[SOLVED] Unable to Install or Upgrade Packages

tman222

Still seeing all these errors as of this morning.

Found this thread on reddit where someone is experiencing similar issues:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/13rgo15/pfsense_2301_2305_upgrade_issues/

As suggested in that reddit thread, could this be an issue with the latest version of the pfsense-upgrade package?

For those also running into these errors - are you able to install or remove any packages? That is to say, is the issue only limited to upgrading existing packages?

SteveITS

@tman222 if someone is on 23.01 they need to change their update branch to Previous before installing any packages.

tman222

Thanks @SteveITS - that makes sense. My question was mainly aimed at those that had already upgraded 23.05 to see if the issues I'm seeing are limited just to package upgrades vs. including installs and removals.

I've gone through most of the relevant steps on this page, but unfortunately nothing has helped thus far:

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/troubleshooting/upgrades.html

If I can provide any additional information to try to help resolve these errors, please let me know.

tman222

I'm also unable to install new pfSense packages now (same set of errors as described above). I was able to install new packages immediately after upgrading to 23.05 earlier this week, so this breaking change must have occurred in the last couple of days. Have pfSense-upgrade, pkg, or pfSense-repo been updated recently (e.g. when a new package is released)?

SteveITS

@tman222 Just after upgrade (Tuesday night) I reinstalled pfBlocker. Just now I upgraded System Patches (which doesn't have any recommended for 23.05 yet), and installed and removed the Cron package to test. I have a 2100 at home. I tend to use it as a test before any of ours or our clients.

When I did the upgrade I did get a cert error for that, so IIRC I came back the next night, it wasn't showing 23.05 available, so I opened the Update/Update Settings page and clicked Save without making changes (still set to Current). After that it was fine.

tman222

@SteveITS - thanks for the follow up and confirming that things are working ok on your side. This is strange indeed. At this point I'm just about out of ideas - the one last thing I can think of is that there is maybe an issue with my registration for pfSense Plus. I'm going to look into this. Thanks again for all your help.

kburk

Last night I just did a full reinstall on my 6100 via console/USB and I'm no longer seeing this issue. While doing the install you can choose an option to Recover config.xml which makes the installation fairly quick. I would have liked to provide more troubleshooting details to figure out what was causing this, but I needed to get this working again so I can install packages again.

tman222

@kburk - thanks for following up and letting us know that a reinstall fixes this issue.

In my case I am running non-Netgate hardware so a direct reinstall of 23.05 is unfortunately not possible. I believe I'd have to start with 2.6 CE again, then go to 23.01 , and finally 23.05. I'd like to avoid that if possible, if there is another way to resolve this issue.

Dobby_

@tman222 said in Unable to Install or Upgrade Packages:

I'd like to avoid that if possible, if there is another way to resolve this issue.

If you have a config backup you may be better
to go with the fresh install, that way isn`t longer!!!

Fresh install 2.6 is may be around 15 minutes
plus two time upgrading then the 23.01 and
23.05 and at this point I would install packages
and the config backup all in all you will perhaps
end up with 30 minutes pending on the internet speed and system power (GHz). But then you may be getting "zfs" on top and will be false free ready
without any kind of errors shown around.

And tomorrow if something occurs is weekend.

tman222

This bring up one other idea - I do have ZFS snapshots including one from 23.01 taken prior to upgrading. Does it make sense to go back to a 23.01 snapshot and attempt the upgrade again to see if that might resolve the issue?

tman222

Ok, I was able to upgrade the package System Patches just fine from the shell using:

pkg-static install -yf pfSense-pkg-System_Patches

So the issue seems to be isolated to performing pfSense package upgrades/installs from the WebGUI.

tman222

Looking at the discussion here:

https://forum.netgate.com/topic/180271/23-01-23-05-upgrade-failed/50

Could one solution be registering / re-registering the machine for pfSense Plus?

dmitri

@tman222 I've tried that (re-registering with my old token) a few times and that didn't solve my problem. Unless we need to get a new token? When I register the system with the old token the system seems to accept it without errors.

I'm on the 23.05 RC version, trying to upgrade to the latest 23.05 RELEASE.

tman222

Thanks @dmitri for the feedback, this is helpful. If you have to chance to try it out, I would get a new token as well, register, and see if the issue still persists. Interestingly, for me the issue didn't appear until after I had upgraded to 23.05 from 23.01.

dmitri

@tman222 YEP! That solved my issue! I got a new key and after registration, I was able to see all the available packages and upgrade to the current 23.05 RELEASE. I've completed the upgrade and everything seems to be running smoothly.

Netgate should mention that somewhere on the upgrade troubleshooting page.

tman222

Thanks @dmitri for following up - this is great to hear! I think we are getting closer to a solution now. Hopefully all it takes to resolve these errors is just a new pfSense Plus activation token vs. having to perform a complete reinstall.

Zetro

@tman222 I am having the identical issue, and a re-activation of my token did not resolve it.

When trying to remove, or reinstall a package (in this case, NUT) I receive the same error that you get:

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

and then I also receive the same error in my System Log:

/pkg_mgr_installed.php: The command '/usr/local/sbin/pfSense-repo-setup' returned exit code '1', the output was 'pfSense-repoc-static: invalid signature failed to read the repo data. failed to update the repository settings!!!'

This is a net-new issue that cropped up after upgrading from 23.01 to 23.05 this weekend.

I have yet to find a workaround, I am hoping to avoid a reinstall if possible.

tman222

Hi @Zetro - when you re-activated your token, did you use an existing token or did you get a new token? If existing, do the issues/error still occur if you activate with a new token? Thanks in advance.

dmitri

@Zetro just to confirm: when you go to System > Register the box to enter your key is greyed-out and you cannot enter the new key?

In my case my old key was getting accepted without errors, but wouldn’t solve the problem, and the box remained active. However, when I ordered and got the new key and entered it, the box is no longer active and my issues have been resolved.

delphin_007

My 6100 has an issue looking similar to what tman22 described.
I contacted Netgate service and we had several mail traffic. Now they seem to come close to reason for problem.
They are working at solution.
Update is coming soon.