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    Using "find /" brings pfSense down

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • N
      NickJH @NickJH
      last edited by

      @NickJH Hmm. This is my gateway but pfSense only have an online installer. With some searching, I've found a link to the old offline installer - https://forum.netgate.com/topic/188105/ce-edition-download/9. I hope it is good.

      Could I install onto another system and copy the corrupt files across? I am not sure it is very safe to do that.

      patient0P S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • patient0P
        patient0 @NickJH
        last edited by

        @NickJH said in Using "find /" brings pfSense down:

        With some searching, I've found a link to the old offline installer - https://forum.netgate.com/topic/188105/ce-edition-download/9. I hope it is good.

        They are still good, the offline 2.7.2 installer, yes.

        Could I install onto another system and copy the corrupt files across?

        A reinstall with the offline installer will be faster I'd assume then copying file over from another installation (never tried that).

        Have you had power cuts or multiple forced reboot? If yes, then that is a reason why the file system gets corrupted.
        If no then you really have to low-level check of the SSD.

        N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • N
          NickJH @patient0
          last edited by

          @patient0 I have had multiple forced reboots. I am using a Chinese N100 system, but I don't know how relevant that is. I have just changed from Static to DHCP and that didn't go well yesterday. I did a few hard resets in order to try to get online, but I think I had the problem before that. Some of the hard resets hung and had to be reset again.

          What is the best way of doing a low level check of the SSD (mSATA)? A long SMART test?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            SteveITS Galactic Empire @NickJH
            last edited by

            @NickJH FYI in the online installer one configures WAN and it downloads what it needs.

            If you think the disk is fine I’d reinstall. However I’d also check for memory problems because it sounds like the data on disk was corrupted somehow.

            As https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/troubleshooting/filesystem-check.html notes there isn’t a file system repair for ZFS as it’s not typically needed.

            If pfSense is running it has SMART tests in https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/monitoring/status/smart.html.

            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!

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            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Yeah that does seem like a drive issue to me, find should never lock like that. Or take very long at all:

              [2.7.2-RELEASE][admin@cedev-3.stevew.lan]/root: time find / -name config-pfSense.howitts.co.uk-20250317222358.xml
              0.029u 0.313s 0:00.95 34.7%	39+184k 3143+0io 2pf+0w
              
              N 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • N
                NickJH @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10 Thanks.

                The long SMART test was clean, so, once my son is back at school next week, I'll try a reinstall, bootstrapping it with my latest config.xml - https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/backup/restore-during-install.html.

                When I take it down I'll check the seating of the mSATA before reloading the software. If it fails again, I'll look at replacing the disk.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • N
                  NickJH @stephenw10
                  last edited by NickJH

                  @stephenw10 A reload of the firewall seems to have done the trick. Now finds are fast.

                  One thing. The reload failed to restore the config, perhaps because I removed the USB pen too early, so I rebooted with the config in /config/config.xml and that restored fine. I then removed the USB pen and pfSense crashed. I could not find the USB pen mounted anywhere so I'd have thought it safe to remove, but it seems I was wrong. What should I have done to remove it correctly?

                  [edit]
                  Found it. usbconfig
                  I was used to the Linux way of working.
                  [/edit]

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Hmm, odd. Normally it would not be mounted. And even if it was it shouldn't really care unless it was actually running from USB.

                    N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • N
                      NickJH @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10 I wonder if it was me putting the router back into place which disturbed something rather than removing the USB. I only noticed when I went back downstairs. A mystery and I don't want to try repeating it.

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

                        If it ain't broke....

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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