Posts on Drake's Blog

Proxmox Opnsense Bridged Setup

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

I chose this because I didn’t want to mess with my home network and I wanted to test out opnSense filtering.

Hardware

Topton pfSense Firewall Soft Router N5105 N150 N100 4x i226-V 2.5G LAN NVMe Barebone Fanless Mini PC HDMI2.0 DP AES-NI OPNsense !

Software

Opnsense https://opnsense.org/download/
Proxmox https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads

Downloading and Setting up Proxmox

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/proxmox-beginner-tutorial-how-to-set-up-your-first-virtual-machine-on-a-secondary-hard-disk.59559/

Creating VM

Make sure you’re not on VPN when trying to connect to Proxmox. Made that mistake before.
Configs - Default
- General !
- OS - Choose OPNsense!
- Disks - SSD emulation!
- CPU - 4 cores, type - host, gets all features of host CPU!
- Memory - 4GB!
- Network - We will config more later!
- Confirm
NIC setup
- Go to Datacenter > your node > System > network!
- Create > Linux Bridge
  - Create 1:1 relationship of Linux bridges for each physical NIC you have
  - vmro0 was already created so vmbr1 needs to be created.
  - I mapped it to enp2s0 and commented the label it has on the physical port!
  - Repeat!
  - Click Apply Configuration to save your changes! If you don’t you will get a vmbr doesn’t exist error when trying to start VM![[Pasted image 20250623211526.png]]
- Go back to our OpnSense VM
  - Hardware > Add > Network Device
  - Add your WAN port!
    - Make sure that your VM is stopped or else you will get this error 😅!
  - Add your LAN port
  - Remove vmbr0 because this will be used to communicate to your client / proxmox for config.!

OpnSense Installation

Boot up VM
It first boots up into Live mode, like linux distros. This is to test. We will need to install to fully utilize opnSense!
Login
- User: installer
- Pass: opnsense
Installer GUI
- Continue with default keymap!
- ZFS or UFS? Per u/jtbis
  - “UFS (I don’t think PFSense supports EXT4) is more resource efficient, but lacks journaling so it gets corrupted easily in the event of a power failure. ZFS uses more resources but can take unexpected shutdowns just fine. ZFS also supports software RAID if you have multiple disks.”
  - I chose ZFS
- Virtual Device type: Whatever your configuration is. I only have 1 drive, so stripe.!
- Select your disk!
- Confirm!
- Wait!
- Change your root password and complete install!
- Reboot now!
- It will reboot!
- Proceed to the next step

Configuration

It will boot back up shortly!
We will now config the LAN and WAN!
- Plug in your machine into the OpnSense LAN port that you configured and go to 192.168.1.1!!
Login to the firewall
- User: root
- Pass: opnsense (or whatever your changed it to)
Set your DNS Servers. If you have a local one use that. Enable DNSSEC support if you would like.!
Choose your timezone!
We can exit the wizard after this.

Configuring the Transparent Bridge

These steps are taken from zenarmor transparent bridge setup. https://www.zenarmor.com/docs/network-security-tutorials/how-to-configure-transparent-filtering-bridge-on-opnsense

Installing OpenWrt on MX4200

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Guide was followed at certain parts here https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/mx4200_v1_and_v2

Overview

Hardware

Linksys AX4200 Velop Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System It was a steal! !

Software

I chose OpenWrt… Why? Default router firmware typically lacks advanced features, security updates, and general support that OpenWrt provides. What else? It’s OPEN SOURCE!

Downloading OpenWrt

We need to select the proper firmware for our device.
Go to https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/ and search for mx4200!
I had no clue if I had v1 or v2, this link cleared it up https://www.reddit.com/r/LinksysVelop/comments/1655uxh/mx4200_v1_vs_v2_difference/ (Model number for MX4200 V2 would just be MX4200V2)
I chose Factory because I will be using the web interface to install the new firmware.

Flashing OpenWrt

Connect your computer to your MX4200 via ethernet and enter 192.168.1.1 into your browser and hit enter.
Click on the wifi icon to unlock the secret menu !
You may have to reset password here, I tried the default password and it didn’t work. Enter the password and sign in.!
Click Connectivity on the left.!
Click on the CA on the bottom-right!
Click Choose File > choose your openWrt file > click Start!
Click YES!!
Click YES!!!
Wait for the firmware to flash!
The device will reboot after a few minutes and the LED on the router will be solid blue. BE PATIENT. !
Once the light is solid blue it’s done!

Flash OpenWrt to Alternate Boot Partition

MX4200 routers use two firmware partitions. If you do a 30/30/30 reboot (press reset button for 30s. While holding, unplug router for 30s, power on, hold the reset button for 30 more seconds) the device then it will boot to the alternate partition. You can do the same thing to swap back to the primary partition.

Setting Up My First Blog

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Tech stack

Obsidian
Hugo
NetworkChuck’s script
Hostinger

Obsidian

Obsidian is a FOSS note-taking app that utilizes markdown. It has a lot of plugins and themes for insane customization.

Hugo Set up

Pre-reqs

Git install: https://github.com/git-guides/install-git
- free and open-source version control system used for tracking changes in source code during software development
Go install: https://go.dev/dl/
- a fast statically typed, compiled high-level general purpose programming language
Hugo install: https://gohugo.io/installation/
- framework for building websites
Dart Sass install: https://gohugo.io/hugo-pipes/transpile-sass-to-css/#dart-sass