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    Upgrade from 2.7.2 to 2.8.0 Failed and now /boot/efi/ empty

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      Try: df -hi /boot/efi

      You have a 200MB EFI partition but the filesystem on it may still be much smaller. That is what jimp's fix works past.

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        Sinfonia97 @stephenw10
        last edited by

        @stephenw10 The upgrade failed with the following error: 'failed insufficient space remaining for /boot/loader.efi', which is exactly why I was looking at jimp's fix. Only problem was, the install did a umount on /boot/efi just before I got that error. When it did that, it did not revert the umount so I have been trying to figure out exactly where mine should be mounted. Most posts refer to /boot/efi being mounted to /dev/msdosfs/EFISYS, which I don't have. Based on everything I have found, it looks like it should be mounted to /dev/ada0p1. Unfortunately when I do that I also notice that BOOTx64.efi is missing from that directory. I did find where I can replace that file with loader.efi and rename it.

        Before I proceed, I just want to make sure I have mounted the correct location to /boot/efi. When this problem first happened, I did run the df -hi /boot/efi and got the following reults:

        Filesystem                                         Size    Used   Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused  Mounted on
        /dev/gptid/ac11fbb1-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c    222G     18G    186G     9%     69k   30M    0%   /
        

        I have since temporarily performed a mount_msdosfs /dev/ada0p1 /boot/efi and when I run the same command I get

        Filesystem     Size    Used   Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused  Mounted on
        /dev/ada0p1    766K    1.5K    765K     0%       2   510    0%   /boot/efi
        

        Which according to information I have been able to find online in other forum posts would be correct for some installation, even potentially mine.

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        • P
          Patch @Sinfonia97
          last edited by

          My understanding is early pfsense installs created a smaller efi partition than is required for current versions of pfsense.

          @Sinfonia97 You may be able to patch your system to fix that but after which you are still going to have an edge case system.
          What else broke during the many updates and repair attempts?

          A clean install offers a more reliable solution.

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            Ah that's the issue. The partition is 200MB but the filesystem is only 766K! So that is the problem that jimps instructions should address. You should be able to copy out the EFI data, expand the filesystem to fill the partion then copy the it back.

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              Sinfonia97 @Patch
              last edited by

              @Patch I only attempted the upgrade once so nothing else broke. It was just the issue that jimp provided the fix for. Unfortunately his instructions were using /dev/msdosfs/EFISYS which my system does not have.

              I probably should have mentioned early on I am running bare metal on an old watchguard M500 with an upgraded CPU that was required for the future releases of PFSense.

              Here are my CPU stats in case anyone was wondering:

              CPU Type	Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-4130 CPU @ 3.40GHz
                              4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 2 core(s) x 2 hardware threads
                              AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (inactive)
                              QAT Crypto: No
              
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                Sinfonia97 @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10 That is exactly what I've been trying to do is the jimp fix. Unfortunately I am needing help that hopefully will confirm what I think is the directory that /boot/efi should be mounted to. Once I figure that out, I should be able to finish with jimp's instructions and correct the size problem and upgrade to 2.8.

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  It looks to be mounted correctly since you have the EFI dircetory structure there. As long as you also have the actual efi file(s) there:

                  [25.07-RC][admin@6100.stevew.lan]/root: du -ha /boot/efi
                  656K	/boot/efi/efi/freebsd/loader.efi
                  656K	/boot/efi/efi/freebsd/loader-old.efi
                  1.3M	/boot/efi/efi/freebsd
                  656K	/boot/efi/efi/boot/bootx64.efi
                  656K	/boot/efi/efi/boot/bootx64-old.efi
                  1.3M	/boot/efi/efi/boot
                  2.6M	/boot/efi/efi
                  2.6M	/boot/efi
                  
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                    Sinfonia97 @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 When I run that command I currently get the following:

                    512B	/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/STARTUP.NSH
                    1.0K	/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT
                    1.5K	/boot/efi/EFI
                    1.5K	/boot/efi
                    

                    When I look at the STARTUP.NSH file it references BOOTx64.efi. In my research for this issue I found that I should be able to replace the missing BOOTx64.efi file with a copied and renamed loader.efi from the /boot directory. Unfortunately I have not been able to verify that is true. It appears that typically PFSense uses the loader.efi, but my STARTUP.NSH file references BOOTx64.efi.

                    So this is where I am at currently. Need to verify if I can use a copy of loader.efi to replace my BOOTx64.efi. Also just need to make sure based on the information I have provided that /boot/efi is mounted to the correct directory. In my case I believe it should be /dev/adaop1. Only other location I would consider mounting it to would be /dev/msdosfs/EFI as that is close to what @jimp posted in his fix for the space issue.

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Hmm, without an efi binary there at all it will fail to boot. So don't reboot without copying back something!

                      I would say those files are indeed identical:

                      [25.07-RC][admin@6100.stevew.lan]/root: md5sum /boot/efi/efi/boot/bootx64.efi 
                      aa4529badf1fe88a5ca8941c04f144cb  /boot/efi/efi/boot/bootx64.efi
                      [25.07-RC][admin@6100.stevew.lan]/root: md5sum /boot/efi/efi/freebsd/loader.efi
                      aa4529badf1fe88a5ca8941c04f144cb  /boot/efi/efi/freebsd/loader.efi
                      [25.07-RC][admin@6100.stevew.lan]/root: md5sum /boot/loader.efi
                      aa4529badf1fe88a5ca8941c04f144cb  /boot/loader.efi
                      

                      So you should be able to copy that across

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                        Sinfonia97 @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10 Thank you, that's great to know. That takes care of one part. Now if I can verify that /dev/ada0p1 is the correct location to mount /boot/efi I will be able to finish following @jimp process.

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          The output of gpart list should confirm that. There will only be one EFI partition.

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                            Sinfonia97 @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10 Thanks again. I ran gpart list before and this is the output I received and why I figured /dev/ada01p was the correct location to mount /boot/efi. Let me know if you see the same thing:

                            Geom name: ada0
                            modified: false
                            state: OK
                            fwheads: 16
                            fwsectors: 63
                            last: 488397127
                            first: 40
                            entries: 128
                            scheme: GPT
                            Providers:
                            1. Name: ada0p1
                               Mediasize: 209715200 (200M)
                               Sectorsize: 512
                               Stripesize: 0
                               Stripeoffset: 20480
                               Mode: r1w1e2
                               efimedia: HD(1,GPT,ac1172b7-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c,0x28,0x64000)
                               rawuuid: ac1172b7-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c
                               rawtype: c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
                               label: (null)
                               length: 209715200
                               offset: 20480
                               type: efi
                               index: 1
                               end: 409639
                               start: 40
                            2. Name: ada0p2
                               Mediasize: 245677162496 (229G)
                               Sectorsize: 512
                               Stripesize: 0
                               Stripeoffset: 209735680
                               Mode: r1w1e2
                               efimedia: HD(2,GPT,ac11fbb1-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c,0x64028,0x1c99c000)
                               rawuuid: ac11fbb1-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c
                               rawtype: 516e7cb6-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b
                               label: (null)
                               length: 245677162496
                               offset: 209735680
                               type: freebsd-ufs
                               index: 2
                               end: 480247847
                               start: 409640
                            3. Name: ada0p3
                               Mediasize: 4172430848 (3.9G)
                               Sectorsize: 512
                               Stripesize: 0
                               Stripeoffset: 245886898176
                               Mode: r1w1e1
                               efimedia: HD(3,GPT,ac128803-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c,0x1ca00028,0x7c591f)
                               rawuuid: ac128803-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c
                               rawtype: 516e7cb5-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b
                               label: (null)
                               length: 4172430848
                               offset: 245886898176
                               type: freebsd-swap
                               index: 3
                               end: 488397126
                               start: 480247848
                            Consumers:
                            1. Name: ada0
                               Mediasize: 250059350016 (233G)
                               Sectorsize: 512
                               Mode: r3w3e8
                            

                            This was also before I did a temp mount of /boot/efi to /dev/ada0p1.

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                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Yup looks good.

                              Of course I'd still have a backup of the config etc! 😉

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                                Sinfonia97 @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10 Perfect, thank you again. I already created a backup before the botched upgrade, so I should be good there. May take another one just in case.

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                                • S
                                  Sinfonia97
                                  last edited by

                                  Wanted to provide an update on where I am at the moment. After finishing the steps from jimp I am now back to where I should have been before attempting the upgrade.

                                  Output from df -hi /boot/efi

                                  Filesystem     Size    Used   Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused  Mounted on
                                  /dev/ada0p1    197M    646K    196M     0%       0     0     -   /boot/efi
                                  

                                  Output from du -ha /boot/efi

                                  512B	/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/STARTUP.NSH
                                  644K	/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi
                                  645K	/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT
                                  645K	/boot/efi/EFI
                                  646K	/boot/efi
                                  

                                  Output from geom -t

                                  Geom                                                 Class      Provider
                                  ada0                                                 DISK       ada0
                                    ada0                                               DEV
                                    ada0                                               PART       ada0p1
                                      ada0p1                                           DEV
                                      msdosfs.ada0p1                                   VFS
                                    ada0                                               PART       ada0p2
                                      ada0p2                                           DEV
                                      ada0p2                                           LABEL      gptid/ac11fbb1-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c
                                        gptid/ac11fbb1-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c     DEV
                                        ffs.gptid/ac11fbb1-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c VFS
                                    ada0                                               PART       ada0p3
                                      ada0p3                                           DEV
                                      ada0p3                                           LABEL      gptid/ac128803-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c
                                        gptid/ac128803-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c     DEV
                                        swap                                           SWAP
                                  

                                  Output from gpart list

                                  Geom name: ada0
                                  modified: false
                                  state: OK
                                  fwheads: 16
                                  fwsectors: 63
                                  last: 488397127
                                  first: 40
                                  entries: 128
                                  scheme: GPT
                                  Providers:
                                  1. Name: ada0p1
                                     Mediasize: 209715200 (200M)
                                     Sectorsize: 512
                                     Stripesize: 0
                                     Stripeoffset: 20480
                                     Mode: r1w1e1
                                     efimedia: HD(1,GPT,ac1172b7-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c,0x28,0x64000)
                                     rawuuid: ac1172b7-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c
                                     rawtype: c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
                                     label: (null)
                                     length: 209715200
                                     offset: 20480
                                     type: efi
                                     index: 1
                                     end: 409639
                                     start: 40
                                  2. Name: ada0p2
                                     Mediasize: 245677162496 (229G)
                                     Sectorsize: 512
                                     Stripesize: 0
                                     Stripeoffset: 209735680
                                     Mode: r1w1e2
                                     efimedia: HD(2,GPT,ac11fbb1-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c,0x64028,0x1c99c000)
                                     rawuuid: ac11fbb1-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c
                                     rawtype: 516e7cb6-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b
                                     label: (null)
                                     length: 245677162496
                                     offset: 209735680
                                     type: freebsd-ufs
                                     index: 2
                                     end: 480247847
                                     start: 409640
                                  3. Name: ada0p3
                                     Mediasize: 4172430848 (3.9G)
                                     Sectorsize: 512
                                     Stripesize: 0
                                     Stripeoffset: 245886898176
                                     Mode: r1w1e1
                                     efimedia: HD(3,GPT,ac128803-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c,0x1ca00028,0x7c591f)
                                     rawuuid: ac128803-5651-11e8-b5a2-00907fd0950c
                                     rawtype: 516e7cb5-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b
                                     label: (null)
                                     length: 4172430848
                                     offset: 245886898176
                                     type: freebsd-swap
                                     index: 3
                                     end: 488397126
                                     start: 480247848
                                  Consumers:
                                  1. Name: ada0
                                     Mediasize: 250059350016 (233G)
                                     Sectorsize: 512
                                     Mode: r3w3e7
                                  

                                  I know the last 2 shouldn't have changed, which they didn't. Just wanted to put them in here to document the changes.

                                  Now I just need some time to try the upgrade again, and in case everything goes completely south I have time to rebuild.

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                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    Cool. Does it reboot successfully from there?

                                    S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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                                      Sinfonia97 @stephenw10
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10 Unfortunately I am going to have to wait till I can bring down the network to test. If I take it down now and it doesn't come back up I will be having some hell to pay from the family...lol. 😃

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