported in the previous release, so it's just a matter of building the packages and creating the images :)

[itjamie]

Any progress on this?

[sparticle]

Can anyone point me at a working RPI4 22.x build please.

Just to add my RPI4 boots first time with the standard freebsd 13.1 aarch64 image.

Cheers

[orr-acle]

Support for the "Banana Pi R1 Router Board" would be great!
I think, this would be the ideal ARM board for OPNsense!

Any plans in that direction?

[mircsicz]

I'ld love to pack a Raspberry or Banana Pi in my travel-gear to have a OPNsense for WG and alike with me...

Are there any official plans?

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Just pack an APU4 ...

[lilsense]

I can buy two of these:
https://www.amazon.com/GL-iNet-GL-A1300-Encrypted-Tethering-Pocket-Sized/dp/B0B4ZSR2PX

that run OpenWRT...

maybe we need to get the OPNsense to use NetBSD for other chipsets... :D

[Patrick M. Hausen]

What about RockPi-X or Odroid? Has anyone had success with one of these?

RockPi-X suffers from the same limitation as an ARM based Pi: only one Ethernet port. So you have to use USB-Ethernet, which I would rather avoid. Or bring an extra switch and trunk. But then you could just use an EdgeRouter-X or similar ;)