F12 is now working and providing the boot options 1. USB MSC Drive USB Flash… 2. AHCI/O: SuperSSpeed S238 16G ... when choosing 1. it still sais ... Booting from Hard Disk ... switching really quick to speed 9600 Now the pfsense Option are on the screen. choosing (3) to boot from USB Now (C) for Continue Vlan No Adding WAN :re0 LAN: re1 OPT: re2 then setup of IP choosing 10.1.0.12 DHCP: no http: no now option 99 to install to HD now rebooting without USB, yeah!! but there is a but switching to 115200 speed Now its booting from HD but it is displaying the following Booting from Hard Disk ... F1  pfSense F6 PXE and its not moving on. When pressing F1 it works. How do I take the last challenge ? Starting a new thread: pfSense not booting after install, waiting for F1

Seems good so far. Anything I change seems to be permanent. Try to check search for some logs over the console.

Summary of the topic: Problem: packages are not installed because download never finishes. Sometimes the package manager do not wait for download to finish and start unpacking - and never ending the job. 1. Initially my package download were very very slow and package installation crashed. I checked the download speed with USA and I got 13 mbps. With Frankfurt I get 75.  If I manually download the package with my laptop (through pfSENSE!) then I get it in less than a minute. Inside pfSENSE (using the package manager GUI) usually takes 1 hour for 14 MB (squid is a good example) -> https://files.pfsense.org/packages/amd64/8/All/squid-2.7.9_3-amd64.pbi 2. I've manually downloaded the file on my laptop and tried to put is in tmp folder. Now I discovered that even with WinSCP I can't get a decent upload speed inside pfSENSE box. The upload speed was hilarious: 8 B/s! 3. As suggested, I've tested the SD / USB speed: diskinfo shows a write speed over 10 MB/s What else can I try? I am unable to install any package higher than 2-5 MB! Late edit: all crashed packages appear as installed in package manager but none started: squid did not start, snort did not start, dansguardian did not start. Worst: the GUI does not have in the menus the entries for these services! Later edit: I've used package manager to reinstall the GUI part for each package installed (snort, squid, dansguardian). The XML and CONF file were replaced and now I have the menus to configure the services. I MANAGED to finally start them! The big question remains: what is the problem? And how can I fix it? I am using APU1C4 box with 2 pfSENSE memories: one USB stick and one USB-to-SD adapter and SD card inside adapter. Both connected on external USB port of the APU1C4. Inside APU1C4 I have another SD (on the board) with ipFIRE. If my pfSENSE crash, I reboot with ipFIRE.

@jimp: Uninstalling a package does not remove its settings. The only exception is snort which will remove its own settings on reinstall unless you activate the option to save them. Hi Jim, Is there a time frame when the next version of Snort will be released? I see the pull request was submitted awhile back. Thanks.

I used w32diskimager to write the img to the flash drive  i also have 7 zip loaded so i must have unpacked the file before writing it Thanks for the link I will read through it and see if I can determine what could be causeing the loading process to freeze Glen

You have the same symptoms as the OP? Is the pfSense box able to check for updates? You tried the IPv6 fix? Steve

I agree.  2.1.x a disaster.  I have a couple of hundred of these, mostly on alix2D13 boxes and they are all still on 2.0.3 because of this problem.  It raises it's head after a period of time.  If you have openvpn's, apinger resets the connections as it does filter reloads. The alix2D13 runs 2.0.3 fine with plenty of VPN's as long as you don't overdrive the compression cpu limits.  Running 2.1.x max's out the cpu just by logging in.  Not good. I'm am running 2.1.3 at home where the impact is just annoying but I can do some long term testing and it's not reliable.  To call 2.1.3 release stable is a perverse perspective. Great idea with lot's of hard work put in by many and there are some pretty stable loads in the past.  I have no doubt it'll get straightened out eventually, but my opinion is 2.1.x shouldn't be in general release.

Glad it's working. I've run into different scenarios with cable circuits. 1)  Reboot cable modem and all is good. 2)  If i've plugged in a laptop to test, the cable service locks in that mac address.  (probably just arp)  This can last up to a couple of hours.  Quick way around this is to spoof the laptop mac address in the pfsense interface or just wait it out and the circuit will eventually just come up. 3)  Some cable providers lock the mac address in permanently and you have to call them to release it and give them your new mac address, or spoof as in #2.

SSH still listens on WAN though so a simple firewall rule on WAN that allows traffic in on port 22 should be all that's required, no need to do any NATing. I don't know what's up there, I don't see anything in the 2.1.2 or 2.1.3 change list that might effect it. There was though a fix that went into IPSec in 2.1.3 so that may have effected you somehow. Don't know quite how though.  :-\ Steve

Strange that you had to do that.  :- With only one interface assigned you should have access on that by default. As soon as you assign a second interface, LAN, that becomes the default way of accessing the webgui and WAN is blocked. That applies even if the LAN is not connected. Glad you got up and running anyway.  :) Steve

Define 'doesn't work'. How are you testing this? Has the PBX box worked previously? Are you getting any link LEDs even? If both ends are 10/100 you may need a cross-over cable. Steve

It seems that with this hardware I cannot get past the booting stage, or in the 2.1.3 I cannot get past the expected freezing point with the installer.

I got it working, reset to factory default and redid the settings and it now works under 2.2 Thanks for all your help.

I got it working, reset to factory default and redid the settings and it now works under 2.2 Thanks for all your help.

You'll have to wait for a new release, it will be coming in a few days. There is already a thread with more detail. It's a priority but not as critical as Heartbleed. See https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=77876.msg424785#msg424785

I found the issue.  It was a corrupted configuration backup.  Thanks.

What you are describing is 'hung at the spinner'. That backslash is supposed to rotate as the kernel initially loads. For suggested solutions see: https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Boot_Troubleshooting#BIOS.2FDisk_Errors You're using the terms eth0-3 but those are Linux terms. pfSense is built on FreeBSD and doesn't use those names for NICs. What hardeware are you using? I don't see pfSense in your diagram. Steve

I'll just add that your LAN firewall rule is set to allow only IPv4 TCP/UDP traffic which doesn't include ICMP (ping). You need to add a further rules to allow ICMP or change the existing rule to any IPv4 protocol. Steve