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    Pfsense update dont work on Alix board

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
    19 Posts 7 Posters 7.9k Views
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    • E Offline
      echappatte
      last edited by

      Hi there,

      Some news, I have done others tests :

      Installed fresh 2.0 release on Compact Flash
      Upgraded with AutoUpdate : failed
      Upraded manually : failed

      Installed fresh 2.0 on an HDD
      Upgraded manually : worked ! but very very slow (upload at about 100 kB/sec, all took about 30-60 minutes ?)

      As I can see, I think the probleme is with disk part, perhaps disk controller.

      Other people have an Alix board here ? Or any board with AMD Geode (with Companion chip) ?

      See you

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      • jimpJ Offline
        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
        last edited by

        Before we released 2.0 and 2.0.1 we did many tests on ALIX and similar boards that we have access to. Auto update, Manual update, and Console updates all worked on our test systems. If the update process did not work, we wouldn't have released the updates without fixing that first.

        Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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        Do not Chat/PM for help!

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        • _ Offline
          _igor_
          last edited by

          That sounds familiar: I have 2 Alix Boxes with both 2.0. Update failed in a similar way as yours on one Box, the other did it right. Update occured without probs.

          So the only difference was the CF-card. I changed the CF-card on the box which failed and all went great. So older CF-cards seem to blame the system. At all on this one particular box the whole Webif was slow and i had frequent loss to the Webif. After changing the CF it was much quicker and responsive than before.

          A sideeffect was that i had to update the alix with tinybios .99h. Without that update the new CF didnt start. The alix was stuck in an endless boot.

          Hope that helps you.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • marcellocM Offline
            marcelloc
            last edited by

            Try to updare via console.

            Transfer full update to pfsense and update from local file.

            It works very well on normal systems But I do not have an alix box to test it on Cf installs

            Treinamentos de Elite: http://sys-squad.com

            Help a community developer! ;D

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            • E Offline
              echappatte
              last edited by

              First, thank you all for your help and messages.

              jimp
              I think I have gave a bad title to my thread, I dont want to say that pfSense dont work on all Alix, but it dont work good on my actual setup.
              I really appreciate the work of all people that making this very very good firwall, and all this free. The goal here is to explain my problem, find the solution and, perhaps, improve a future release.

              It's good to know you are doing test on Alix platform. I was not sure because there are a lot hardware that pf can run on…
              With compact flash on Alix, do you remember about the time that the update took ?

              igor
              Thank you for your answer. I think as you : the compact flash is my problem. But I am not sure if it is only hardware, or the way of software is using it; perhaps is not very efficient..
              I have done some tests SCP'ing update to my Alix with compact flash :
              In /tmp/ it is coping at about 1500 kB/s (but unfortunately there is not enough space here...)
              On /root/ it is copying at about 38 kB/s...

              Why this huge difference ?

              Otherwise, I already have the bios 0.99h on my board. I have tested with two compact flashs (both manufactured in 2008) and on the other it is ever worst.. copying as low as 15kB/s....
              Think I will buy a newer 4GB card.

              marcelloc
              Good idea, I have tried this option, without success... after uploading compete (that took a lot of time), the update is done quickly, but when rebooting pfSense is still in 2.0 release.
              I can post upgrade log if someone can exactract usefull information from it...

              Last precision, all this was done on fresh install of pfSense 2.0 : no package, only configuration was changing LAN address and enabling SSH.

              Is anybody has an idea, I can do more tests.

              Thank's all ;)

              pfsense_cf_upload_root.png
              pfsense_cf_upload_root.png_thumb
              pfsense_cf_upload_temp.png
              pfsense_cf_upload_temp.png_thumb

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              • jimpJ Offline
                jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                last edited by

                /tmp is a RAM drive, /root is on CF

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                • E Offline
                  echappatte
                  last edited by

                  Thank you.

                  I have done other tests :

                  Old Pentium 4 and one of my compact flash on IDE : same problem
                  Very old Pentium 3 and with the same compact flash : same problem

                  As I can see, the problem is my compact flash cards.

                  On the ram drive, I always have honorable speed (1.5-4 Mo/s, depending configuration) but on compact flash it is always in the range of 10-40 ko/s.

                  I have benchmarked compact flash on Windows, and with medium/large file (larger then 8ko) I can write at 4 Mo/s

                  My topic title is wrong, but I can't edit it.
                  What should I do ? Open a new one? It is normal that on freebsd/pfsense I have very low write speed and with the same card a relatively correct transfert on Windows ?

                  Thanks for you help & ideas ;)

                  pcengines_cf1go_2008.png
                  pcengines_cf1go_2008.png_thumb

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                  • E Offline
                    echappatte
                    last edited by

                    Hi ;)

                    It seems that disk access speed does not interest many people….

                    I have bought a new 4Go compact flash at PC Engines, and now update works ! I have reinstalled the old 2.0 and then successfully upgraded to 2.01 via Web GUI.

                    igor , you were 100% right, thanks ;)

                    But the question remains : I have benchmarked the new compact flash at more than 15 MB/s in write, but the upload to pfsense is still at about 500kB/s....
                    I dont know if it is normal, or if it can be improved.

                    Thanks all for your help :)

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                    • marcellocM Offline
                      marcelloc
                      last edited by

                      Take a look on this topic, however I don't know how to implement this on compact flash  :(

                      http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,43737.0.html

                      Treinamentos de Elite: http://sys-squad.com

                      Help a community developer! ;D

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                      • jimpJ Offline
                        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                        last edited by

                        That won't really help CF anyhow. The problem is that the ALIX boards (possibly just with FreeBSD?) don't have proper DMA, so they will be slower even still on top of CF being slow in general.

                        Windows is probably using DMA when talking to the card, so that's why it's faster.

                        Check your boot messages, you'll probably see it like so:

                        ad0: 3815MB <sandisk sdcfh-004g="" hdx="" 6.03="">at ata0-master PIO4</sandisk> 
                        

                        Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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                        • E Offline
                          echappatte
                          last edited by

                          Yes, it is possible, alix boards use very old components (AMD Geode & companion).
                          I'll check the next time I'll reboot it if it use PIO instead DMA.

                          Thanks ;)

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                          • P Offline
                            packeteer
                            last edited by

                            I auto upgrade PFSense 2.0 to 2.01 successfully. Depending on the number of add-on packages you previously installed before the upgrade, it might take a bit longer to complete. In my case I had to leave it for half a day.

                            Hardware:

                            Alix 2D13 with micro drive.

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                            • A Offline
                              amenchetti
                              last edited by

                              Hi to everyboby. I can't upgrade on ALIX board from 2.0 to 2.0.1 in any way (web interface, command line from URL or local).
                              Someone can help me? This is the upgrade log… maybe an hardware problem to the CF?

                              NanoBSD Firmware upgrade in progress…

                              Installing /root/latest-nanobsd-4g.img.gz.
                              SLICE        2
                              OLDSLICE      1
                              TOFLASH      ad0s2
                              COMPLETE_PATH ad0s2a
                              GLABEL_SLICE  pfsense1
                              Thu Mar  8 10:04:31 CET 2012

                              total 4
                              dr-xr-xr-x  8 root  wheel        512B Mar  8 10:02 .
                              drwxr-xr-x  25 root  wheel        512B Mar  8 10:02 ..
                              crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  56 Mar  8 10:02 ad0
                              crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  57 Mar  8 10:02 ad0s1
                              crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  60 Mar  8 10:02 ad0s1a
                              crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  58 Mar  8 10:02 ad0s2
                              crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  61 Mar  8 10:02 ad0s2a
                              crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  59 Mar  8 10:02 ad0s3
                              crw-------  1 root  operator    0,  28 Mar  8 10:02 ata
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  11 Mar  8 10:04 bpf
                              lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel          3B Mar  8 10:02 bpf0 -> bpf
                              crw-------  1 root  tty        0,  5 Mar  8 10:04 console
                              crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel      0,  44 Mar  8 10:02 crypto
                              crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel      0,  10 Mar  8 10:02 ctty
                              crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer      0,  35 Mar  8 10:02 cuau0
                              crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer      0,  36 Mar  8 10:02 cuau0.init
                              crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer      0,  37 Mar  8 10:02 cuau0.lock
                              crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer      0,  41 Mar  8 10:02 cuau1
                              crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer      0,  42 Mar  8 10:02 cuau1.init
                              crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer      0,  43 Mar  8 10:02 cuau1.lock
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  4 Mar  8 10:02 devctl
                              cr--------  1 root  wheel      0,  55 Mar  8 10:02 devstat
                              dr-xr-xr-x  2 root  wheel        512B Mar  8 10:02 fd
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  13 Mar  8 10:02 fido
                              crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  3 Mar  8 10:02 geom.ctl
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  23 Mar  8 10:02 io
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  6 Mar  8 10:02 klog
                              crw-r-----  1 root  kmem        0,  15 Mar  8 10:02 kmem
                              dr-xr-xr-x  2 root  wheel        512B Mar  8 10:02 led
                              crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  70 Mar  8 10:02 md0
                              crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  71 Mar  8 10:02 md1
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  48 Mar  8 10:02 mdctl
                              crw-r-----  1 root  kmem        0,  14 Mar  8 10:02 mem
                              crw-------  1 root  kmem        0,  16 Mar  8 10:02 nfslock
                              crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel      0,  25 Mar  8 10:04 null
                              crw-r--r--  1 root  wheel      0,  27 Mar  8 10:02 pci
                              crw-rw----  1 root  proxy      0,  45 Mar  8 10:02 pf
                              crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel      0,  9 Mar  8 10:02 ptmx
                              dr-xr-xr-x  2 root  wheel        512B Mar  8 10:03 pts
                              crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel      0,  7 Mar  8 10:02 random
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  24 Mar  8 10:02 speaker
                              lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel          4B Mar  8 10:02 stderr -> fd/2
                              lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel          4B Mar  8 10:02 stdin -> fd/0
                              lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel          4B Mar  8 10:02 stdout -> fd/1
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  32 Mar  8 10:02 ttyu0
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  33 Mar  8 10:02 ttyu0.init
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  34 Mar  8 10:02 ttyu0.lock
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  38 Mar  8 10:02 ttyu1
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  39 Mar  8 10:02 ttyu1.init
                              crw-------  1 root  wheel      0,  40 Mar  8 10:02 ttyu1.lock
                              crw-------  1 uucp  dialer      0,  62 Mar  8 10:03 tun1
                              dr-xr-xr-x  2 root  wheel        512B Mar  8 10:02 ufs
                              dr-xr-xr-x  2 root  wheel        512B Mar  8 10:02 ufsid
                              lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel          9B Mar  8 10:02 ugen0.1 -> usb/0.1.0
                              lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel          9B Mar  8 10:02 ugen1.1 -> usb/1.1.0
                              lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel          6B Mar  8 10:02 urandom -> random
                              dr-xr-xr-x  2 root  wheel        512B Mar  8 10:02 usb
                              crw-r--r--  1 root  operator    0,  46 Mar  8 10:02 usbctl
                              crw-------  1 root  operator    0,  47 Mar  8 10:02 xpt0
                              crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel      0,  26 Mar  8 10:02 zero

                              -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel    67M Mar  8 09:50 /root/latest-nanobsd-4g.img.gz

                              MD5 (/root/latest-nanobsd-4g.img.gz) = 0fc0188215421c7eaf978fa14a60c7db

                              /dev/ufs/pfsense0 on / (ufs, local, noatime, synchronous)
                              devfs on /dev (devfs, local)
                              /dev/md0 on /tmp (ufs, local)
                              /dev/md1 on /var (ufs, local)
                              devfs on /var/dhcpd/dev (devfs, local)

                              last pid: 45360;  load averages:  2.97,  1.10,  0.43  up 0+00:02:26    10:04:35
                              46 processes:  2 running, 44 sleeping

                              Mem: 53M Active, 93M Inact, 33M Wired, 8K Cache, 34M Buf, 55M Free
                              Swap:

                              PID USERNAME  THR PRI NICE  SIZE    RES STATE    TIME  WCPU COMMAND
                              30795 root        1 116  20 38236K 19768K RUN      0:01  1.95% php
                              51405 root        1  76    0 34140K 19492K accept  0:01  0.00% php
                              18135 root        1  76    0 36188K 16536K nanslp  0:01  0.00% php
                              19199 root        1  44    0  7992K  3520K select  0:00  0.00% sshd
                              31515 root        1  76    0  7992K  3520K select  0:00  0.00% sshd
                              46432 root        1  76    0 32092K  9960K wait    0:00  0.00% php
                              45963 root        1  76    0 32092K  9904K wait    0:00  0.00% php
                              17129 root        1  44    0  5988K  3928K select  0:00  0.00% racoon
                              19049 root        1  44    0  7208K  5972K select  0:00  0.00% bsnmpd
                              26586 root        1  44    0  4944K  2392K select  0:00  0.00% syslogd
                              54860 nobody      1  44    0  5556K  2516K select  0:00  0.00% dnsmasq
                              45575 root        1  44    0  5564K  3820K kqread  0:00  0.00% lighttpd
                              32771 root        1  76  20  3656K  1392K wait    0:00  0.00% sh
                              27000 root        1  44    0  5912K  2276K bpf      0:00  0.00% tcpdump
                              27105 root        1  44    0  3316K  872K piperd  0:00  0.00% logger
                              35140 root        1  76    0  3656K  1476K wait    0:00  0.00% sh
                              52701 root        1  76    0  3684K  1596K wait    0:00  0.00% login
                              40035 root        1  44    0  3316K  1296K select  0:00  0.00% apinger

                              NanoBSD upgrade starting

                              dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0s2 bs=1m count=1
                              1+0 records in
                              1+0 records out
                              1048576 bytes transferred in 0.995684 secs (1053121 bytes/sec)

                              /usr/bin/gzip -dc /root/latest-nanobsd-4g.img.gz | /bin/dd of=/dev/ad0s2 obs=64k
                              dd: /dev/ad0s2: short write on character device
                              dd: /dev/ad0s2: end of device
                              3510386+947 records in
                              27428+1 records out
                              1797530112 bytes transferred in 434.345388 secs (4138481 bytes/sec)
                              After upgrade fdisk/bsdlabel

                              /sbin/fsck_ufs -y /dev/ad0s2a
                              fsck_ufs: /dev/ad0s2a: can't read disk label
                              ** /dev/ad0s2a

                              CANNOT READ BLK: 3836192
                              CONTINUE? yes

                              THE FOLLOWING DISK SECTORS COULD NOT BE READ: 3836192, 3836193, 3836194,
                              ioctl (GCINFO): Inappropriate ioctl for device

                              File list:

                              Warning: file_get_contents(/conf/file_upgrade_log.txt): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/local/www/diag_nanobsd.php on line 236

                              Misc log:

                              Warning: file_get_contents(/conf/firmware_update_misc.log): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/local/www/diag_nanobsd.php on line 238

                              fdisk/bsdlabel log:

                              Before upgrade fdisk/bsdlabel
                              ******* Working on device /dev/ad0 *******
                              parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are:
                              cylinders=7314 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

                              Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1
                              parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are:
                              cylinders=7314 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

                              Media sector size is 512
                              Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1
                              Information from DOS bootblock is:
                              The data for partition 1 is:
                              sysid 165 (0xa5),(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
                                  start 63, size 3861585 (1885 Meg), flag 80 (active)
                              beg: cyl 0/ head 1/ sector 1;
                              end: cyl 758/ head 15/ sector 63
                              The data for partition 2 is:
                              sysid 165 (0xa5),(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
                                  start 3861711, size 3861585 (1885 Meg), flag 0
                              beg: cyl 759/ head 1/ sector 1;
                              end: cyl 493/ head 15/ sector 63
                              The data for partition 3 is:
                              sysid 165 (0xa5),(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
                                  start 7723296, size 102816 (50 Meg), flag 0
                              beg: cyl 494/ head 0/ sector 1;
                              end: cyl 595/ head 15/ sector 63
                              The data for partition 4 is:
                              <unused># /dev/ad0s1:
                              type: unknown
                              disk: amnesiac
                              label:
                              flags:
                              bytes/sector: 512
                              sectors/track: 63
                              tracks/cylinder: 16
                              sectors/cylinder: 1008
                              cylinders: 3830
                              sectors/unit: 3861585
                              rpm: 3600
                              interleave: 1
                              trackskew: 0
                              cylinderskew: 0
                              headswitch: 0 # milliseconds
                              track-to-track seek: 0 # milliseconds
                              drivedata: 0

                              8 partitions:
                              #        size  offset    fstype  [fsize bsize bps/cpg]
                                a:  3861569      16    unused        0    0     
                                c:  3861585        0    unused        0    0        # "raw" part, don't edit

                              /dev/ad0s2:

                              type: unknown
                              disk: amnesiac
                              label:
                              flags:
                              bytes/sector: 512
                              sectors/track: 63
                              tracks/cylinder: 16
                              sectors/cylinder: 1008
                              cylinders: 3823
                              sectors/unit: 3854529
                              rpm: 3600
                              interleave: 1
                              trackskew: 0
                              cylinderskew: 0
                              headswitch: 0 # milliseconds
                              track-to-track seek: 0 # milliseconds
                              drivedata: 0

                              8 partitions:
                              #        size  offset    fstype  [fsize bsize bps/cpg]
                                a:  3854513      16    unused        0    0     
                                c:  3854529        0    unused        0    0        # "raw" part, don't edit
                              –-------------------------------------------------------------

                              ******* Working on device /dev/ad0 *******
                              parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are:
                              cylinders=7314 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

                              Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1
                              parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are:
                              cylinders=7314 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

                              Media sector size is 512
                              Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1
                              Information from DOS bootblock is:
                              The data for partition 1 is:
                              sysid 165 (0xa5),(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
                                  start 63, size 3861585 (1885 Meg), flag 80 (active)
                              beg: cyl 0/ head 1/ sector 1;
                              end: cyl 758/ head 15/ sector 63
                              The data for partition 2 is:
                              sysid 165 (0xa5),(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
                                  start 3861711, size 3861585 (1885 Meg), flag 0
                              beg: cyl 759/ head 1/ sector 1;
                              end: cyl 493/ head 15/ sector 63
                              The data for partition 3 is:
                              sysid 165 (0xa5),(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
                                  start 7723296, size 102816 (50 Meg), flag 0
                              beg: cyl 494/ head 0/ sector 1;
                              end: cyl 595/ head 15/ sector 63
                              The data for partition 4 is:
                              <unused># /dev/ad0s1:
                              type: unknown
                              disk: amnesiac
                              label:
                              flags:
                              bytes/sector: 512
                              sectors/track: 63
                              tracks/cylinder: 16
                              sectors/cylinder: 1008
                              cylinders: 3830
                              sectors/unit: 3861585
                              rpm: 3600
                              interleave: 1
                              trackskew: 0
                              cylinderskew: 0
                              headswitch: 0 # milliseconds
                              track-to-track seek: 0 # milliseconds
                              drivedata: 0

                              8 partitions:
                              #        size  offset    fstype  [fsize bsize bps/cpg]
                                a:  3861569      16    unused        0    0     
                                c:  3861585        0    unused        0    0        # "raw" part, don't edit

                              /dev/ad0s2:

                              type: unknown
                              disk: amnesiac
                              label:
                              flags:
                              bytes/sector: 512
                              sectors/track: 63
                              tracks/cylinder: 16
                              sectors/cylinder: 1008
                              cylinders: 3823
                              sectors/unit: 3854529
                              rpm: 3600
                              interleave: 1
                              trackskew: 0
                              cylinderskew: 0
                              headswitch: 0 # milliseconds
                              track-to-track seek: 0 # milliseconds
                              drivedata: 0

                              8 partitions:
                              #        size  offset    fstype  [fsize bsize bps/cpg]
                                a:  3854513      16    unused        0    0     
                                c:  3854529        0    unused        0    0        # "raw" part, don't edit
                              –-------------------------------------------------------------</unused></unused>

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                              • jimpJ Offline
                                jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                                last edited by

                                1. Please start a new thread, don't hijack an old thread.
                                2. The fsck errors in that log would seem to indicate your CF card is failing.

                                Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

                                Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

                                Do not Chat/PM for help!

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • A Offline
                                  amenchetti
                                  last edited by

                                  Ok… sorry for this...  :'(
                                  Thanks.
                                  Andrea.

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