35

Is it possible to run pfsense on a Raspberry PI 3?

They have an embedded version that runs Nano BSD.

leeand00
  • 704
  • 2
  • 9
  • 23
  • Not sure if this will help, but here's a link to how to install FreeBSD on a Raspberry Pi 2: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-install-freebsd-on-raspberry-pi-2-model-b/ – leeand00 Dec 08 '18 at 03:17

10 Answers10

18

There seems to be Raspberry PI support in the pfsense github repository. See pfsense repository.

For raspBSD see RaspBSD.

It seems feasible to compile pfSense for the Raspberry PI.

I think it would be a useful port to have for people that don't require a lot of bandwidth or want to implement their own cheap WIFI router. And it would be interesting to play with.

Remember that the Raspberry PI 3 have both an Ethernet port and a WIFI port. And more can be added via the USB ports.

Tarjei Jensen
  • 196
  • 1
  • 3
14

-Update Aug 2017-

Unfortunately pfSense has no interest in creating arm based images.

pfSense HAD no interest in porting over to an ARM based version because the BSD kernel was not stable on ARM yet. Since the time of the original answer a few things have changed with the latest Pi hardware, BSD runs on ARM fine and pfSense has been overwhelmed with requests.

But you can install FreeBSD/NetBSD on to Pi and do all the same sutff as pf is doing. If you even try I think you may be able to get a pfSense jail working on the Pi but I am not sure about that compatibility stuff there but I know pfSense can happily run in jails and VM's now.

But they do have a point, Pi really sucks at networking. That is why I have not done it my self. Beaglebone black I have heard people putting pf on there but there are other alternatives to the Pi that will just work better for few more single digits of your hard earned cash.

Piotr Kula
  • 17,307
  • 6
  • 65
  • 104
6

As of February, 2019: Neither pfSense nor OPNSense have released images for the RPi:

The only router-firewall appliance that I've been able to find for the RPi is OpenWRT:

https://openwrt.org/toh/raspberry_pi_foundation/raspberry_pi

ADDENDUM

On the Netgate product page there is an appliance equipped with am ARM Cortex-A53 CPU - the SG-1100 - but the specs are vastly different from the RPi. e.g.,

The SG-1100 is equipped with...

  • a Marvell Armada 3720LP SoC with dual core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ 1.2GHz;
  • 1 GB DDR4 RAM on-board;
  • 8 GB EMMC on-board storage;
  • 1x Marvell 88E6141 networking switch with 3 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, and;
  • 1x Mini PCIe slot(1)
Eric Pretorious
  • 61
  • 1
  • 3
5

I Think it will eventually be possible if you consider the new SG-1000, an ARM base pfsense appliance:
https://netgate.com/products/sg-1000.html

Also, I think installing it on a raspberry pi would be a good thing for testing, monitoring, sniffing, etc. It could also be used as an 'on the go' diagnostic tool, an 'on the go' tunnelling devices, etc.

Although I would not use it as a business production device; It could be of great use in many other circumstances, including spare router for some SMB.

Max
  • 51
  • 1
  • 1
3

You could also check out OpnSense. The original monowall author recommends them specifically.

I switched to OpnSense from pfSense when they announced they aren't supporting x86 anymore. I get that it makes businessSense, but it is rather annoying to watch support die off for every old atom platform. The older x86 atoms are all very cheap, and still very useful (for under 100 mbps). Plus I don't feel guilt-ed into supporting the project after just buying a Gold subscription...

It's nice that pfSense has 90 hours of training videos in their hangouts section, but with OpnSense I didn't need any of it. They have 2, or 3 factor auth VPN, that supports the Google Authenticator app out of the box, and Suricata IDS / IPS built in as well. The interface is much easier to navigate, and with the team member from hardenedBSD, they are implementing things like ASLR, and root separation etc. (makes the Firewall OS less hackable).

For instance: https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=3793.0

With Wings
  • 31
  • 1
3

@Eric Pretorious: IPfire runs on Raspberry Pis as well. I got ~22 Mbps thruput on a Pi 1B and 50 on a Pi 3B. However, I don't recommend using a Pi 1 since the web interface is very slow.

Chris Clawson
  • 53
  • 4
2

i know its a long long time ago you asked the question, but now i created a OPNsense Port for the RPI3, you can find it here: https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=14875.0

René
  • 21
  • 1
2

There's isn't an image made for the Raspberry Pi yet and the pfsense community doesn't sound excited at the idea.

tlhIngan
  • 3,372
  • 5
  • 19
  • 33
1

I just found this online, an ARM based device like a PI but with two nics.

NanoPi R2S

https://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=282

Mitchell Tuckness
  • 11
  • 3
1

I was just looking through the highlight notes for v2.4 as I saw what looked like a cutdown raspberry pi type device they are selling soon called the Netgate SG-1000.

Well this device has an ARM core and they will officially support ARM arch so surely this should be do-able.

https://www.netgate.com/blog/pfsense-software-version-2-4-release-highlights.html This is the post that had the info.

Could be a great fit for a remote worker.

boopzz
  • 11
  • 1