Has to be 4 different DNS server IPs, can't repeat the same one multiple times.

It's no different from a typical installation. Just plug in that USB stick and the serial console, boot it up, and go through things as usual.

After researching for a few minutes, I found this: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=93071.0 Submitting the reboot command via the diagnostics -> shell command prompt worked for me.

@signal7: I try various things and 'futz with it' as a means of learning.  Sometimes it really pays off - maybe not today, but the info will come in handy later at some point.  You've got to admit, restoring a backup should have done it and should have been much less painless than a complete reload. Me, too.  I was relating a similar tale of woe.  Same device.  Same problem.  I, however, DIDN'T have the luxury of futz time.  I had 25 people trying to sell motorcycles, that couldn't because the firewall was down. I think, when the backup was restored in both our cases, it set the com port configuration back to com1.  If you can get to the webConfigurator you can add the tweaks to /boot/loader.conf and get the console back.

I'm starting to feel positive now. Uptime 4 Days 00 Hour 10 Minutes 43 Seconds I'm quite confident though that the issue was with the motherboard.

… I used the wiki article to set up the PPP device, changed Routing/NAT (?) and now it works :-D ...but the 3G/4G net is lousy here at my place, so no way to really test the setup VPN... Many thanx, will report on further developments. kind regards chemlud

In case that was not clear it should go like this. Go to assign interface: Assign an interface to OPT1 then save Go to Interfaces:OPT1 Now enable it with checkbox. Set as "IP4 Configuration Type" as : Static Now scroll down and setup your new OPT network with a new subnet of your choosing. Under :"Static IPv4 configuration" Perhaps something like 192.168.10.1 then >> "/24" << from dropdown, Then save. Next go to Services/DHCP Server and enable an DHCP server for your new OPT1 address. (Tab at top for new OPT1 interface) Range in example would be 192.168.10.100 for start and 192.168.10.200 for end of address range. Or similar… Now go to GUI menu and setup Firewall Rules to allow traffic: Firewall/Rules Go to tab at top for your new OPT1 interface. Create a rule to suit your traffic. Allow any to setup and perhaps lock down once you get it running. At this point you can test your interface with a client and ensure getting an IP address and can surf the web. If all works good than follow the Captive Portal doc's for your new interface to allow traffic.

Aha !! Answers to questions that were never asked  ;D

On nanobsd, an entire slice gets rewritten. On full install, stale/broken cruft keeps accummulating. Plus the firmware upgrade GUI is just retarded. https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/4636 https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/4670

Just following up on this - when I tried this again and power-cycled the model, it worked right away. Thanks again!

you write that is not working with Loadbalancing ?

Have never seen a issue where could not get an IP on new machine connected to cable modem after reboot of modem. If you change the mac of the device - reboot the cable modem.  I personally have lots of different vms running different distros I can bring up as my router/firewall..  All I do to move to different one other than my main pfsense one is just use the same mac on the wan side connected to the cable modem via the vswitch. I maintain my public IP this way and don't have to reboot my cable modem. Now what I would like to see is a way to maintain my IPv6 PD so that is not changing every time you turn around ;)  Then I could go native vs tunnel…

Ah, that implies it hadn't rebooted correctly after the upgrade. It's possible that rebooting manually could have brought that back. Odd symptoms for that. A clean install is safest though. Steve

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/4533

The only way you can connect more than one of those LAN ports to your switch is as part of a LAGG but it seems like your current switch doesn't support that. Connecting more than one port currently would be a bad idea. You can configure the ports in a bridge as you described and then connect other clients to that directly if you want. Others here will tell you it's a waste of ports though and not as good as using a real 8 port switch. Are you able to connect a client to any of those other LAN ports and get internet access? Steve

Holiday and my replacement drive was still delivered! Popped in the drive, downloaded the latest 2.2.2, used Virtual Storage through iKVM to mount the ISO, rebooted and installed to the new hard drive. Rebooted, ran through the initial script and done. Also, TRIM is now enabled!  ;D Thanks

Yeah. there's no practical way to expand the image. It's possibe to create another slice in the remaiing space and use it for something but I wouldn't recommend it. Are you running out of space? I usually run the 1GB image simply because it writes to the card faster. That's a curious error though, I thought the images were now small enough for even the most optimistic definition of 4GB! What card do you have? Steve

Thanks heper, I ended up doing exactly that ;-) Thanks and best regards, Chris