To fix this problem of mine....
Since pf already updated to 2.4.5, with the packages installed and running fine, except dhcpd
was not running. I did a back up the configuration xml file. This configuration xml file will have
all my settings incl. pf and its packages.
I did a refresh install, and then got my PPPOE working first.
I did a refresh install on my packages all of them, 1 by 1 installed them. Note that if PPPOE is not working,
then needless to say, downloading and installing packages would not work at all.
After installing the packages, reboot the system, now grab the configuration xml file and restore it.
Once finished restoring the xml file, the system will automatically reboot itself.
log into pf, and you see a big message: pfSense is reinstalling the packages in the background.
I left the system to do its work. I went away and did something esle while waiting for the system
to complete its task of reinstalling the settings. It took about 2 hours.
After 2 hours of waiting, my log in screen did not display the message. Meaning pf had finished
installing.
DONE.