@cmb: @heper: @cmb i've experienced the same/very similar issue on a crappy dlink nic (sk0 driver) that worked fine before upgrading from 2.1.x –> 2.2.x  .... so in my case very similar situation with a non-intel nic. (haven't found the time to swap nics) currently i'm rebooting the firewall every morning at 5am and haven't received any reports like "please fix my internets" Could be the same solution for that, try disabling MSI and MSIX. In the Intel case, it appears the new driver wants to enable things that don't work on some small minority of cards. Could be a similar cause, though completely different root problem given different hardware and driver. Some rebranded cards, like the HP i350s, may have MSIX disabled in the firmware, but still identify as an Intel i350, which can cause issues. Nothing like saving $10 on a $140 card just to have driver issues or reduced performance because they've disabled or otherwise customized the card.

In my case both of my Netgear switches support it and have through several iterations of pfSense (2.0 to now). In fact one of the Netgear switches requires management via VLAN1 so I'm somewhat stuck there. In any case, I did try to have dnsmasq listen on all interfaces as well as specific VLAN interfaces when it was flapping yesterday. In both instances I saw the same flapping behavior. I am happy to note that since reverting the dnsmasq binary back to 2.2.2 I haven't seen a single signal 11 crash, it has stayed remarkably stable on both my primary and secondary firewall.

And the built in Linux Mint Image Burner program is also problem free and stupid simple.

One thing I've learned with pfsense, linux, windows, whatever… Don't install any feature unless you NEED it. The cleaner and simpler you keep an install the less problems you will have. Thats universally true.

@doktornotor: Haven't seen a single complaint about the "harmful" patch for years. +1

To cmb: Thank you, that was the information I needed! Things are running smoothly now after checking the Forwarding Mode button. To doktornotor: This is exactly what I do. Additionally restricting by filter rules helps me enforce the DNS policy as DNS requests by misconfigured clients will pop up in the firewall logs. And malware that subverts a client's DNS configuration will fall nicely short of its objectives.

@cmb: You don't need a different update URL, the default one is fine. The ADI memstick exists only so it's pre-configured with the appropriate serial console settings. Once it's installed, that's no longer relevant. got it, thx. i'll give the update a whirl then.

Fuckin' finally… lol. Thanks, that worked.

Simplest way is to use the 2.2.3 installation CD or USB stick. Download the image you need from here: https://www.pfsense.org/download/ The installation process will do all the reformatting for you.

Restored 2.2.1 last evening: been running for 17 hours now; all problems gone again.

@Dadoo: Update: the message in the Version box (on the dashboard) has gone away (even though we haven't changed anything), but now it's taking a very long time (maybe 30 seconds) to get past the login screen, after entering the password. I've checked DNS, to make sure it's working. What else might cause such a long delay? I also discovered, this morning, that we lost a couple of rules. We just needed to re-enter them, but I'm not sure why the update would have deleted them, in the first place. Did you get any notices at the top of your screen?  If you did, chances are it may have said something like "reverting to backup configuration" or something, which is why you lost your rules.  This, assuming you got that notice.

Thanks for the confirmation that this is by design and not a bug. I just wasn't expecting it.

Fixed, thanks.

Great, Many thanks

There isn't enough information here to go by. Is this a full install or NanoBSD? Or is it running live from CD/Memstick? If it is a full install you can edit /etc/fstab to change where it is looking for the root slice, but from the text in the error I'm not certain that's what is happening.

@Mr.: Something must have changed; It just rolled back 2.2.3 to 2.2.1: it did automatically reboot. https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/4107

This ZFS noise is completely safe to ignore… ZFS WARNING: Recommended minimum kmem_size is 512MB; expect unstable behaviour

Thanks, JIMP, for answering my question clearly and completely. I didn't even think of looking for a "support" e-mail address, as there has always been a lot of great answers in the forums.  I also felt that the answers might be helpful to others who want to support pfSense by migrating from something home-built to a box purchased from pfSense.  I'll be sure and e-mail future questions to the support e-mail address. Now I can put the new SG-2440 into service. Thanks again, Frank

@derringer66: Do I use the standard 64-bit firmware update URL or do I wait for an update on https://firmware.netgate.com/auto-update/ADI/amd64? You should wait for the official factory image to show up there and/or on the portal site that you can see once you login. These and other questions should always come in to customersupport@pfsense.org – we don't always monitor the forum closely for customer requests such as these and to ensure that you receive a timely and appropriate response, it is best to use the official support channels. Basic questions like this do not count as support incidents, so there isn't any worry about expending any support time on such things.