NetBSD for Cisco Pix?

[twoblink]

I'm wondering.. can I install NetBSD onto a Cisco pix? It seems to have fairly standard components. I couldn't find any info on anybody installing NetBSD onto a pix.

I'd like to run pf on a pix instead of the pix's OS.

Thanks!

[BSDfan666]

While the Cisco PIX family of routers use x86 processors, the firmware isn't PC BIOS compatible.

It really is a proprietary product, designed only to run Cisco's PIX operating system and related software..

Now, I'm not saying it would be impossible to run BSD or Linux on such a device, but neither would run unmodified.

I found one project showing how someone modified QEMU to run the Cisco PIX operating system, you can find more information about it here.. but it appears to be the reverse of what you want.

Good luck.. keep us informed.. you could always just use a beige box like the rest of us.

[twoblink]

I would love to use a beige box.. But have you found an inexpensive one that is as small in form factor as my Pix 506E?

The only hope now are the newier mini-itx boards that use the atom chipset. I would like a firewall that's more ROHO than SOHO and fairly robust, but in a small form factor.

I have a pix for home use and a soho router for office use, the office one is running tomato, which is excellent; but I would like to have a full blown firewall, and I use to run a bunch of openbsd+ipf. I would love to do so again but on pix sized box.

So basically a BIOS problem?

[BSDfan666]

Originally Posted by twoblink

I would love to use a beige box.. But have you found an inexpensive one that is as small in form factor as my Pix 506E?

The only hope now are the newier mini-itx boards that use the atom chipset. I would like a firewall that's more ROHO than SOHO and fairly robust, but in a small form factor.

Unfortunately I don't have any recommendations, I simply use old workstations.

Originally Posted by twoblink

I have a pix for home use and a soho router for office use, the office one is running tomato, which is excellent; but I would like to have a full blown firewall, and I use to run a bunch of openbsd+ipf. I would love to do so again but on pix sized box.

So basically a BIOS problem?

I do hope you meant OpenBSD+pf, the last release of OpenBSD using ipf was 2.9 I believe.

And yes, it uses an incompatible firmware.. it can't run traditional x86 operating systems, there are likely other architectural changes that are undocumented as well.

[arch]

soekris? alix ?

[twoblink]

So a toaster that doesn't have a BIOS we can install netbsd on; but something like a pix.. no huh?

I'm also curious why there are so many linux firmwares for linksys and other Soho routers but none for netbsd. You'd think these situations were made for bsd..

[BSDfan666]

What are you rambling about?

The Cisco PIX has a firmware.. it's just not PC BIOS compatible, how it bootstraps an operating system, and the hardware it uses, are totally undocumented.

The infamous NetBSD toaster is simply a embedded ARM computer housed inside a toaster case, it does have a firmware that loads the NetBSD/evbarm port of NetBSD.

http://www.embeddedarm.com/software/...sd-toaster.php

[BSDfan666]

You seem to have a very high level outlook on operating systems, it seems obvious that you don't appreciate the complexity of porting an operating system to a new platform.

There have been whispers of a port of OpenBSD to embedded MIPS systems, like the Linksys routers you mentioned.. but it is only a brief mention in an old paper.

You're obviously free to make your own observations, but please do a little background research prior to posting...

[ai-danno]

Originally Posted by arch

soekris? alix ?

Yeah exactly... there are plenty of choices that would match the form factor of the 506E.