Unattended installation PFSense

This document describes the process of preparing the automatic installer pFsense on a USB stick. The whole procedure was tested on Ubuntu.

Kernel installation

1. Download the required packages by running the following command:

sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux-source$(uname -r | cut -d- -f1)

1. Go to the indicated location and unzip the file named linux-source-$(uname -r | cut -d- -f1).tar.bz2 as shown below:

cd /usr/src/linux-source-$(uname -r | cut -d- -f1)/
sudo tar xjf linux-source-$(uname -r | cut -d- -f1).tar.bz2

1. After successfully unpacking, copy the files required for kernel installation by running the following commands:

sudo cp ../linux-headers-$(uname -r)/Module.symvers linux-source-$(uname -r | cut -d- -f1)/
cd linux-source-$(uname -r | cut -d- -f1)/
sudo cp /boot/config-$(uname -r) .config

1. Finally, build and install the kernel by running the following command:

sudo make olddefconfig

UFS module compilation

1. Edit the .config file by setting the value of UFS_FS_WRITE to y.
2. Prepare resources to compile the UFS module by running the following commands:

sudo make prepare
sudo make modules_prepare
sudo make M=scripts/mod -j8
sudo make M=fs/ufs modules -j8

1. Copy the previously prepared files by running the following commands (To load an unsigned kernel module it is required to disable Secure Boot, otherwise it won't work):

sudo cp /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/ufs/ufs.ko   /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/ufs/ufs_backup.ko 
sudo cp fs/ufs/ufs.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/ufs/ufs.ko

1. Load the UFS module by running the following commands:

sudo depmod
sudo modprobe ufs

1. Mount the FreeBSD_install partition to properly configure the installer by running the following command(X depending on how many drives are connected to your computer):

sudo mount -t ufs -o ufstype=ufs2 /dev/sdX5 /mnt

rc.local

After booting from the USB stick installer rc.local is executed. Changes have to be applied to this file to eliminate interactive dialog options. After mounting parition edit the rc.local file located in the etc folder by using nano or vim editors.

1. Add environment variable defining terminal type:

   #!/bin/sh
   # $FreeBSD$
   export TERM=vt100
   

2. Comment out console type input:

   # Serial or other console
   echo
   echo "Welcome to pfSense!"
   echo
   echo "Please choose the appropriate terminal type for you system."
   echo "Common console types are:"
   echo "   ansi     Standard ANSI terminal"
   echo "   vt100    VT100 or compatible terminal"
   echo "   xterm    xterm terminal emulator (or compatible)"
   echo "   cons25w  cons25w terminal"
   echo
   echo -n "Console type [vt100]: "
   #read TERM
   #TERM=${TERM:-vt100}
   

installerconfig

The installerconfig script is called if exists. If it doesn't exist manual installation is performed.

#!/bin/bash
# Unattended installation part
...
# After installation you can launch new system shell and change configuration
...
# When work is exit
exit

This file must be located in the etc directory. The etc/installerconfig script will install pfSense and replace all configuration files that we want to change before the first boot.

An example file is located here.

Problems

During extracting distribution files phase installation sometimes hangs up. I waited for 15 minutes and nothing happened. My solution was to reset the platform.