noob wanting to do first install on a SG115-[closed issue-unable to solve]

[ajoeiam]

Greetings

I managed to latch onto 2 - SG115s (with psus) quite reasonably (especially compared to today's pricing).

Would like to install OPNSense on these (box and a backup).

Sadly - - - - I'm a noob at this and don't even have any idea how I access the box.
Have ethernet cable and have putty installed on a controllable box - - - what do I do now?

Please advise.

TIA
'

[truesword88]

I have a similar setup utilising Sophos units.
Simply download the image, burn to USB. Insert USB into spare port on Sophos box - boot up.
(Make sure you have external monitor/kb plugged it to see the boot process).
Wait for boot menu and follow the bouncing ball - easy.

[ajoeiam]

Grin - - - - you make it sound so very very easy.

Downloaded the image, expanded it, wrote it to a USB stick.

Took me about 4 hours of fiddling to find how to get the serial port to correspond.
It seems for most people that ttyusbS0 works, here it was ttyUSB0.
That was not easy to find.
Managed to get to the bios.
Changed the USB 60/64 setting to disable.
Right now somehow I managed to log into the box as root and gave it a new password.
Can't figure out how to get OPNSense to install.

Any suggestions on how to go from a
host:/root #     
prompt to getting OPNSense to load would be greatly appreciated.
(Am I the only one have some difficulties with this?)

[ajoeiam]

I did download the type - - - nano , image type embedded for my install.

Is this incorrect?

Perhaps I should change the software on the USB stick?

Please advise.

[ajoeiam]

Found that I had installed a bad image on my USB stick - - - there seemed to be a whole bunch missing.

So I chose to download a - - serial - -  image (I am connecting using a serial connection to the COM port) and expand and install on the USB stick.

Did a sha256sum check - - good, expanded the packages, installed on the USB stick - - comes to 1.9 GB of files in 4 partitions (that looks better than the previous iteration).

Still can't figure out how to get the install to start.

Suggestions on how to get the install to start?

Please advise.

[Dimi3]

Hey..maybe try with this

https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/install.html#opnsense-installer

you should boot from USB, login with user:installer and pass:opnsense .. folow the docs afterwards.

Hope this helps.

[ajoeiam]

I cannot log in using the usb stick - - - - that is the crux of the issue.

The bios screens do not ever allow me to choose booting from usb stick.
There are options like usb-DVD, usb-sdd and some others but its like the stick isn't recognized.

At this point I've tried every option that I can think of at least 4 times and nothing is working.

Do I have to install freebsd first?

There have been a number of people post that they were able to get something running but besides suggesting the USB 60/64 change nothing is mentioned.

I am presently trying the "-serial" install as I am using a serial cable to a COM port.

Thanks for the idea but that's about 1 step further than I can get at present.

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Serial is correct. You must make the appliance boot from the USB drive you prepared with the serial image. How that is done depends entirely on the specific appliance. Is there a dedicated forum or reddit where this hardware is discussed?

Up to the point when the system boots from that drive, I doubt we here can be of much help - unless someone happens to have the exact same system.

If you have a USB DVD writer at your disposal, you could burn the serial image to a real disc, then hook up the DVD drive to the appliance and try to boot that.

Trying different USB thumb drives sometimes helps, too.

[Dimi3]

How did you create USB stick? Put USB stick in your PC an try to boot from it, to verify that USB stick is ok.

There is a thread here for the same box, you just need to boot it properly.

https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=4196.0

[ajoeiam]

>Serial is correct. You must make the appliance boot from the USB drive you prepared with the serial image. How that is done >depends entirely on the specific appliance. Is there a dedicated forum or reddit where this hardware is discussed?

OK - - - list:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/uyjkgv/anyone_running_pfsense_on_a_sophos_xg115_rev_2/
https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=4196.0
https://www.reddit.com/r/OPNsenseFirewall/comments/vygwc9/sophos_sg115/
https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/uyjkgv/anyone_running_pfsense_on_a_sophos_xg115_rev_2/ https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/d68xl6/pfsense_install_on_sophos_sg115/ex.php?topic=25136.0
https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=11869.0
https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/t0nzef/pfsense_260_on_sophos_xg115_rev3/
https://netaviator.xyz/blog/20221203-opnsense-on-sophos-sg115/

(Apologies if the pfsense docs are offensive - - - thought they would also be indicative.)


>Up to the point when the system boots from that drive, I doubt we here can be of much help - unless someone happens to have >the exact same system.

>If you have a USB DVD writer at your disposal, you could burn the serial image to a real disc, then hook up the DVD drive to the >appliance and try to boot that.

Hoping not to have to purchase another device to access these things - - -t he usb to com port serial cable was already over $40 CDN

>Trying different USB thumb drives sometimes helps, too.

It looks like my quoting and trying to iknterleave has made a mess - - - - apologies

[ajoeiam]

How did you create USB stick? Put USB stick in your PC an try to boot from it, to verify that USB stick is ok.

There is a thread here for the same box, you just need to boot it properly.

https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=4196.0

went to small laptop, modified bios to start from usb stick, opnsense starts up beautiful

Hmmmmmmmmmm - - - - "boot it up properly" - - - - - - would you care to explain?

[Dimi3]

Obviously USB stick is properly made than. Regarding HW itself I cant be more help how to boot it, since I don’t own the box. Sorry. Good luck.

[ajoeiam]

Installing on a retired Sophos SG115 rev 2.

I was able to achieve success by using a not straight forward technique.

(This was on the AMI 2013  5.009  G122-0.06 BIOS - - - Aptio Setup version 2.13.1242)
Set serial port to 38400 x x x (don't remember those options and didn't change from what was suggested).
Hit ESC after connection achieved - - - that drops you into the BIOS.
Bios settings: disable the USB 60/64 (advanced:USB:usb60/64 something or other)
if you go to the save and restart page you will see a forced config order - - - you cannot change this here - - - need to go back to the BOOT page - - - need to have legacy and UEFI (didn't try using just the UEFI - - - sorry had too many hours of trying things and didn't get to that in my trying options)
set boot for USB hard drive (I was using a USB stick but that option is NOT available (note specific information above))
can't remember the exact name but there is some kind of locked config (similar words) setting - - - need to open that and make sure that there is a USB hard drive listed - - - - there is another UEFI hard drive but that is the 64 GB (53 GB usable in the install docs) that is in the box
now you can go to the save settings and restart
(I checked that things would get me back to this at least once (!!) - - - gotten rather gun shy on things after a number of hours of trying options and no success)

Shut off the box (!!!), shut off your serial connection (I was using putty - - I shut it off and started a new instance).
Start a new instance of your serial connection - - - you must now change your serial connection parameters from 38400 to 115200.
   (This was absolutely not clear in any docs I could find!!!!)
With your serial port access set to 115200 x x x (the last three values did not change) restart the SG115.
You will have no access to the BIOS at this setting!!!!!!!!!!!!
At this point I had an install starting.
Hopefully this 'recipe' will save some other person some grief - - - - I had read nothing anywhere on a serial port speed mismatch causing difficulties anywhere I looked. (All I found was 'installed' or 'success' or similar.)

Now I've got some setup to do - - - - to all the readers and the some suggestions - - - - thank you ever so much for your support.
Thanks to the dev team for software!
(Is there some way that such a speed mismatch could be avoided - - - ie that OPNSense could install at a serial setting of whatever instead of requiring a specific speed?)

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Set the serial speed in the BIOS to 115200 - problem solved.  Faster is better, so OPNsense defaults to that value.

[ajoeiam]

Faster is not necessarily better - - - it is just faster.

In my experience (about 30 years in 2 technical trades) faster should only happen after accuracy.

Without accuracy and understanding - - - - faster - - - well - - - it just makes for a bigger dog's breakfast.