Web GUI blank page

wolfsden3

I saw a post about this in 2014 but nobody replied. After an upgrade to 2.7 a web gui on one of our CE boxes loads a blank page. I'm not sure where to start or why this is happening. I thought I'd wait until the next upgrade and upgrade it via the CLI options. 2.7.1 came out > I upgraded > it rebooted and the same thing is happening.

No web gui login page.

Might anyone have insight on how to reinstall some of those components? nginx, php-fpm, etc? I really don't know what's going on. I supposed I could reload a backup config but I don't think it's the config that's the problem. Everything that was setup seems to be working like openvpn, snort, pfblockerng, etc I just can't login to the web gui because it's blank.

Thanks!

Gertjan

@wolfsden3

When updating & upgrading, start by checking : Does the console access work ?
This access, for a router / firewall isn't some sort of gadget but actually the most important access on the system.
Because : what if there is a network card driver issue ? The GUI will be the first thing to 'not work' anymore.

The console offers you to see the boot process, and you'll see errors (these log lines will use the word "error" ^^).
You can even restart 'PHP' or the web server.
Inspect a log file.

@wolfsden3 said in Web GUI blank page:

I supposed I could reload a backup config but I don't think it's the config that's the problem

It's always the (your) config - or hardware.
The ISO we use to install pfSense is the same for everybody.

True : you could be using a NIC that has flaws.
True : your disk starts to fade away fast and the file system is about to go down.
These are issues that you would see when looking at the boot process using the console.

About the web server, use this command :

cat /var/log/nginx.log

to see what the web servers says when its starting.
(use menu option 8 on the console).

So, tell us what went wrong, I'll guarantee you that answers and solutions will come in fast.

SteveITS

@wolfsden3 A blank page on a PHP site is usually a PHP parsing error. IIRC that's in /var/log/system.log in pfSense.

It may just be easier to install 2.7.1 clean and restore your config file from backup, then you have a known good/clean state.

wolfsden3

Turns out the nginx config dir was corrupted.

I copied over the dir from a known good > restarted web configurator and php-fpm > good to go!

/usr/local/etc/nginx

Doing an: nginx -t

...revealed that the test "failed". That prompted me to look at the nginx config files which is when I discovered they were borked!

Thanks!

Gertjan

@wolfsden3 said in Web GUI blank page:

Doing an: nginx -t

shows

[23.09-RELEASE][root@pfSense.bhf.tld]/root: nginx -t
nginx: the configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

and that's not the nginx.conf that's being used by pfSense/nginx.
The actual config file is here : /var/etc/nginx-webConfigurator.conf

So :

[23.09-RELEASE][root@pfSense.bhf.tld]/root: nginx -c /var/etc/nginx-webConfigurator.conf -t
nginx: the configuration file /var/etc/nginx-webConfigurator.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /var/etc/nginx-webConfigurator.conf test is successful

The folder /usr/local/etc/nginx/ contains some config files that are placed there when you install pfSense, and never 'touched' again. I'm not sure that they are even needed.

The system, pfSense, never modifies the content of this folder, so if the content, any file, was changed, start doubting about the health of the file system == disk all together.

Use "Diagnostics > S.M.A.R.T. Status Information & Tests" a bit more often from now on.