Reinstalling pfSense Plus Software¶

This guide uses the Netgate Installer to install pfSense® Plus software on a Netgate 5100 Desktop device.

Note

pfSense^® Plus is preinstalled on Netgate appliances. It is optimally tuned for Netgate hardware and contains features that cannot be found elsewhere, such as ZFS Boot Environments, OpenVPN DCO, Built-in IPFIX Export, and the AWS VPC Wizard.

Download Installation Media¶

The Netgate Installer can be downloaded from the Netgate Store using a Netgate Store Account.

See also

For a more detailed walkthrough of the download process, see Download Installation Media in the pfSense Software Documentation.

The image to download for this device is:

netgate-installer-amd64.img.gz

Prepare Installation Media¶

Next, write the installation image to a USB memstick.

See also

Locating the image and writing it to a USB memstick is covered in detail under Writing Flash Drives.

Connect to the Console¶

The installation process is interactive and utilizes the console. Follow the directions under Connect to the console to configure and use the console.

Boot the Installation Media¶

Insert the memstick into an open USB port and boot the device.

In most cases the BIOS will automatically attempt to boot from USB when starting up. If it does not, check the console for a key to press for a boot menu or to enter the BIOS setup to change boot priorities such that it prefers to boot from USB storage.

Determine Target Drive¶

During the installation process the installer will prompt to select a target drive. The installer will then write pfSense^® Plus to the chosen drive. In most cases a device will have only one potential target drive. On devices with multiple drives, take care to choose the correct intended target. In some cases a device may have two identical drives which can be used as a mirror in ZFS, so both would be selected. However, certain devices have internal storage (e.g. eMMC) and add-on storage such as SATA, mSATA, M.2 SATA, or NVMe drives. In those cases the correct choice is nearly always going to be the add-on storage.

Install pfSense Plus Software¶

The installer will automatically launch and present several options. On Netgate appliances, choosing Enter for the default options will complete the installation process in most cases.

Tip

There are options on the Welcome screen of the installer which can recover configuration data from a previous installation or from a USB drive.

See also

For a complete walkthrough of the installation process, see Installation Walkthrough.

When the installation is complete, remove the USB drive from the USB port.

Important

If the USB drive remains attached, the device may boot into the installer again.

See also

For information on restoring from a previously saved configuration, go to Backup and Restore.

Caution

If this device contains multiple disks, such as when adding an SSD to an existing system which previously used MMC, additional steps may be necessary to ensure the device boots from and uses the correct disk. Furthermore, having separate installations of the software on different disks is a known source of problems. For example, the kernel could boot from one disk while the root filesystem is loaded from another, or they could contain conflicting ZFS pools.

In some cases it is possible to adjust the BIOS boot order to prefer the new disk, but the best practice is to wipe the old disk to remove any chance of the previous installation causing boot issues or conflicts.

For information on how to wipe the old disk, see Multiple Disk Boot Issues.