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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

      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> 
                

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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!

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                        • A Offline
                          amenchetti
                          last edited by

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

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