Update or Fresh install of 25.07 causes HP ProLiant DL20 Gen9 to Reboot after PFSense Menu
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@stephenw10 I pulled the G10 and it's here on my bench, is there anyway to recover it enough to boot and try the update?
Also if I license up this G9 I am testing on, and have the slick the install a few times while we debug this, is it any problem with the re-installs?
Just trying to make sure I am not tossing $$ in the trash, as I know I can't bill my client for a half dozen installs..
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@stephenw10 Our production firewall is running pfSense+. I downloaded a fresh copy of Netgate-Installer from Netgate Store ( it was 1.0RC1 from 2024). Now there is a fresh install (2.8beta) installed to our spare server (Proliant DL360 G9) and it goes boot loop also. This time I took a video.
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@NG Yes, that is exactly what I am seeing happening on both a G9 and a G10 server..
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@WB3FFV said in Update or Fresh install of 25.07 causes HP ProLiant DL20 Gen9 to Reboot after PFSense Menu:
I pulled the G10 and it's here on my bench, is there anyway to recover it enough to boot and try the update?
It's just doing the boop loop currently? If it's running Plus and ZFS you should be able to select a different BE to boot into from the loader menu there.
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@stephenw10 Is there a procedure for doing this? I can't say I have done a lot of work in the boot loader..
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@WB3FFV have a look at pfSense+: Selecting Boot Environments in the Loader Menu.
In the boot menu, press 8 and there you can select which ZFS snapshot to boot from.
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@patient0 Not sure if I used ZFS or not, as the HP has a built in RAID controller for the SAS drives. Will take a look when I get a free moment and try it.
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@patient0 Nothing under Option 8, so guess not. I did see option 6 where I could boot old, it worked but put me on 23.x of PF+., and it couldn't see any of the update archives it appears. I tried to tell it to boot into 24.x and it just hangs.
The fact it mentions a video resolution in the error, I am guessing it's unhappy with HP's video setup.
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@WB3FFV Once updated to 25.07, I was able to recover by selecting older kernel then selected an image that previous worked. But then I tried to update again, and it made the system unusable had to reinstall. On reinstall, I tried to install 25.07, and it still fails to boot. I then restarted the update, but this time I selected a previous version, and now that system is once again operational.
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In a UFS install you can choose to boot the previous kernel but it will still be in the new updated filesystem. So you would expect to see some things non-funtional.
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@stephenw10 Understood, and as the HP had a RAID controller built in, I am sure I stayed with UFS. Actually it might have been loaded before ZFS became the default.
I was trying to get to the .1 update you mentioned before, but booting the old kernel seems to prevent that, and of course booting the current kernel results in a boot failure, so makes it a fail..
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Yeah the benefit of snapshot boot environments in ZFS is significant. I usually recommend using ZFS against the drives directly if it's possible these days.
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Can we assume these boxes still boot fine if you boot in legacy mode?
As far as I know this is a UEFI loader problem.
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@stephenw10 You know, I am not sure. I will take the CE load I have, kill it, and load it as BIOS instead of UEFI, just UEFI is the default..
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Well I took and reloaded the DL360 G9 server, and walked through the upgrades. I set it to BIOS mode vs UEFI, and was able to go all the way to 2.8.1 beta and it booted and ran fine. So guessing the assumption this is a UEFI issue is correct.
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@stephenw10 The million dollar question is, should load modern servers in BIOS or UEFI mode? I assumed now days UEFI was an improvement and the preferred method, but maybe not..
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I would like to know that too
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It should work in UEFI mode and everything vaguely modern should be using that. But that confirms it's the same issue we're looking at and not something new.
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@stephenw10 Sounds like at the moment, if you use an HP server in UEFI mode, don't update to the new release, or it's going to break.
I use a lot of HPE servers, so happy to test any possible fixes if desired. I will not update any more of my HP based PFsense installs til a fix is found..
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version 25.07.01 does not work on HP systems either. crashes after boot menu
