Latest auto update / snapshot failing (upgrade image larger than partition)
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I have seen this issue on other threads but for some reason I couldn't reply to them.
Have gone through a number of USB sticks now, upgrade is failing on all of them, for some reason the upgrade image is always slightly larger (by about 2) than the partition on the USB media. Am using nano4GB.
I will try the nano2GB now, but a previous thread mentioned a bad snapshot, which was later fixed, so I just thought I would post this up.
The snapshot was also 'unsigned' for some reason - not sure if that is relevant or not?
JD
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Tried nano2GB - same problem.
Tried manual update - same problem.
Now trying different make of USB stick.
JD
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OK - tried completely different make of USB stick - same problem.
I'm not going to be able to use PF without the ability to update it - any ideas why this might be happening?
When using dd to copy the image over I am using bs=16k as per the instructions - I don't think there is any other thing which I can change on the setup…..
Stumped... :'(
JD
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Have gone through a number of USB sticks now, upgrade is failing on all of them, for some reason the upgrade image is always slightly larger (by about 2) than the partition on the USB media.
by about 2 what? B?, kB?, MB?
When using dd to copy the image over I am using bs=16k as per the instructions - I don't think there is any other thing which I can change on the setup…..
I hope you are not trying to do an upgrade by using dd to write a new image to the USB stick!!
Am using nano4GB.
I will try the nano2GB now, but a previous thread mentioned a bad snapshot, which was later fixed, so I just thought I would post this up.
But what size USB stick?
The nanobsd installs are intended to be used on flash memory of the same in the file name, e.g pfSense-2.0-RC1-4g-i386-20110329-0532-nanobsd.img.gz should be dd'd (after unzipping) to a 4GB flash memory. Some people have reported that this doesn't quite fit on some 4GB flash memories. It is OK to use a "2G" or even a "1G" file on a "4GB" flash memory.
I don't have any experience with nanoBSD variant of pfSense. I presume that an automatic update will load the appropriate file automatically. I presume that a manual update should supply the update file of the same size as the initial install (not the nominal size of the flash memory): if you installed from pfSense-2.0-RC1-4g-i386-20110329-0532-nanobsd.img.gz you should update with a file such as pfSense-2.0-RC1-4g-i386-20110329-0532-nanobsd-upgrade.img.gz
The snapshot was also 'unsigned' for some reason - not sure if that is relevant or not?
Snapshot builds are unsigned. Release builds are signed.
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The actual error states
"Size on disk: 926 < Size of new image: 928"
I am assuming it's talking MB here?
No I'm not writing the upgrade using dd! I have downloaded the full version:
pfSense-2.0-RC1-2g-i386-20110226-1633-nanobsd.img.gz
And use dd to write this file out to the USB disk - using the bs=16k to set the block size.
I am using a 4GB USB Stick, actually I have tried a number of different makes, I have tried both 4GB Nano image and also 2GB nano image - neither work for me.
After the auto update didn't work - I then turned my attention to trying to download the snapshot manually, in order to perform the manual upgrade.
I downloaded:
pfSense-2.0-RC1-2g-i386-20110329-0532-nanobsd-upgrade.img.gz (latest 2GB snapshot)
and I also downloaded:
pfSense-2.0-RC1-2g-i386-20110309-1850-nanobsd-upgrade.img.gz (oldest 2GB snapshot)
But neither work - I get the same error.
So to recap - neither auto nor manual update works with a variety of 4GB USB sticks, using either 4GB or 2GB nano images.
(for me)
JD
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Just tried a 2GB CF card now - same issue.
Everything else is working great…
Woe is me!
JD
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All these tests have been done by writing pfSense-2.0-RC1-2g-i386-20110226-1633-nanobsd.img.gz to a flash card and then doing an update?
Your base image is now fairly old.
Speculation (I have don't have any evidence for this and haven't searched the forums or bug reports for supporting evidence): There MIGHT have been a "bug" in that base image. MAYBE you would get better results if you started from a more recent base base image.
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OK - I thought I had been downloading the latest build from the mirrors:
http://mirror.qubenet.net/mirror/pfsense/downloads/
So you're telling me there is a newer base build someplace?
If so - why isn't it on the mirrors?
JD
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Snapshot builds are available on http://snapshots.pfsense.org/FreeBSD_RELENG_8_1/i386/pfSense_HEAD/?C=M;O=D, follow the appropriate link.
Snapshot builds are created after source code changes. There is discussion elsewhere on why they aren't mirrored.
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Tested a number of snapshots - same problem.
However - after discovering a 1GB Buffalo USB stick, after flashing this with the 1GB nano (old base image) - this worked - upgrades no problem!
I have tested over 5 different makes of USB card (and one 2GB CF card with a USB adaptor) in sizes varying from 1GB to 4GB and none of these would upgrade. I tested them on two completely different servers, I wrote the images on a Mac and also on a Windows system - again with all the same problem.
So I think it's fairly safe to say that when using the USB builds (any of them) - either I have been extremely unlucky in having the only few sticks that don't work - or the nano upgrade system only works with a very few types of USB stick.
Out of interest, once I knew the 1GB stick worked, I gave the amd64 1GB image a shot (this is a 64 bit server) - trying to perform either a manual or auto update with this crashed pf's web interface. Restarting it from the console did not get it back.
JD
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There is something about this that puzzles me.
I found three separate reports of Size on disk: 926 < Size of new image: 928
(http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,33809.0.html http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,31489.0.html and http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,35063.0.html)Since the initial install is done by dd'ing an image to a "disk" the (MS-DOS) partition size would seem to be fixed: 926 (seems to MB based on /etc/rc.firmware)
The message reports that the update image size is 928. This allegedly comes from an automatic update which would seem to preclude the possibility of an update attempt using an install image. (cmb reported that the message might be caused by attempting to use an install image as an update.)
If recall correctly, some time ago the initial install image size was reduced (at least for some flash sizes) due to newer flash cards containing fewer MBs than older flash cards. Maybe, for some flash sizes (e.g. 2GB) the update image sizes were not correspondingly reduced.
I haven't investigated how the nanoBSD images are produced but I get the impression there isn't anything dynamic based on the flash card sizes. So I'm puzzled that three separate users have reported problems with updates of 2GB flash cards, jdamnation reports problems with flash sizes of 1GB through 4GB (though one 1GB flash was OK) and apparently many others don't have problems.
As I've been writing this I recalled that a few years ago I ran into some problems with USB adapters for notebook drives which lead me to discover that FreeBSD had a much smaller table of USB devices with "quirks" it had to account for than did Linux. This explained why one type of USB adapter for notebook hard drives would work OK on Windows and a couple of newer (at the time) versions of Linux but not on an older version of Linux I tried and not on any version of FreeBSD I tried. A very similar looking adpter but with a different chipset worked fine on all the same systems.
Maybe there are some "quirky" USB flash drives that are not well handled by FreeBSD.
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same problem.
currently using nano 2g image
2.0-RC1 (i386)
built on Wed Mar 30 15:45:12 EDT 2011am new to freebsd and pfsense.
used a new (from a blister pack) 4g usb stick.
put in a 4g image using linux/ubuntu
from pfsense, did an upgrade, error because image was 2 off!then put a 2g image in the 4g usb stick
from pfsense, did an upgrade, error because image was 2 off!i thought it was a bug, filed and rejected
http://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/1396then i found this one
http://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/1149 -
It's something specific to USB sticks that doesn't happen on CF drives.
I'm not sure anyone with the know-how of filesystems at that level has taken a look at it. No matter what size we make the images, the upgrades always fail. We can't just expand the check because that could break CF installs if something went wrong, and a lot more people use NanoBSD on CF than USB.
