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    Shut down PFsense on PC and not have to restore?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • bmeeksB Offline
      bmeeks @jsmiddleton4
      last edited by bmeeks

      @jsmiddleton4 said in Shut down PFsense on PC and not have to restore?:

      @bmeeks

      Just had chance to sit down and look at the config.xml file. I’m thinking its not going to tell me what I need to know as its the restored one yes?

      The one currently in place looks correct, igc0, igc1, etc.

      I’m confused then as to why if that’s the one in place why PFSense goes through its setup ?’s.

      Even though it says igc0 PFsense in some circumstances doesn’t know what that means?

      It depends on what the underlying FreeBSD OS reports (and when it reports it). Perhaps the driver is late loading and at the time pfSense looks for it during boot it is not yet there, but then later on is ready.

      I also want to be sure you are correctly stating the problem. You say you have to "restore" after a power down or soft reset. To my mind "restore" means nothing is coming back and I have to start over and restore a complete configuration including firewall rules, IP addresses, and so forth. Or do you really mean to say that all of your settings like rules, IP addresses, etc., come back, but it's just that one or more physical interfaces are missing and you have to reassign which is LAN and WAN?

      All configuration information for pfSense lives in the config.xml file. And that file lives in the /conf directory (that directory is actually a symlink if I recall correctly). So depending on how you answer my "restore" terminology question above, it's possible you have a different problem with something not getting on disk correctly or in the right location.

      J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • J Offline
        jsmiddleton4 @bmeeks
        last edited by jsmiddleton4

        @bmeeks
        I restore from a backup.

        I have to reassign one interface to the WAN, console comes up, I run the restore option by picking my backup file. Boot.

        The boot after restore, everything comes up perfectly and I’m off and running.

        Boot from the GUI, no issues.

        Power off-Halt or boot and go to BIOS, finish what I’m doing in the BIOS, save, exit, continue with boot, have to do restore as the igc interfaces configurations are missing or not found, not understood, whichever it is. The Realtek, RE0, is.

        I assign WAN to the RE0 and continue to the console. Option 15, etc.

        What I haven’t tried is a second boot without restoring. If its a timing issue, wonder if it’d find the interfaces on the second boot?

        bmeeksB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • bmeeksB Offline
          bmeeks @jsmiddleton4
          last edited by bmeeks

          @jsmiddleton4 said in Shut down PFsense on PC and not have to restore?:

          @bmeeks
          I restore from a backup.

          I have to reassign one interface to the WAN, console comes up, I run the restore option by picking my backup file. Boot.

          The boot after restore, everything comes up perfectly and I’m off and running.

          Boot from the GUI, no issues.

          Power off-Halt or boot and go to BIOS, finish what I’m doing in the BIOS, save, exit, continue with boot, have to do restore as the igc interfaces configurations are missing or not found, not understood, whichever it is. The Realtek, RE0, is.

          I assign WAN to the RE0 and continue to the console. Option 15, etc.

          What I haven’t tried is a second boot without restoring. If its a timing issue, wonder if it’d find the interfaces on the second boot?

          Okay, but still not 100% clear if you are losing everything or just the WAN interface. So if you reboot, then reassign that WAN interface and the console then comes up, can you access the firewall over the network using its GUI (meaning before you do a restore)? Does it route traffic normally? If not, then it is losing everything it sounds like. And if it is doing that, something is wildly not right. What kind of hardware do you have? Are there multiple drives and perhaps potentially two bootable partitions?

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          • J Offline
            jsmiddleton4 @bmeeks
            last edited by jsmiddleton4

            @bmeeks

            It does not route anything. No other NIC’s are configured/assigned so it can’t. Just the WAN on RE0.

            The only NIC it recognizes when booting as I’ve described is the built in Realtek which is why I can assign it to the WAN.

            Just one drive, one partition, PFSense.

            If I hardwire into the Realtek and set my laptop to a static IP within the range for the default IP for PFSense I can access the Webconfig UI via Firefox on my laptop via the PFSense default IP.

            My LAN is a bridge that uses 2 Intel 2.5gb and the Realtek 1gb.

            The only NIC it recognizes before I restore is the Realtek, RE0.

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            • bmeeksB Offline
              bmeeks
              last edited by bmeeks

              It's getting a bit late here on Christmas Eve where I live, so this will be the last reply until after the Christmas holidays...🙂.

              It clearly sounds like your "real" config.xml file is not existing at the time of boot after you do a power off reset or when exiting from the BIOS. That really sounds like a weird hardware/BIOS issue to me.

              When you do a power-off reset, or else do the BIOS change and exit thing, when the console comes up, DO NOT perform a restore at that point. Let's try two things first.

              1. Exit to a CLI shell (option #8) and then list the contents of the /conf directory. Do you see one or more config.xml files listed? If so, cat the newest one (the one with the most recent modified date) and see if the data in there looks legit or if it is just the out-of-the-box defaults.

              2. If you see a config.xml file that looks correct, then just immediately reboot again just to see if things come up the second time around.

              If you can restore a legit XML config file and things work, then clearly upon those other boot scenarios pfSense is not finding the correct config.xml file. Finding out why that happens is the key to the solution.

              I don't think it is related to the current problem based on the way you have described things, but that LAN setup with two Intel NICs and a Realtek in some kind of bridge is definitely not a normal configuration.

              And you have yet to describe what kind of hardware this is. Is it a PC or a server-grade box, what kind of CPU is in it, what brand of motherboard are you using, etc. The only thing I know so far is you have one Realtek NIC and two Intel NICs. That's not enough to go on.

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              • J Offline
                jsmiddleton4 @bmeeks
                last edited by

                @bmeeks

                Merry Christmas

                Dell 390, i5 CPU, 8gb ram, 320gb ata hard drive.

                The file is there, which is part of the confusion.

                Next time I’m just going to boot a second time.

                I have 3 2.5gb Intel NIC’s. One is WAN, 2 go to LAN. The 1gb Realtek is part of the LAN bridge.

                johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • johnpozJ Offline
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @jsmiddleton4
                  last edited by

                  @jsmiddleton4 said in Shut down PFsense on PC and not have to restore?:

                  2 go to LAN. The 1gb Realtek is part of the LAN bridge.

                  So you got some "bridge" setup with 3 interfaces in it?

                  How about just putting 1 interface in lan, do you have problem then?

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                  • J Offline
                    jsmiddleton4 @johnpoz
                    last edited by jsmiddleton4

                    @johnpoz

                    Yes, 3 NIC’s in the Bridge.

                    Double booting works. I was too curious not to check tonight. Not even a nice reboot either. Control Alt Delete when asked the question to use the RE0 as the WAN. Figure if I told it yes possible to be writing a new config.xml.

                    So the working XML is there, has to be.

                    Why double boot works? Timing?

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                    • stephenw10S Offline
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      The description in igc as an Intel 1G NIC is just that, only the description.

                      Those NICs will always be igc.

                      The problem here is nothing to do with losing the config and everything to do with assigned NICs going missing. When it boots to the assign interfaces screen look at the available NICs list, something there will be missing, what is it?

                      It sounds like the hardware is not being initialized correctly under some conditions. Check the boot log for errors when that happens. Maybe some PCI error or a driver failing to attach for some reason.
                      There's probably nothing you can do about it in pfSense though other than upgrading to 2.6. It could well be the PHY reset issue in igc that is bow fixed there.

                      Steve

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                      • J Offline
                        jsmiddleton4 @stephenw10
                        last edited by jsmiddleton4

                        @stephenw10

                        Merry Christmas

                        I appreciated your insight but I feel like I’m answering the same questions. The IGC, Intel 2.5gb, cards are missing. None of them found be it the one that is the WAN, or 2 that are LAN and part of my bridge.

                        Now with a quick reboot, PFSense finds them.

                        The only card the initial boot finds is the RE0, Realtek, card.

                        I looked in the OS log and there’s nothing that looks out of order. No error messages, no “This is missing” messages. But having booted without answering the “Want to configure RE0 as the WAN?”, I could be circumventing any error messages being recorded in the OS Boot log.

                        For whatever reason with a power off or a significant delay in the boot process such as entering the BIOS, PFSense when booting doesn’t “see” the Intel cards. Again for whatever reason, a quick reboot without answering any interface assignment questions when coming back up a second time does.

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                        • stephenw10S Offline
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          It doesn't show 'device attach 6' or similar? It probably is the PHY issue:
                          https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-src/commit/267a39780ea8c89b7a89ca9e91dcfff02c69656f

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                          • J Offline
                            jsmiddleton4 @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10

                            No attach anything.

                            This is the only line with “error” in it.

                            module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (vesa, 0xffffffff8140c3e0, 0) error 19

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                            • J Offline
                              jsmiddleton4 @stephenw10
                              last edited by

                              @stephenw10

                              Is that one of those patches I should use the Patch Package to update?

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                              • stephenw10S Offline
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                No that's a change to the driver code that's compiled when pfSense is built. You cannot apply it runtime.

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                                • J Offline
                                  jsmiddleton4 @stephenw10
                                  last edited by jsmiddleton4

                                  @stephenw10

                                  That’s a good thing. I didn’t want to tackle one more learning curve.

                                  At least it not working has an explanation.

                                  I’m on to figuring out how to run the test program for my APC UPS.

                                  Edit: If I understand the information on the PHY matter why the second boot works also make sense. That kind of boot resets what isn’t being reset. Once reset, PFSense “sees” the NIC’s correctly.

                                  IF I understand it correctly……..

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                                  • stephenw10S Offline
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    Mmm, though I expect to see an attach error when it fails. Some discussion of it here: https://forum.netgate.com/post/1008320
                                    The error looks like:

                                    igc0: <Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I225-LM> mem 0xf7c00000-0xf7cfffff,0xf7d00000-0xf7d03fff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci3
                                    igc0: Setup of Shared code failed, error -2
                                    igc0: IFDI_ATTACH_PRE failed 6
                                    device_attach: igc0 attach returned 6
                                    igc0: <Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I225-LM> mem 0xf7900000-0xf79fffff,0xf7a00000-0xf7a03fff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci6
                                    igc0: Setup of Shared code failed, error -2
                                    igc0: IFDI_ATTACH_PRE failed 6
                                    device_attach: igc0 attach returned 6
                                    

                                    It's fixed in 2.6. I've been running that (22.01) here as my edge box for months.

                                    Steve

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                                    • J Offline
                                      jsmiddleton4 @stephenw10
                                      last edited by jsmiddleton4

                                      @stephenw10

                                      Nothing like that in any of my logs.

                                      Might be though. When I didn’t double boot I still over wrote everything with the restore.

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