ok found a fix. for some unknown reason pfsense was trying to boot from a non existant partition, the installer somehow got the wrong name. I forced it to the correct by: Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ad2s1a Manual root filesystem specification:   <fstype>:<device>Mount <device>using filesystem <fstype>eg. ufs:da0s1a   ?                  List valid disk boot devices   <empty line="">Abort manual input mountroot> ? List of GEOM managed disk devices:   ufsid/4e7a0c1bbf9d728f ad0s1c ad0s1b ad0s1a ad0s1 ad0 Manual root filesystem specification:   <fstype>:<device>Mount <device>using filesystem <fstype>eg. ufs:da0s1a   ?                  List valid disk boot devices   <empty line="">Abort manual input mountroot> ufs:/dev/ad0s1a Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a ___ / f / p _/ Sense _/      __/ Welcome to pfSense 1.2.3-RELEASE… Mounting filesystems... done. Creating symlinks......done. Launching the init system... done. Initializing.................. done. Starting device manager (devd)...done. Loading configuration......done. Network interface mismatch -- Running interface assignment option. Valid interfaces are: fxp0    ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff fxp1    ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff fxp2    ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff Do you want to set up VLANs first? If you are not going to use VLANs, So if anyone else has this error its nothing you are doing it is a pfsense bug! All thats left is to correct fstab and its ok.</empty></fstype></device></device></fstype></empty></fstype></device></device></fstype>

wallabybob and ptt, Thanks to you both for helping find the problem. I dropped the dot, restored the config and upgraded to 2.0 without a problem. It's been an interesting month  - pfSense 2.0 and ESXi 5.0.  Sincere thanks and congratulations to the devs for the former. Cheers, biggsy

Updating from default install to default install. almost the same as clean install for me. my sucessfull upgrades(1.2.3 and 2.0RC) are: remove packages download full update to pfSense disk upgrade via console As you do not have local console I've changed this to ssh. give a try, it will work.

@zombie: The sha256sum is correct. However the firmware upgrade page says the file must be a 'tgz'. if sha256sum is ok, rename the file.

I have been recycling my config file since BETA 5 with no issues.  I would do fresh VM builds every so often in between updates. From my experience, it has been solid for restores from build to build. I have a basic config with nothing fancy on the routing and networking side.  Just some nat's, aliases, rules and some settings, but way too much to redo from build to build. So for peace of mind and if you want to start fresh, do a complete new build and then make a backup.

Yes, I found that out the [really not so] hard way. But WOO-HOO! the serial connection is up. Unfortunately, I cannot with any degree of surety, point to the change that made it possible. My suspicion is that either my PC's serial port (which I added on and plugged into the appropriate port on the motherboad), or the null modem cable, was faulty. For when I went out and picked up a USB to Serial adapter, and new null modem cable… it worked, both with Minicom, and GTKTerm. I have what looks to be one last hurdle to overcome, but since it's a different issue, I'll start a new thread.

I am also running behind an Untangle server. Thanks you very much!! Case closed  :)

OK - on permanently it is then!

It always had it, just not the automatic way. :-)

i used a SD to IDE adaptor for a bit, just a cheap one from ebay, crapped out after about 6 months though.

Didnt have to…. tail /var/log/system.log show me the progress... I just had a lot of pkgs :) All done. Thanks.

Sorry, not the modem but pfsense

Updating this thread since it comes up high in Google results - 2.0 release and later now are released including nanobsd VGA versions.

@jimp: Read the sticky post at the top of the 2.0 board about fixing your update url http://snapshots.pfsense.org/FreeBSD_RELENG_8_1/i386/pfSense_RELENG_2_0/.updaters/ worked perfectly for the m1n1wall. Thanks.

In that case I won't take the risk. Many thanks.

Forgot to mention… I also tried to install pfsense 1.2.3 (so I can perhaps do an upgrade), but this wont even boot the cd all the way.

As I can get the box for less than £100, it seems a great idea! There are going to be less than 100 people/machines connecting to the internet through pfSense on a bonded ADSL with about 18Mb in and 1Mb out speeds.  All the users are on separate vLans, so there should be no local traffic going through it.  Monthly internet use is currently downloading about 750Gb/month.

Ok, thank you.