Cyrix2k

I don't know. As far as I know, the CF card is set as the boot device and I don't believe it is autodetected, meaning you would need access to the BIOS to even boot from the hard drive (unless it's already set that way). Then you want a prebuilt image to write to the 40gb drive... the 4gb embedded image will overwrite everything, and while I think it will work, I'm not positive. It should be much easier and faster to flash the image to the 4gb card as a first step. If that doesn't work, then try the hard drive.

Download this https://www.pfsense.org/download/download.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.uk.pfsense.org%2Fmirror%2Fdownloads%2FpfSense-2.1.3-RELEASE-4g-i386-nanobsd.img.gz Verify the MD5 checksum is 41a480f7763bdd41c323b649e7669021 Then use Win32 Disk Imager to write it to your 4gb CF card, pop it into your SSL Core, and it *should* boot into pfSense.

I looked up the SSL Core and between the specs and your description, I think it's based on the older firebox hardware whereas the SSL 100 & SSL 500 are x-core-e hardware. It's a very good thing you didn't flash the x-core-e BIOS because it would have bricked it. Try following a guide for the X500/X700/X1000/X2500 fireboxes instead. Those older models do not need their BIOS flashed at all, you should be able to write the pfSense image to your 4 gb CF card, pop it in, and go. Be aware that the SSL Core only has 10/100 ports which will quickly become a bottleneck if your internet service exceeds 100mbit/s, or if you route between gigabit networks.

The SSL500 & x550e/x750e/x1250e are all the same hardware. I wrote the HexHound article and while the screenshots are from an SSL500, I also have a x750e. That said, your BIOS does look different and I would proceed with a extreme caution. Unless you find someone that has the same BIOS as you, and flashed with success, I would suggest using a PCI-e video card and entering the BIOS that way. The BIOS flash is only necessary to redirect BIOS output through the null modem at boot. If you can change the settings blind or use a video card, it will work perfectly fine. IIRC, a VGA header is also on the board but it's an oddball size. Nevertheless, it's another option if you want to go that route. PM me with your e-mail address. I have a dump of the factory image I can send you (but I have to find it!)