Configuration is lost upon reboot

thomasc

Hi all :)

First time pfSense user, I have running on an Alix2d3 and am so far quite impressed with it. I do however have a problem which is a major nuisance : the configuration is reset (ie: factory defaults, including admin password etc.) every time I reboot the device…

I installed the board twice by first booting a linux liveCD via PXE (didn't have a CF reader handy) and dd'ing the image file. This process obviously was somewhat successful as the board would boot, but just that problem of the volatile configuration is getting me :-/

I tried once with pfSense-2.0.1-RELEASE-512mb-i386-nanobsd.img.gz and once with pfSense-memstick-2.0.1-RELEASE-i386.img.gz – same result. Currently have that first file flashed (nanobsd) and the dashboard shows version number :

2.0.1-RELEASE (i386)
built on Mon Dec 12 17:53:52 EST 2011
FreeBSD pfSense.localdomain 8.1-RELEASE-p6 FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE-p6 #0: Mon Dec 12 17:53:00 EST 2011 root@FreeBSD_8.0_pfSense_2.0-snaps.pfsense.org:/usr/obj./usr/pfSensesrc/src/sys/pfSense_SMP.8 i386

Any ideas / pointers / stuff to try and find out why would be greatly appreciated :)

Best regards,

Thomas

EDIT: Adding output of 'mount' command :

$ mount
/dev/ufs/pfSense on / (ufs, local, read-only)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local)
/dev/md0.uzip on /usr (ufs, local, read-only)
/dev/md1 on /tmp (ufs, local)
/dev/md2 on /var (ufs, local, noatime)
/dev/md3 on /etc (ufs, local, noatime)
/dev/md4 on /usr/local/etc (ufs, local, noatime)
/dev/md5 on /conf (ufs, local)
/conf on /cf/conf (nullfs, local)
/dev/md6 on /home (ufs, local)
<above>:/tmp/unionfs/usr on /usr (unionfs, local)
<above>:/tmp/unionfs/root on /root (unionfs, local)
<above>:/tmp/unionfs/bin on /bin (unionfs, local)
<above>:/tmp/unionfs/sbin on /sbin (unionfs, local)
<above>:/tmp/unionfs/boot on /boot (unionfs, local)
<above>:/tmp/unionfs/confdefault on /conf.default (unionfs, local)
devfs on /var/dhcpd/dev (devfs, local)</above></above></above></above></above></above>

stephenw10

The nanobsd image is the one you want. The memstick image is for installing to a hard drive.
However the output from your 'mount' command looks very odd if it's from the Nano image.
Here's mine:


[2.0.1-RELEASE][root@pfsense.fire.box]/root(7): mount
/dev/ufs/pfsense0 on / (ufs, local, noatime, read-only, synchronous)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local)
/dev/md0 on /tmp (ufs, local)
/dev/md1 on /var (ufs, local)
/dev/ufs/cf on /cf (ufs, local, noatime, read-only, synchronous)
devfs on /var/dhcpd/dev (devfs, local)

Your filesystem appears to be using a memory disk (md5) as /conf, hence it forgets the config everytime you turn it off.
I suggest you try to find a CF reader, format the card and start again. ;)

Steve

cmb

Yeah that appears you're running memstick which is the flash version of the iso, not nanobsd. Only nanobsd will save the config, memstick is exactly like booting from CD (CD/memstick contents will not be changed).

thomasc

Thank you both for your replies.

You were both right, somehow when flashing for the second time I forgot the '-O-' argument to wget, meaning nothing was really written to the CF card :-[ I just flashed it correctly and it works like a charm!

Sorry for wasting your time… At least I learned what /dev/mdX stands for ^^ (I'm fluent in linux but have zero *bsd experience...)

Best,

Thomas