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    Fatal Error Unable to create lock file: No space left on device

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
    18 Posts 8 Posters 2.4k Views
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    • S
      SteveITS Galactic Empire @jlrobinson2171
      last edited by

      @jlrobinson2171 Delete some of those, for instance the 2022 and 2023 ones.

      bectl destroy default_20240426094800

      or auto-default-20230628094454, etc.

      If it isn't a 2100 max then it's only an 8 GB disk.

      Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
      When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
      Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

      J S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by stephenw10

        Yup I would delete those first two BEs and then reboot.

        The 2022 BE is the one marked for next boot though so I would not delete that.

        If it still fails you can try activating the most recent BE (2024-04-07). That is probably the one created at the last upgrade/attempt.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • J
          jlrobinson2171 @SteveITS
          last edited by

          @SteveITS and @stephenw10

          Thank you for your assistance. After removing just one, I was able to reboot and log back in.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • B
            Barbapappa
            last edited by

            Found this through Google after I ran into the same issue with my SG-2100. Managed to resolve by following the instructions here, thanks!

            Maybe the installer should do a check for sufficient space before continuing and when necessary provide an option to cleanup old instances to prevent this happening in the future?

            B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • B
              Barbapappa @Barbapappa
              last edited by

              Edit: ah I see that this has already been suggested in other topics (1 2

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • S
                soportemk @SteveITS
                last edited by

                @SteveITS Thank you very much for the response. You rescued us.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • F
                  FoolCoconut
                  last edited by

                  4100 - Upgraded from 24.03 to 24.11 - whole network died, really fascinating how there's no automatic check to see if there's fucking free space before committing to an update/reboot??

                  GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Were you running ZFS? If drive space was exhausted it would usually just fail to complete the update before the reboot. But in some edge case it would fail to complete the boot check and just roll back to the last good BE.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • GertjanG
                      Gertjan @FoolCoconut
                      last edited by

                      @FoolCoconut said in Fatal Error Unable to create lock file: No space left on device:

                      really fascinating how there's no automatic check to see if there's fucking free space before committing to an update/reboot??

                      That's part of the admin's job :

                      • Have a backup of (pfSense) config file ?
                      • Disk space looks good ?
                      • A manual reboot has been executed to handle all outstanding file system issues ?
                        and also :
                      • The USB key with the actual firmware is in good state ?
                      • If something goes wrong, do I have enough spare time in front of me ?
                      • Do I have a spare and working Internet access method ?
                      • .....

                      Very IMHO of course.
                      The same list is also valid for your coffee machine, car, alarm, NAS, printer and even phone.
                      After all, it's ok to trust yourself.
                      Just don't trust your hardware. Things break all the time. Discovering an issue during a update/upgrade boils down to : bye bye the disk, your data, at best.

                      If you positively checked all these items, you're good to go.
                      Checking the list : 5 minutes or so ?
                      And remember, Murphy's law applies : if you have checked them all, you'll probably need use them. The other way around also applies ^^

                      No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                      Edit : and where are the logs ??

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        To be fair here pfSense's handling of filled disks has never been good. But the new ZFS upgrade process is way better in that respect.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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