BIOS (Not UEFI) boot media for 23.7 install

[tdalej]

I'm trying to install opnsense 23.7 on some older hardware that requires a BIOS (not UEFI) boot.
Is there any prebuilt images that support that?

I can boot the server off ISOs burned to USB -- Linux desktop, other firewalls whose-name-shall-not-be-mentioned and so on all boot fine.
Neither the USB .img file nor the vga .iso file from OPNsense 23.7 will boot.

Tried multiple USB devices (all 64GB in size though) of various qualities, and even the other firewall will boot off the sketchiest of USB sticks....

So, UEFI issue maybe?

Anyone else seen this?

The hardware is a Dell PE1950. 
Ancient, but sufficient for the intended purpose here if it can install.

[Maurice]

All official OPNsense images support legacy BIOS boot. But the vga / serial images are GPT hybrid, they use a special boot partition for legacy BIOS compatibility. Maybe your BIOS has issues with this.

You can use the nano image instead, that's MBR / legacy BIOS-only. It's a preinstalled image though and has no interactive installer, so you have to raw-write it directly to your server's boot disk.

Cheers
Maurice

[tdalej]

Thank you for the response.

I have no idea why this .iso won't boot off USB.
It will boot for an older ESXi server to build a VM.

I was hoping to move away from that old version of ESXi to direct-on-hardware, but I suppose not.

[Maurice]

You can boot the server from any live USB system (whatever works for you) and dd the OPNsense nano image to the server's SSD..

[Sundial]

I recently had the same problem with a very old piece of hardware I maintain.  To make it work, I followed the steps from LinuxKernal1 at https://github.com/opnsense/core/issues/3528#issuecomment-530749451 and it worked perfectly on old and new systems.

[tdalej]

This a Dell PowerEdge 1950 1U rackmount sever.
Dual 2-core cpus.

It _will_ boot from USB (for some values of _will_),
I have about a half a dozen USB sticks of various sizes from various vendors.

All of them show up in the boot menu..

I have tried each of the with the .iso and the .img file from 23.7

None of'em worked.

Out of desperation I dug up an old LG USB dvd writer, burned the .so to DVD using brasero.... and I'm watching it boot.

Slow, but it's working.
Working but not installing :/

I need something that will run at least 4x 1GB ports and a minimum of 2x 10GB -- total of 6 ports.
I have budget and source for an R630. 

Better to use it baremetal with fewer cores or more cores and virtualize?
I can get any where from Xeon 25xx v3 dual 3.0 ghz 4 core to v4 3.2ghz 8 core.

I'm comfortable with virtualization and it makes it easier for remote access on the internal network.
(and a lot easier to boot up too!)


Curios as to what the opinions are on that hardware.

[tdalej]

Probably should start another thread for this, but the boot hangs starting services.
Hours.
Last printout to the console was Starting NTP Service ...Done.

Still hammering away at the boot disk though.

[senseuser]

1. Extracting the HDD from the server
2. Connect the HDD to the SATA connector of a regular PC
3. Install OPNsense from the ISO image on this HDD
4. Connect this HDD back to the server
5. Boot up
6. ...
7. Profit!
 

[tdalej]

I don't have a PC i can easily slip a hardware raid mirrored pair of 15k SAS drives into for an install.

[tdalej]

14 hours, 16 minutes for installation.

I ordered a Supermicro X10SLH-N6-ST031.

I can set up a configuration on this 1950 until it arrives.