Okay, here's a clue. /etc/rc.firmware pfSenseNanoBSDupgrade /root/pfSense-2.0-RELEASE-2g-i386-nanobsd-upgrade.img.gz                                                                                                                                                                                                 Broadcast Message from root@pfsense.local                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            (no tty) at 12:37 EST...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             NanoBSD Firmware upgrade in progress...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Broadcast Message from root@pfsense.local                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            (no tty) at 12:37 EST...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Installing /root/pfSense-2.0-RELEASE-2g-i386-nanobsd-upgrade.img.gz.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         kern.geom.debugflags: 16 -> 16                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Something went wrong when trying to update the fstab entry.  Aborting upgrade. What exactly does the part "kern.geom.debugflags: 16 -> 16" mean? Also, tested and verified that fstab is setup correct and that I could successfully make modifications to it using vi.

I already have it  internet–->pfsense----->lan I was just looking at doing the dual firewall like a corporation would have it. internet---->firewall---->DMZ----->firewall------->LAN

To download a copy of the configuration file, in pfSense web GUI go to Diagnostics -> Backup/Restore and click on Backup/Restore tab and fill in the appropriate fields. In "full" pfSense the config file is /cf/conf/config.xml

Solved. Thanks, P. For interested, the solution was: echo "hint.acpi.0.disabled=1" >> /boot/loader.conf.local

@ilium007: To be fair I have come here with exactly the same question and I don't believe the FAQ does a good enough job of explaining the files. For a non-CF installation what file should we be downloading ? Embedded with serial console - Xg implies the image size: 1g is a 1GB image, 2g is 2GB image; amd64 implies 64-bit, i386 implies x86 a.k.a. 32bit image; nanobsd is the embedded serial console variant. pfSense-2.0-RELEASE-Xg-amd64-nanobsd.img.gz Embedded with VGA output - Xg implies the image size: 1g is a 1GB image, 2g is 2GB image; amd64 implies 64-bit, i386 implies x86 a.k.a. 32bit image; nanobsd_vga is the embedded with VGA output variant. pfSense-2.0-RELEASE-Xg-i386-nanobsd_vga.img.gz LiveCD or Installer CD image to be burned to optical media - i386 implies x86 (32bit), amd64 implies 64bit variant; iso instead of img tells you this is a liveCD/ installer rather than embedded variant pfSense-2.0-RELEASE-i386.iso.gz Live or Installer iso to be flashed to thumbdrives or other USB bootable media - memstick tells you this is for thumbdrives a.k.a. memory sticks;  i386 implies x86 (32bit), amd64 implies 64bit variant; iso instead of img tells you this is a liveCD/ installer rather than embedded variant pfSense-memstick-2.0-RELEASE-i386.iso.gz

@Cry: Keep in mind that all the *.pool.ntp.org addresses change. Knowing what they are now doesn't tell you what they were a few minutes ago, let alone days ago. Exactly, you'll get different responses every time.

Ah, that was it.  It was autoupdating before happily while RC3 was the current version, but when RELEASE came out the box lost it's autoupdate URL for some reason.  I reselected it from the list and it worked fine.  Thanks!

pfSense pings the gateway at regular intervals using apinger. If it thinks it's off-line then either your modem is not responding to pings or the responses are being filtered. Have you unchecked 'block private networks' in the interface setup page? Check the firewall logs, are you seeing the pig responses being blocked? Do you have a network subnet overlap that's causing pfSense to send the pings to the wrong interface? Steve

No problem.  :) It's shame you couldn't pin point exactly what made the difference. I always find it unsatisfying when I've fixed something but don't know why. Steve

You need to install an "i386" kit on an Alix. You are attempting to run an "amd64" kit which was built to run on a CPU supporting "64 bit" instructions. The CPU on the Alix doesn't have "64 bit" instructions.

Hmm, Looks like it managed to get the PPPoE connection set to the wrong interface. Glad you got it sorted.  :) Steve

That used to be a quick way to get that behavior in old versions (1.2.2 and before), but it is no longer supported. If you just want serial console, then a full install with the embedded kernel is sufficient. If you really want the HDD to go read only, then you probably should image it with a NanoBSD image and run it that way.

Have you tested the serial cable and whatever you are using for a console with something else? Can you use a newer version of FreeBSD? I believe you can boot PCBSD as a live CD. The file system may have changed sufficiently to give you a problem with such an old version. Steve

Have you read through this: http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Boot_Troubleshooting Have you installed the correct version? Steve

OK. Got some help with this over the weekend (thank you Glenn! and Chris!).  The problem is Time-Warner.  They aren't allowing pfsense to actually act as the router on my IPs.  Instead they're being the gateway and giving the pfsense machine a single IP address so it's not acting as a gateway.  The Time-Warner support people were of absolutely zero help or assistance and refused to put the modem into a true bridge mode for us.  I'm so glad Glenn and Chris were able to make it work anyway.    Time-Warner has again found a way to disappoint me as a customer but they're the only high speed provider in this area.  I guess that's why their service is so bad.

Thank you very much guys

hard drive? maybe… but I tried it several times with 2 different cd drives and 3 different downloads of the iso.  One was an iso disk that I previously used to successfully install on another system. Could it be a setting or something in the bios.  floppy is disabled, tried it with hyper thread on and off,

With CARP you need a minimum of 3 IPs per interface.  One for the first box, one for the second box, and then one that is shared.  That last one is the one that would be used as your gateway on the LAN side and is the one that would be used by your clients for presence on the WAN side.  If you wanted to use different WAN IPs for different subnets then you'd need an additional WAN IP for each subnet (so 3 IPs for 1 subnet, 4 IPs for 2 subnets, 5 IPS for 3 subnets, and so on).