Julian Kessel's Blog

There is no package manager in pfSense 1.2.3-RC1, though you can install FreeBSD ports via “Diagnostics > Command”.

Type

pkg_add URLofthePackage.tbz

in the field and press return.

the packages can be found at ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/packages/category (BTW. there’s a complete list at the parent directory)

In most cases you will have to use a SSH or serial connection to configure the programs. Please also keep in mind that more daemons slow down the boot process significantly, especially on embedded devices !

The pkg_add(1) utility uses fetch(1) to download the precompiled package and installs it automatically. On regular (bigger) FreeBSD systems you will pull a complete directory of ports into your local ports directory from the FreeBSD servers in use of the program cvsup. Since this is method of getting new programs was not meant to be used on embedded systems on which that dump just fills up the small flash disks, the manual way of getting the packages is preferred. Another reason why it’s necessary to use precompiled packages is that most of the embedded OS’ bring no compiler with themselves.

An experience I made while setting up a ftp server that the filesystem is read-only. The developers explain it is due to the limited writecycles on flashable media, so the volume gets mounted for updating the cfg file only. You have to use the web-based cmdline for executing file-modifying commands. That also includes SSH which isn’t even with root rights able to write something.