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    "Boot loader is too old. Please upgrade" in console after upgrading to 2.8.0

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
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    • F
      Finger79 @jimp
      last edited by

      @jimp said in "Boot loader is too old. Please upgrade" in console after upgrading to 2.8.0:

      The upgrade process tries to update the boot loader but there are some edge cases where it can't do so properly/fully.

      One thing to check is if you have multiple disks in the system. If there are multiple disks and pfSense is installed on both of them it could be using the boot loader from one disk but the kernel from a different disk.

      The fix in that case is to wipe the old/unused disk and/or make sure the EFI/BIOS is booting from the correct disk.

      https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/troubleshooting/multiple-disks.html

      You can manually update the loader as well but doing so varies based on your install specifics. For example if it's GPT or MBR, BIOS or EFI, if it has an older or newer style EFI partition, and more.

      Just one disk, an SSD. This is a simple baremetal install. Pretty sure it's GPT and EFI. Secure boot is disabled until FreeBSD supports it or pfSense rebases off Linux.

      Only thing I can think of is I'm using GELI for FDE, but I don't believe it was a problem upgrading from 2.6.x to 2.7.0 and then to 2.7.1 and 2.7.2.

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

        That's almost certainly it. The code to update the bootloader is new, it wouldn't have run at previous updates.

        F 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • F
          Finger79 @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10 said in "Boot loader is too old. Please upgrade" in console after upgrading to 2.8.0:

          That's almost certainly it. The code to update the bootloader is new, it wouldn't have run at previous updates.

          How do I fix this without a full reinstall?

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

            If you try running install-boot manually what error is returned?

            [2.8.0-RELEASE][admin@cedev-2.stevew.lan]/root: install-boot 
            System Configuration
            
            Architecture: amd64
            Boot Devices: /dev/ada0
                          /dev/ada1
             Boot Method: uefi
              Filesystem: zfs
                Platform: QEMU Guest
            
            Proced with updating boot code? [y/N]: y
            
            Updating boot code...
            
            /usr/local/sbin/../libexec/install-boot.sh -b auto -f zfs -s gpt -u ada1
            gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 2 ada1
            partcode written to ada1p2
            bootcode written to ada1
            ESP /dev/ada1p1 mounted on /tmp/stand-test.7soQsf
            263440KB space remaining on ESP: renaming old bootx64.efi file /efi/boot/bootx64.efi /efi/boot/bootx64-old.efi
            263440KB space remaining on ESP: renaming old loader.efi file /etc/freebsd/loader.efi /etc/freebsd/loader-old.efi
            Copying loader.efi to /EFI/freebsd on ESP
            Creating UEFI boot entry for FreeBSD
            Marking UEFI boot entry 0008 active
            Copying bootx64.efi to /efi/boot on ESP
            Unmounting and cleaning up temporary mount point
            Finished updating ESP
            
            /usr/local/sbin/../libexec/install-boot.sh -b auto -f zfs -s gpt -u ada0
            gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 2 ada0
            partcode written to ada0p2
            bootcode written to ada0
            ESP /dev/ada0p1 mounted on /tmp/stand-test.MURwDh
            263472KB space remaining on ESP: renaming old bootx64.efi file /efi/boot/bootx64.efi /efi/boot/bootx64-old.efi
            263472KB space remaining on ESP: renaming old loader.efi file /etc/freebsd/loader.efi /etc/freebsd/loader-old.efi
            Copying loader.efi to /EFI/freebsd on ESP
            Existing UEFI FreeBSD boot entry found: not creating a new one
            Copying bootx64.efi to /efi/boot on ESP
            Unmounting and cleaning up temporary mount point
            Finished updating ESP
            
            Done.
            
            F 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • F
              Finger79 @stephenw10
              last edited by Finger79

              @stephenw10

              System Configuration
              
              Architecture: amd64
              Boot Devices: Unable
                            to
                            locate
                            boot
                            devices
               Boot Method: uefi
                Filesystem: zfs
                  Platform: unknown hardware
              
              

              I said "no" when asked to proceed, since I'm not prepared for downtime in case it fails. This is currently my only production router/firewall.

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

                Ok interesting, It can't do anything if it doesn't see the boot device anyway.

                How does the encrypted boot disk appear in /dev or in the boot logs?

                The correct fix here would be to fix the bootloader updater so it knows about encrypted drives. We'll have to look into how difficult that might be.

                F 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • F
                  Finger79 @stephenw10
                  last edited by Finger79

                  @stephenw10 said in "Boot loader is too old. Please upgrade" in console after upgrading to 2.8.0:

                  Ok interesting, It can't do anything if it doesn't see the boot device anyway.

                  How does the encrypted boot disk appear in /dev or in the boot logs?

                  The correct fix here would be to fix the bootloader updater so it knows about encrypted drives. We'll have to look into how difficult that might be.

                  [2.8.0-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.home.internal]/dev: ls -l
                  total 3
                  crw-rw-r--  1 root operator 0x2f Jun 15 00:18 acpi
                  crw-r-----  1 root operator 0x73 Jun 15 00:18 ada0
                  crw-r-----  1 root operator 0x74 Jun 15 00:18 ada0p1
                  crw-r-----  1 root operator 0x75 Jun 15 00:18 ada0p2
                  crw-r-----  1 root operator 0x78 Jun 15 00:18 ada0p2.eli
                  crw-rw-r--  1 root operator 0x31 Jun 15 00:18 apm
                  crw-rw----  1 root operator 0x30 Jun 15 00:18 apmctl
                  crw-------  1 root wheel    0x39 Jun 15 00:18 atkbd0
                  
                  

                  (That's obviously a partial output of ls-l. There's a couple more pages, but that's all for ada*)

                  pfSense Disks.JPG

                  Do either of these help answer your question?

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

                    Yes, that the disks still appear as adaX but one partition is different. What does gpart list show?

                    F 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • F
                      Finger79 @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      [2.8.0-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.home.internal]/root: gpart list
                      Geom name: ada0
                      modified: false
                      state: OK
                      fwheads: 16
                      fwsectors: 63
                      last: 250069639
                      first: 40
                      entries: 128
                      scheme: GPT
                      Providers:
                      1. Name: ada0p1
                         Mediasize: 272629760 (260M)
                         Sectorsize: 512
                         Stripesize: 0
                         Stripeoffset: 20480
                         Mode: r1w1e2
                         efimedia: HD(1,GPT,[uuid1],0x28,0x82000)
                         rawuuid: [uuid1]
                         rawtype: [is this sensitive?]
                         label: efiboot0
                         length: 272629760
                         offset: 20480
                         type: efi
                         index: 1
                         end: 532519
                         start: 40
                      2. Name: ada0p2
                         Mediasize: 127761645568 (119G)
                         Sectorsize: 512
                         Stripesize: 0
                         Stripeoffset: 273678336
                         Mode: r1w1e1
                         efimedia: HD(2,GPT,[uuid2],0x82800,0xedf9800)
                         rawuuid: [uuid2]
                         rawtype: [is this sensitive?]
                         label: zfs0
                         length: 127761645568
                         offset: 273678336
                         type: freebsd-zfs
                         index: 2
                         end: 250068991
                         start: 534528
                      Consumers:
                      1. Name: ada0
                         Mediasize: 128035676160 (119G)
                         Sectorsize: 512
                         Mode: r2w2e5
                      
                      
                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        Ah, OK. It doesn't expose the boot partition via GEOM. That's why the script shows it can't find it.

                        OK lets see what we can do here....

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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