pfSense won't boot unless I manually interrupt the boot process and change the console to VGA

nielsjlarsen

I have the exact same issue. Also running 2.6 on x86 hardware.
It's normally working perfectly, however for some reason we've had a few power outages lately and every time pfSense powers up again I need to manually power off, break the boot sequence (press space) and change the console to VGA (press 5) and continue with the boot process (press Enter).
If I do nothing it just freezes, black screen and no action on any keyboard input.

After getting fed up with this I researched and thought I might've installed the memstick serial image by mistake, so I downloaded the memstick VGA image and did a fresh install.
I see the same behaviour with a completely fresh VGA install, with nothing more than assigning the adapters i.e. no restore from backup.

I've tried adding boot_serial=NO in /boot/loader.conf.local with no luck.
I've also tried reaching the prompt in the bootloader and run:

set console=vidconsole

but it fails and tells me there's no vidconsole, but efi and a few other options, none of which sound right.

I've also tried assigning the VGA console as the primary console in the GUI and although this setting is persistent after a reboot, it changes nothing.

Any help appreciated as I'm traveling more and more for work and I know I'll have a priority 1 incident if "the WiFi" fails while I'm away from home and my teens cannot watch TikTok etc..

stephenw10

It probably is an efi console. What does the menu entry say?

nielsjlarsen

@stephenw10

What menu entry do you mean?
In the boot options or in the web GUI?

I've tried using efi console, but it doesn't work.

stephenw10

I mean what does menu option 5 in the loader show when you select it?

SeaMonkey

@stephenw10 Thanks! I was suffering from the same issue.

nielsjlarsen

@stephenw10

When it boots it's set to serial regardless of the settings I've played with in loader.conf.local or in the console settings in the GUI.
I have to change that to video to be able to boot successfully.

stephenw10

So the menu shows option 5 as 'serial' and you press it to change to 'video' and then it boots correctly?

What do you have in loader.conf and loader.conf.local?

Steve

nielsjlarsen

@stephenw10

loader.conf

kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
kern.ipc.nmbclusters="1000000"
kern.ipc.nmbjumbop="524288"
kern.ipc.nmbjumbo9="524288"
opensolaris_load="YES"
zfs_load="YES"
kern.geom.label.gptid.enable="0"
kern.geom.label.disk_ident.enable="0"
autoboot_delay="3"
hw.hn.vf_transparent="0"
hw.hn.use_if_start="1"
net.link.ifqmaxlen="128"

There's no loader.conf.local at the moment.

stephenw10

@stephenw10 said in pfSense won't boot unless I manually interrupt the boot process and change the console to VGA:

So the menu shows option 5 as 'serial' and you press it to change to 'video' and then it boots correctly?

nielsjlarsen

@stephenw10

Correct

stephenw10

Do you see a console type option in the gui in Sys > Advanced > Admin Access?

You may have initially installed from the memstick serial image accidentally.

Steve

nielsjlarsen

@stephenw10

I do, and I have tried selecting VGA console as primary but it doesn't take effect.

Yes this was my concern after having spent many hours troubleshooting and trying various things, so I downloaded and installed the VGA memstick image (triple checked), but there's no difference.

stephenw10

Setting a value there should change what is in loader.conf, do you see that?

nielsjlarsen

@stephenw10

There's no difference in /boot/loader.conf when changing from VGA console to serial console (in System->
Advanced->Admin Access->Serial Communication) and back again.

stephenw10

Hmm, check in /conf. Do you have an enableserial_force file?

If you do what exactly is that hardware?

nielsjlarsen

@stephenw10

There's no enableserial_force file in /conf.

stephenw10

Hmm, setting that line to 'video' does exactly the same thing as using set console=vidconsole at the prompt. But you say only one of those things works which makes no sense.

What other console options do you have there? Is it a UEFI BIOS?

If it was booting as expected before losing power though it's possible you have some filesystem damage. The easiest thing here is [probably going to be reinstalling clean.

Steve

nielsjlarsen

@stephenw10

No other console options apart from serial and video.

Yes it's an UEFI BIOS.

This device has been running pfsense for a while and with earlier versions it worked fine after power loss. At some point after upgrading it broke. No idea in which version or when, but this is a clean 2.6 installation and it doesn't work for some reason.

stephenw10

Hmm, how much older was the previous installation? It might have been installed, and therefore booting, legacy and now the clean install is UEFI and failing.
You could try reinstalling as legacy BIOS.

Steve