Attempting to update to 23.01 DEVEL corrupts my pfSense installation

stephenw10

No that's not the Redmine entry for this. Let me see if there's an update yet....

gabacho4

@stephenw10 that’d be great! Is there a redmine entry for this issue?

stephenw10

Only internally right now. Let me see...

cloudroot

Trying to upgrade from 22.09 -> 23.01.a.20221205.0600 failing:

ERROR: It was not possible to determine pkg remote version
__RC=1 __REBOOT_AFTER=10
ERROR: It was not possible to determine pkg remote version
__RC=1 __REBOOT_AFTER=10
>>> Updating repositories metadata... 
pkg-static: Unable to open '/usr/local/etc/pkg/repos//pfSense.conf':No such file or directory
No active remote repositories configured.
>>> Locking package pkg... done.
ERROR: It was not possible to determine pfSense-upgrade remote version
>>> Unlocking package pkg... done.
__RC=1 __REBOOT_AFTER=10
ERROR: It was not possible to determine pfSense-upgrade remote version
__RC=1 __REBOOT_AFTER=10
>>> Upgrading pfSense-upgrade... failed.

gabacho4

@cloudroot yeah that’s the same issue. Guess it still hasn’t been fixed.

stephenw10

Indeed, I'm still hitting it this morning. Bug link incoming....

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/13724

Viper_Rus

Is there already a solution to the problem of restoring normal functioning after such an unsuccessful update?

gabacho4

@viper_rus reinstall 22.05 unfortunately. Maybe there is some sort of recovery install one can do that I haven’t taken time to learn. If not, hope you have a backup of your config. you may be able to recover the xml when you reinstall but I’d read the documentation for how to do that.

Viper_Rus

@gabacho4
Understood. Thanks for the answer. I hope the developers will write later how this can be fixed by completely saving the settings, because. the backup before the update attempt is quite old

gabacho4

@viper_rus probably best not to run snapshots (basically an alpha product) on a production device or without making sure you have a very current backup or 50.

gabacho4

@viper_rus I’d try the recover config option as explained here:

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/backup/restore-during-install.html

tedquade

@viper_rus From the dashboard go to:

Diagnostics > Backup & Restore

Under "Backup Configuration" select "Download configuration as XML"

You now have a backup of the current configuration.

Ted Quade

stephenw10

You can force it to complete the upgrade by commenting lines 720 & 721 in /usr/local/libexec/pfSense-upgrade
And then manually replacing the symlink to the static repos location:

[22.05-RELEASE][root@plusdev-3.stevew.lan]/usr/local/libexec: rm /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/pfSense.conf 
[22.05-RELEASE][root@plusdev-3.stevew.lan]/usr/local/libexec: ln /usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos/pfSense-repo-devel.conf /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/pfSense.conf

But it's hard to recommend you do that.

Steve

cloudroot

22.09 -> 23.01.a.20221206.0600 fails as well.
Going to try StephenW's suggestion, for giggles and curiosity. (ZFS snapshots are soooo handy here)

Edit/Update:
Trying the workaround.. Same error message even after reboot

Another instance of pfSense-upgrade is running.  Try again later

Maybe because I'm trying from 22.09, and not 22.05 as in example?

gabacho4

@stephenw10 thanks for providing the dirty fix. I would argue that you already have a daring group of people wiling to test the snapshots and deal with issues that may pose. Don’t think anyone will complain about the fix you’ve proposed. Really appreciate your willingly to give us something so that we can move forward.

gabacho4

@cloudroot I’d forgotten about the snapshots!!!! That’s a great idea!

stephenw10

Yes rolling back using BE is always an option. It works well between 22.05 and 23.01.

It doesn't work between 22.05 and 22.01, should you find yourself trying that!

Steve

Viper_Rus

Thanks to all. Fixed it like this: Saved the settings without packages. Deployed the old 22.05 image that I received immediately after the update from 2.6. Restored settings. Downloaded and configured the missing packages. If I tried to recover with package settings, I got a broken system. Now everything is ok.

cloudroot

22.09 -> 23.01.a.20221207.0600: Failed with

Another instance of pfSense-upgrade is running.  Try again later

But it did take longer for this to appear than the previous error (pfSense.conf).

Edit:
Let me know if the upgrade path from 22.09 is considered irrelevant. And I'll stop reporting on it.

stephenw10

It is, it's an obsolete path. Because the 22.09 public snapshots were built on FreeBSD 12 the upgrade to 23.01 requires an ABI change. But since both were considered the same branch a the time the upgrade system doesn't see that. So coming from 22.09 will always require some manual intervention.

Steve