Update or Fresh install of 25.07 causes HP ProLiant DL20 Gen9 to Reboot after PFSense Menu
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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
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https://jumpshare.com/s/wIn5syv1KFQ0VrLvrSdX
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@WB3FFV I tried to update to 25.07.01, and it once again fails to boot
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Yup, that looks like the same issue. Try booting legacy to confirm.
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@stephenw10 I did update a system to the current version having loaded it as BIOS, and it was fine. Are you asking to take a UEFI loaded system, and just changing it from UEFI to BIOS and see what happens?
I didn't think I could just jump from one to the other. For sure this seems to affect all HPE systems that support UEFI..
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@WB3FFV I didn't try to adjust the BIOS; perhaps I will try this next. I've never had to change the BIOS in the past.
