Upgrade from 2.4.5 to 2.6 failed: Is remote re-install possible?

DANgerous25

Shorter question:

Is it possible to do a re-install remotely? I have physical access to the device, so can use a USB drive, but I can't get a screen/keyboard to it. I presume that I could use recovery.xml if I could somehow boot it through the install process non-interactively?

Background problem:

I've attempted to upgrade from 2.4.5 to 2.6 using the web console. The process fails after fetching all the packages with this error message.

...
[216/216] Fetching libuv-1.42.0.pkg: 100%  117 KiB 119.7kB/s    00:01
Checking integrity...Assertion failed: (strcmp(uid, p->uid) != 0), function pkg_conflicts_check_local_path, file pkg_jobs_conflicts.c, line 386.
Child process pid=81834 terminated abnormally: Abort trap

I have the exact same problems as the person in this post. That person did a re-install to get around the error above, plus the additional error:

[2.4.5-RELEASE][myuser@mydomain]/root: pkg check -s -a
Shared object "libarchive.so.7" not found, required by "pkg"

I didn't find a successful way to solve either problem, other than a clean re-install. However every other re-install case I found wasn't a remote one.

Thanks in advance for your help.

bingo600

@dangerous25
I have not heard about a non-interactive install , as the disklayout has to be specified interctively.

What i have done is to use the "serial install image" , and have a "remote user" setup a "Teamviewer pc w. WiFi & USB->RS232 converter" on a "Mobile Data (Phone as Wifi hotspot) " connection , and then install that way.
Teamviewer to Remote PC , Putty on Remote PC to pfSense Comport (Null modem cable).

The PC should be able to "default" boot from the USB media (pfSense Stick), in order for this to succeed.

My Qotoms can reroute Bios output to comport ..
So i can even set USB Boot in Bios via Comport.

But if it's set to Boot first from USB (then hdd) , then you wouldn't need the remote bios access.

Ps: Some of the pfSense Boot "Character graphics" is a bit garbled , and some thing is written twice (echo on) , but none of the important stuff is garbled ......

I used Putty VT100 emul , not ANSI , else i had keybord arrow issues.

/Bingo

DANgerous25

@bingo600 thank you for the suggestion, seems like a smart approach. I don't have a remote PC or null modem cable so this wouldn't work for me [without some significant effort]. Unless I've really misunderstood what you are suggesting -> are you suggesting this can all be done virtually without cables?

Cool_Corona

@dangerous25 If you run it virtual, use the VM Console to install and recover via your config backup.

DANgerous25

@cool_corona it's physical in this case, in a cabinet that I can access but there's no screen (or no portable screen) that I can use.

DANgerous25

I didn't manage to solve the upgrade issue, but I did manage to get to the device with a small portable screen and keyboard. So in the end, I did a clean install (using the existing config.xml to restore) and upgraded that way.

With a screen, keyboard and 2.6-loaded thumb drive, the install was a piece of cake.