Not wanted autmatic config restore

blex

Hi,

I have two pfSense installations. Bot show the error. Both have been Updated from 2.6.0 to 2.7.0. Both have an installation with zfs.
Everytime I assign an interface oder delete an interface assignment or set an IP to an interface. (and other actions) the system comes up with a notification at the right top side.

Set settings then are reverted. All packages are up to date. There a no special packages installed then haproxy and frr.
Did anyone else experience this problem. I found one post from 2015 with the same symptom but I think that is outdated.

stephenw10

It only does that if for some reason the config that was created is invalid and cannot be read.

Does it always restore the same config version?

Is there anything shown in the system log?

Steve

blex

Hi,

after your hint I did a little bit deepers in the syslog and found the following

<35>1 2023-09-05T14:12:05.520085+02:00 fwint1.XXX.local php-fpm 97512 - - /rc.filter_synchronize: Beginning XMLRPC sync data to https://10.10.52.5:443/xmlrpc.php.
<11>1 2023-09-05T14:12:06.291150+02:00 fwint1.XXX.local php 78651 - - /usr/local/sbin/acbupload.php: End of configuration backup to https://acb.netgate.com/save (success).
<35>1 2023-09-05T14:12:08.323803+02:00 fwint1.XXX.local php-fpm 97512 - - /rc.filter_synchronize: XMLRPC reload data success with https://10.10.52.5:443/xmlrpc.php (pfsense.restore_config_section).
<35>1 2023-09-05T14:12:13.090749+02:00 fwint1.XXX.local php-fpm 74866 - - /system_certmanager.php: Configuration Change: XXXXX@192.168.X.YYY (Local Database): Deleted certificate XXXXXXX-XXXX
<35>1 2023-09-05T14:12:13.091081+02:00 fwint1.XXX.local php-fpm 74866 - - /system_certmanager.php: XML error: Undeclared entity error at line 19 in /conf/config.xml
<35>1 2023-09-05T14:12:13.091089+02:00 fwint1.XXX.local php-fpm 74866 - -

The "XXX" has been added for anonymisation. I think the key ist error at line 19

As you can see line 19 ist a comment. That was already there bevore the upgrade vom 2.6.0 to 2.7.0.

blex

I thing I found the a bug which comes with version 2.7.0

I tryed changing the description on the group and this was the result.
A second try only to change "für" to "for" in the description of the group resulted in:

so it is related to special character encoding in the comments of a group name. And yes the same config was restored. Now comes the big Question how to get rid? Export the config.xml change it an reimport it?

-fpm 74866 - - /system_groupmanager.php: XML error: Undeclared entity error at line 27 in /conf/config.xml
-fpm 74866 - -
-fpm 74866 - - /system_groupmanager.php: pfSense is restoring the configuration /cf/conf/backup/config-1694003119.xml

So this is not the only place. This error is the same ü in a user description. I think the handler for html commented encoding in description is total broke.

blex

Update: FIXED / Reproduced the BUG!

I downloaded the config.xml. Replace all ü with ue and the relvant for ö, ä imported the changed config.xml and the firewall rebootet.
Now I'm able to change the description of the group and the config will not reverted / restored.

Bug has been reported: Bug #14757

stephenw10

Nice catch.

Yes, exporting and manually removing that from the config should correct it.