Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
OPNsense Forum
»
English Forums
»
Tutorials and FAQs
»
Complete Newbie having install problems...
« previous
next »
Print
Pages: [
1
]
2
Author
Topic: Complete Newbie having install problems... (Read 3911 times)
Dodgy Geezer
Newbie
Posts: 10
Karma: 0
Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
on:
May 26, 2023, 10:35:34 am »
Hi - I used to run Smoothwall on an HP Compaq Pro 6503 (3.4Ghz, 4Gb ram) but am trying to upgrade to an OPNsense installation. And I am having trouble even understanding the installation process!
For Smoothwall it was simple, you downloaded an iso, burnt it, booted from the DVD and there was your system. OPNsense seems to have a 2-stage process, where you bring up a 'live environment' and then run an installer.
I have downloaded the OPNsense dvd iso, burnt it and tried to boot from it. The installation says that I should stop the process at some point and run the install - but the build just runs straight through until it stops at a prompt 'mountroot', with an 'error 19' several lines higher up. I don't seem to be able to get any further than this - can someone please suggest what I might be doing wrong?
Logged
cookiemonster
Hero Member
Posts: 1370
Karma: 78
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #1 on:
May 26, 2023, 10:59:31 am »
It sounds like the OS on your live media is not finishing booting to the point where you can then install, for some reason.
You do have a target install media, right? A hard disk, it doesn't matter if is ssd, nvme, spinning disk. This is what the live media will attempt to install to, even if you're not that far to try.
The error you have could be a couple of reasons from bad iso burn, bad download or bios settings.
It seems to say the booting os can not find the filesystem it needs to complete the boot.
I would go from the beginning. Verify your download with the checksum. And you could try from a liveusb too.
Take it from there.
Logged
Dodgy Geezer
Newbie
Posts: 10
Karma: 0
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #2 on:
May 26, 2023, 12:13:33 pm »
Many thanks for the rapid reply!
It does seem to be something to do with thE hard drive - I have a standard 500Gb SATA in there. and the old Smothwall is not being overwritten, as I would expect. The BIOS settings for the drive give options for RAID, IDE, Legacy IDE and AHCI (which last is what it was on). Changing to Legacy caused the loading to fail differently....
The download, unzip and burn all went fine, so I don't think there was any corruption of the image, but I could check, of course. Perhaps I should try a different release?
Logged
Dodgy Geezer
Newbie
Posts: 10
Karma: 0
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #3 on:
May 26, 2023, 12:20:27 pm »
It's just struck me - are you saying that the machine I am tryiing to load OPNsense on should already have a working standard O/S on the hard drive before the install is started?
Because I am trying to load over a currently installed copy of Smoothwall, which is a firewall build and will be a very cut-down O/S. Should I first build the machine with a copy of Ubuntu or some such O/S before attempting the OPNsense install?
Logged
bartjsmit
Hero Member
Posts: 1865
Karma: 189
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #4 on:
May 26, 2023, 01:26:44 pm »
You can quickly "wipe" the disk from Smoothwall, or anything that gives you a Linux prompt:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1
assuming your system has /dev/sda as the hard disk.
Logged
Dodgy Geezer
Newbie
Posts: 10
Karma: 0
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #5 on:
May 26, 2023, 02:10:36 pm »
Would a simple format suffice? Or do I need to have an operating system on the disk?
Logged
Dodgy Geezer
Newbie
Posts: 10
Karma: 0
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #6 on:
May 26, 2023, 04:05:13 pm »
Well, that worked. I understand that took out the first 3mb of my HD, so I can't boot into Smoothwall any more.
But I still have a failure when I try to boot from the DVD. Looking at the errors, I get:
g_dev_taste: make_dev_p() failed (gp-)name=gpt//. error=22
mountroot: waiting for device /dev/iso9660/OPNSENSE_INSTALL.....
Mounting from cd9660:/dev/iso9660/OPNSENSE_INSTALL failed with error 19
This looks as if the DVD can't be read - but all the code running just before has come from the DVD....
Logged
Patrick M. Hausen
Hero Member
Posts: 4948
Karma: 419
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #7 on:
May 26, 2023, 04:11:25 pm »
The initial boot process is started by the BIOS, then handed over to a multi stage boot loader running in real mode, loading the kernel, then starting the kernel.
The thing complaining about not being able to mount the root filesystem is the kernel. It's absolutely possible that the first few stages are fine with your DVD drive and the kernel isn't.
Can't you use a USB thumb drive instead of burning a DVD?
HTH,
Patrick
Logged
Deciso DEC750
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
(Isaac Asimov)
Dodgy Geezer
Newbie
Posts: 10
Karma: 0
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #8 on:
May 26, 2023, 04:45:36 pm »
Thanks for coming in!
I usually hold all my software on DVD - this gives me an easy rebuild procedure should I ever need it. So I am not used to either using or booting from a USB - I see these as strictly transfer media. If you think that would be a better approach, however, I shall dig one out and have a go....
Logged
cookiemonster
Hero Member
Posts: 1370
Karma: 78
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #9 on:
May 26, 2023, 04:59:36 pm »
usb install media should be somewhat easier for this. And as what I see as a plus, you save your isos to a slow storage like a large hard drive and just reuse the usb stick to use one or another
Logged
Dodgy Geezer
Newbie
Posts: 10
Karma: 0
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #10 on:
May 26, 2023, 10:14:35 pm »
Well, I ssemto have loaded something!
It took me time to find out how to make a bootable USB stick, and when I did booting the machine was complex, since the names of all teh drives were technical. And then, as I wen through the build process, I kept having halts with various error messages. Eventually, I found that just hitting return continued the process....
During the command-line build it asks for 'cards to be aggregated' (I think) and then wants to know something about 'LARGS'? I just clicked through this, hoping to find a GUI which would let me set things up.
I think there is one in there, but I have not got anything set up yet. It's much more complicated than Smoothwall, where you just get a graphics page for each card. Still, I will persevere/ It's bed time now, perhaps I will try goingthrough the instructions again...
Thanks to everyone who got me this far...!
Logged
Dodgy Geezer
Newbie
Posts: 10
Karma: 0
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #11 on:
May 28, 2023, 05:32:37 pm »
Well, I've got to the position where I can boot into root, and obtain a table of commands - asign interfaces and set up IP addresses, and so forth.
But what is happening seems meaningless to me. I can assign the various NICs to the system as 1, 2. 3, etc, but there is no command for specifying the details of each connection - dhcp range, gateway, dns service, etc.
There are just two commands to help here - assign NICS and set ip addresses/ I set the WAN NIC TO dhcp, and OPT1 to dhcp, connected the WAN to my router and OPT1 to a workstation, and got no joy.
Isn't there some kind of GUI where all the required connection data is displayed?
Logged
bartjsmit
Hero Member
Posts: 1865
Karma: 189
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #12 on:
May 28, 2023, 11:30:38 pm »
Note the MAC addresses for the WAN and LAN interfaces and assign them accordingly. That's enough to get you access with the GUI (from the LAN side) where you can set up the rest.
Logged
Dodgy Geezer
Newbie
Posts: 10
Karma: 0
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #13 on:
May 29, 2023, 12:56:28 pm »
Thanks for the approach. That would do it. Though my NICs are all the same and don't have the address printed on them, which means another step of determining each one...
I think at this point it is time to call a halt and go back to using Smoothwall - which at least has a simple understandable interface. It won't do all that I want, while OPNsense will, but I am defeated once again by the insistence of open source in building and controlling software using a low level command structure which requires a lot of background knowledge.
For an outside who did not grow up with the development of Linux, it feels rather like trying to buy items from a country like China, where there are all sorts of products at low prices. But in order to buy them, you must first learn Chinese, and then address Chinese commercial law, with all negotiations conducted in that language. Great if you know how - impossible if you don't....
Logged
Patrick M. Hausen
Hero Member
Posts: 4948
Karma: 419
Re: Complete Newbie having install problems...
«
Reply #14 on:
May 29, 2023, 02:07:37 pm »
Just leave the default configuration right after installation untouched (boot into the installed system, of course).
Then try to plug a PC into each of the network ports. The port where the PC gets an IP address in the 192.168.1.x range via DHCP is LAN. You can then access a nice UI at
http://192.168
.1.1.
I wonder why you use the console at all? OPNsense boots right into a UI based initial setup wizard.
Logged
Deciso DEC750
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
(Isaac Asimov)
Print
Pages: [
1
]
2
« previous
next »
OPNsense Forum
»
English Forums
»
Tutorials and FAQs
»
Complete Newbie having install problems...