Re: pfsense and the Trigkey Green G1 mini-computer

On Thu, May 12, 2022 at 4:23 PM Arthur Chance <freebsd@qeng-ho.org> wrote:

> On 12/05/2022 13:30, Tom Browder wrote:
> > I am not a FreeBSD user (yet), but I'm trying to install a pfsense
> > image onto the SSD of a Trigkey Green G1 mini-computer and haven't
> > been able to do so yet due to its apparently locked-down Windows OS.
> >
> > If anyone has been successful using that device as a pfsense router, I
> > would greatly appreciate any help.
> >
> > I haven't found much documentation from the manufacturer except a
> > statement that one can remove the existing SSD and replace
> > it--apparently it's designed not to be overwritten, so it's worthless
> > to me if that's true.
>
> I don't know the specific device, but things that start out as Windows
> boxes usually tend to have secure boot enabled these days. It's a while
> since I last fought Windows but I think you may have to boot into
> Windows and then tell it you want to do a maintenance boot and then
> catch it during boot to get into the BIOS to turn off secure booting.
> It's a rigmarole, and if you get the timing wrong you have to start again.
>
> From my notes on a variety of machines over time the most common key to
> press during boot to get into the BIOS is F2, with DEL being the second
> most likely alternative.
>
> I read the bit on the web site about replacing the SSD as meaning if you
> wish to increase storage size, not that you can't write to the existing
> one (but I could be wrong).
>
> Final note: you might want to look at OPNsense as an alternative to
> pfSense. I'm in the process of switching as pfSense appears to be more
> commercially oriented these days.
>

Great suggestion there!

And actually, with OPNsense, he doesn't need to fiddle with the BIOS since
UEFI mode is supported.



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Best regards,
Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254 7 3200 0004/+254 7 2274 3223
"Oh, the cruft.", egrep -v '^$|^.*#' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :-)