OPNsense on Netgate hardware (specifically SG-2100 with ARM64 CPU)

[qwnjdf]

Hello, I'm new to the world of networking and firewalls. I bought an off the shelf Netgate 2100 device to run pfSense but I am interested in trying out OPNsense, because I prefer the community around it and it feels more "free". The version of pfSense that it comes with is pfSense plus which is in fact a closed source version (!) I also have a separate managed switch and a wireless AP.

I would like to experiment with installing OPNsense to this device.

Is this possible given that the CPU in this Netgate 2100 is an ARM64 processor? Are there any pitfalls I should be aware of?

Has anyone installed OPNsense onto a pfSense / Netgate device?

If it's not possible, I'd appreciate a recommendation for a low power basic hardware that I can use to run OPNsense. I don't need anything fancy or particularly fast. I just want to configure vlans to segregate my home devices, ad blocking, custom DNS, and possibly allow VPN access into my home network from outside in the future.

[EdwinKM]

Noticed some posts about other architectures on the forum. I think this is a low priority for the developers. I assume all their hardware is ARM64 (intel) based.

[franco]

You mean amd64 I believe. Arm has been difficult: FreeBSD 12 was really scattered and 64bit wasn't nicely supported yet. FreeBSD 13 is better but there still is ample amount of fragmentation for kernel builds. We've supported such setups in the past with opnsense-update and build tools support but no final generic arm build came of it that would make sense to release officially so that's where we are still at.

Also note that we don't sell arm devices so from a core perspective it's hard to select the "right" platform for it. Multiple builds will be forever out of the question for an officially supported capacity in the future.

Multiple kernels can be solved, multiple base and package builds likely not. Since the boot loader is base territory that makes it hard with shifting addresses to load during boot of the specific hardware.

Last but not least the arm state at the moment can be described as easily buildable. Fixes keep coming in and are being merged. The level of convenience, however, isn't there yet for the aforementioned reasons.


Cheers,
Franco