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    Pfsense Restore Results in Black Window Upon Boot

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • GertjanG
      Gertjan @Annie Gonzalez
      last edited by

      @annie-gonzalez said in Pfsense Restore Results in Black Window Upon Boot:

      problem

      What is your problem ?
      What did you not understand ?

      No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
      Edit : and where are the logs ??

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • R
        randychow2000 @Gertjan
        last edited by

        @gertjan
        Thank you for response. The version is 2.6.0 on old and new. The NIC’s are definitely different. I get the bios load, and then goes to black screen with blinking cursor. I disabled onboard NIC and no luck. Can’t do CSM mode as I have no video card riser board. I don’t get Pfsense or FreeBSD option to repair or go into single user mode. Just a black screen.

        J GertjanG 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • J
          Jarhead @randychow2000
          last edited by Jarhead

          @randychow2000 said in Pfsense Restore Results in Black Window Upon Boot:

          The NIC’s are definitely different.

          You will probably have to edit the config to show the new nic types.
          Boot up the new hardware with a default config.
          Go to Interfaces/Assignments and note the type of interfaces it has, ie em0, igb0 or whatever they are.

          Edit the config you're trying to import and change the old interface type with the new interface type.
          Then restore.

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          • GertjanG
            Gertjan @randychow2000
            last edited by Gertjan

            @randychow2000 said in Pfsense Restore Results in Black Window Upon Boot:

            Can’t do CSM mode as I have no video card riser board.

            Video ... or console (RS232 serial) = nearly the same thing.
            One of both is needed of course, and is not optional.

            Be ware of the difference here :

            02525d8d-d5f5-4511-8425-fac26e1c9040-image.png

            You have to Select the right one.
            If you chose "serial" and during boot the serial COM port can't be found, then everything goes black ....

            The BIOS not able to boot the drive means the errors are disk based.
            That is not something an import of a config.xml can do.
            At least, not that I know of.

            No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
            Edit : and where are the logs ??

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            • jimpJ jimp moved this topic from Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software on
            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Need to know exactly where in the boot process it stops to know more.

              But from your description it sounds like it's a bad console setting imported in the old config.

              What is the old device? Serial console?

              Steve

              R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • R
                randychow2000 @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10

                We always choose VGA. The Pfsense logo comes up, quickly scrolls through text and then black screen with blinking cursor. Thank you.

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  So it was installed with the VGA image?

                  And the config you imported had the video console set as primary?

                  It sounds exactly like the wrong console is set.

                  Steve

                  R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • R
                    randychow2000 @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10

                    Correct I only use VGA. This is about the 3rd time this has happened with 3 different customers. If the firewall was in production a long time, the higher chance this happens. Hope this helps. Thank you.

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Ah, so you have seen it on other hardware? Was that also after reinstalling and restoring the config?

                      Are you able to get a video of where it fails in the boot?

                      R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • R
                        randychow2000 @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10

                        Correct, I have seen this multiple times. I had to rebuild the unit, and re-configure OpenVPN on all users. Very annoying. It literally just loads pfsense and text very quickly, then flashes to the black screen. I get it on some 11th Gen and 12th Gen CPU setups. Even if it does work, the interface is laggy like crazy. I will try to video it tomorrow. Thank you.

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