pfsense , unable to resinstall

jgauthier

hi,
my pfsense crashed. It cannot boot anymore. I tried reinstall it with a usb stick. I’ve done this a couple of times without any issue. But now, the install fails.

I used UFS, entire disk. It shows the partition layout, i select ada0 and click the finish button, then i get an error « error mounting partition, file system is not clean».

i am stuck. No internet at home :(

Can i just wipe the disk and install fresh?

thanks

viragomann

@jgauthier
Yes, I would do a fresh installation with ZFS.

But you can also try to repair your filesystem: Troubleshooting Disk and Filesystem Issues

stephenw10

Yup try that ^ first.

If it still fails try cleaning the target disk:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/troubleshooting/multiple-disks.html#clear-the-disk

jgauthier

@stephenw10 i have read the article about Clear the disk, but i am not sure how to do this.

Must i boot from a usb media installer?
Could you guide me on the steps to completely erase my drive as fresh new?

thanks

stephenw10

Boot the installer then choose 'Rescue Shell' to reach a command prompt where those things can be run.

jgauthier

@stephenw10
just some clarification to what i did:

Auto UFS
-Partition <entire disk>
-ada0, finish, commit

Error mounting partition /mnt
… file system is not clean.

Isn’t the drive already deleted clean when we select <entire disk>? if so, why creating the new partition structure fails, i don’t get this. It looks like it doesn’t yet wipe the disk and can’t wipe the partition before creating the new partition structure.

I hope my ssd drive isn’t dead…

Does a fsck running in single user mode could really fix it or slim chances?

As soon as i get out of hospital, i’ll look at this and the rescue shell you pointed that.

thanks

jgauthier

@viragomann Do you believe that a ZFS install could overcome the issue that i have creating the UFS partition?

I never used zfs before, i am totally beginner on this. Do i have to go through complex settings or could i let everything as default?

Could i change it back to ufs by reinstalling if i ever needed?

thanks

viragomann

@jgauthier
I don't know any drawbacks with ZFS. However, it's more robust against power outages than UFS.

During the installation process you're asked for mirroring settings. Since you only have a single disk, select "stripe: 0 disks".

Look into the pfSense docs > ZFS for details.

stephenw10

Yup I would try ZFS since it will ignore any remaining UFS info on the drive.

jgauthier

@stephenw10 i am at a ZFS configuration screen where i need to choose between ada0 (my ssd drive) and label/swap0.

I have selected ada0 (i had chosen stripe prior). But when i confirm, i get a message: stripe:not enough disks selected. Any idea?

jgauthier

@jgauthier haha, i found it: spacebar on the disk to flag it before doing enter.

jgauthier

@viragomann @stephenw10

Guiding My wife on the phone going through the process of installing pfSense with ZFS step by step. When we reboot i get a bunch of gibberish messages including multiple « INCORRECT BLOCK COUNT » followed by a bunch and:

Filesystem marked clean
Filesystem was modified
error: impossible to mount file system…

Does it mean my ssd is failed and unrecoverable ?

Going back home tomorrow and will see whether i can manage something from the rescue shell, wipe the disk, but until then, was thinking you may have ideas.

I had ordered as a plan B, a new m2 drive if it is doomed.

thank you

stephenw10

Mmm, I'd want to see the actual logs but that doesn't sounds good. Could very well be a bad drive.

jgauthier

@stephenw10
i've managed to change the SSD for a new one and voilà! This was indeed a bad drive apparently. I've ran pfSense 24/7 for over 5 years, eventually SSD drives are not lasting forever...

So, i've installed it with ZFS and was reloaded my prior config automatically (my config.xml was on the USB installation media). Really snappy.

However, I run into something I have never seen before. My packages have not been reinstalled. When I go in PAckages/Available Packages, I see "Unable to retrieve package information".

I ran "pkg-static -d update" in command prompt. I can see I have multiple this error message: SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate.

Found a similar post and ran this: pkg-static upgrade -f pfSense-repoc
This fixed the problem!

thanks

stephenw10

There was an issue with the pkg server earlier today that may have come into play. Glad you got it fixed though.