On 1/13/23, Brian Conway <bconway@rcesoftware.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 13, 2023, at 8:34 PM, patrick keshishian wrote:
>>> Search with keywords like "mini pc router", "pfsense router" etc,
>>> you will find a load of boxes along these lines (to pick the first
>>> one I found, there are loads of choices of all very similar hardware)
>>> - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004420642522.html?
>>> They do have video out as well but you can just configure OpenBSD
>>> to use serial console.
>>>
>>> Now that the 1G em(4) chips are out of stock everywhere, the common
>>> NICs these days are igc(4) 2.5G ethernet (very common, to the extent
>>> that
>>> "I225" will probably also do as a search term ..).
>>
>> I picked up one of these and just got it unpacked.
>> I am failing to figure out how to boot from an external
>> USB CDR to get OpenBSD installed on there.
>>
>> I'm connecting through the serial/COM port, but it
>> automatically goes through the Pfsense/FreeBSD
>> boot process and starts the "configuration" questions.
>>
>> Some reddit discussions seem to suggest pressing
>> either F2 or Delete key at the first beep. But either
>> I'm not quick enough, or I'm misunderstand something.
>>
>> Can someone offer any hints?
>>
>> --patrick
>
> While they might exist, none of the mini PC/firewalls I've received from
> China support BIOS redirection over serial. If yours is the same, you'll
> want to hook up a monitor and keyboard and then either redirect bsd.rd over
> serial, or complete the installation and then set up a serial console going
> forward.
I was headed in the direction of hocking it up to a monitor,
when I noticed connecting a keyboard and hitting DEL on it
would pause the boot process.
Turns out I was able to Enable console redirection of BIOS.
So yay on that!
But it seems, the little wall-wart that came with it isn't
supplying enough "juice", as the device doesn't seem to spin
the CDROM and moves on to booting the image on the SSD. Or
something else may be wrong .. after several tries it shuts
off in the middle of booting pfsense/FreeBSD.
I'll prepare a USB memory stick to see if I can install
OpenBSD that way.
> Another issue I've run into are BIOSes that disable all the CPU C-states by
> default. You will likely want to enable those for decent power
> management/cooling/power consumption.
Not this one, but thanks for the hint so I would verify.
> Overall, I've enjoyed my AliExpress cheapies, but the firmware leaves a lot
> to be desired. They seem to be compiled with every option under the sun
> present, even if they don't apply to the hardware in question - other than
> the aforementioned serial BIOS redirection.
>
> Brian Conway
Thanks for your reply/help Brian!
--patrick
No comments:
Post a Comment