Can't access webgui

jan.gestre · Mar 29, 2010, 7:58 AM

Hi Guys,

I can't access my pfsense box's webgui, I did not make any configuration change, all was fine last friday. I can access the shell but not the gui, is there a way to recover configuration through CLI? I don't have a recent backup of the configuration that is why I can't reset it to factory defaults.

TIA.

jan.gestre · Mar 30, 2010, 1:15 AM

I was able to notice this when I restarted pfSense:

Starting webconfigurator…failed!

I also tried restarting from the console using option "11" to no avail, I still can't access the webGUI.

Is there a way to recover the configuration file (xml) from the console? I don't have the luxury of installing from scratch.

Many thanks!

Efonnes · Mar 30, 2010, 1:27 AM

If you have SSH enabled or can enable it, you could get the file through that with a client that transfers files over SSH.

jan.gestre · Mar 30, 2010, 1:52 AM

@Efonne:

If you have SSH enabled or can enable it, you could get the file through that with a client that transfers files over SSH.

I can SSH to the box, where is that file located? Is it a static file? or I need to issue a command to generate the config.xml file?

Many thanks!

Efonnes · Mar 30, 2010, 1:57 AM

Look for something like /conf/config.xml

jan.gestre · Mar 30, 2010, 4:54 AM

Hi Jaime,

The only apprehension I have is installing from scratch using the old config.xml file (4 months ago) because a lot has happened since then, hence the second thought.

I've already tried reinstalling from scratch before and it's quite easy, assuming your box is still working you can use the config.xml that can be found in /conf directory just like Efonne mentioned, you can then use scp or winscp if your using windows as desktop to copy the file. Once done, just follow the procedures outlined here –> http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Automatically_Restore_During_Install .

Cheers!

jan.gestre · Mar 30, 2010, 10:27 AM

Reinstalled from scratch using the old config.xml, and after fiddling with the configuration (snort and ntop) the d*** webGUI broke again. I think one of these packages is breaking the webGUI, most likely snort.

jan.gestre · Mar 31, 2010, 1:37 AM

@jaime:

i managed to get around the issue by resetting to factory defaults…however when I try to change the IP back to the original 192.168.65.23 (not even messing with the DHCP stuff) my web browsers seem to hate that and can't load the page...and my internet traffic out bound (LAN i assume for now) is killed compleatly...must I change the DHCP/DNS as well to the IP i want to use (192.168.65.23) or can I leave the DNS/DHCP alone?? at this time its using IP 192.168.1.1 (thats ok and I don't mind but I personially like to be on an obscure IP for my gateway to make it that much harder to find unless people know what to look for...)and I plan on using another IP in that near set so it may not be exactly the ..65.23 but still...

or am I missing somethin that is on the simple side? and I ask this because even with factory settings when I change the IP to what I want it causes the webGUI to not respond (page won't load)...ideas/suggestions/comments or concerns (any your doing it wrong and it needs to be done this way...)?

also side note I have the latest release of the firewall 1.2.3

Run the setup wizard

jan.gestre · Mar 31, 2010, 8:14 AM

I'm not sure if I should open a new topic for this, so here it goes…the original problem i.e. can't access the webgui morphed into webgui always breaks. I already did this a number of times today, in fact I lost count already but I always end up with the same issue i.e. the webgui breaks. Every time I restore the installation from scratch using the config.xml file some of the packages were not re-installed (e.g. lightsquid and imspector) and those that were re-installed (e.g. squid, squidguard, cron) are not working, I have to reinstall them using the 'xml' button. It really is frustrating, I don't have an idea why the gui always breaks, if there's any consolation openvpn, ipsec and firewall rules still work despite the issue.

Also, I've noticed something weird under the services menu, please look at the attached image, you will notice that there are duplicate services, e.g. squidguard

Did anybody experience this?

![10.10.10.254 2010-3-31 10:7.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/10.10.10.254 2010-3-31 10:7.png)
![10.10.10.254 2010-3-31 10:7.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/10.10.10.254 2010-3-31 10:7.png_thumb)

tommyboy180 · Mar 31, 2010, 8:54 AM

jaime get your own thread. It is really rude to hijack someone else's topic.

madapaka,
open your config file in a text editor and see if there are any duplicate entries, maybe a section isn't closed properly or something got messed up.
Also can you confirm that everything was working fine on the new system with NO packages running?

jan.gestre · Apr 1, 2010, 3:11 PM

@tommyboy180:

jaime get your own thread. It is really rude to hijack someone else's topic.

madapaka,
open your config file in a text editor and see if there are any duplicate entries, maybe a section isn't closed properly or something got messed up.
Also can you confirm that everything was working fine on the new system with NO packages running?

Hi Tommy,

Except for the packages, yes everything is working (e.g. NAT, including the ipsec and openvpn tunnels), I also remember that I was in the same predicament before with version 1.2.2 but everything worked during reinstall; but everything went south with 1.2.3. reinstall.

madapaka