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    Pfsense startup problem

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved 2.1 Snapshot Feedback and Problems - RETIRED
    19 Posts 5 Posters 4.7k Views
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    • W
      wallabybob
      last edited by

      @cpthk:

      This problem is getting more serious now. Almost 3 out of 5 times, the startup would failed. Anyone experience similar problem?

      If you gave more details of what you mean by "failed" it would help others determine if they were experiencing a similar problem.

      For example, complete the sentence: When I do … I see ... but I expect to see ...

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      • C
        cpthk
        last edited by

        @wallabybob:

        @cpthk:

        This problem is getting more serious now. Almost 3 out of 5 times, the startup would failed. Anyone experience similar problem?

        If you gave more details of what you mean by "failed" it would help others determine if they were experiencing a similar problem.

        For example, complete the sentence: When I do … I see ... but I expect to see ...

        The pfsense machine itself looked no difference than the normal case. It played the midi music, and menu showed up, both of my interfaces have correct IP address. The only problem is that the computers underneath pfsense all cannot get IP addresses and not internet at all. The only solution I have found is to reboot until one time that they have internet.

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          Ok. You need to check the system logs to see if anything is showing an error when if fails to boot correctly.
          You can do that from the console, if you don't have access to the webgui, like so:

          clog /var/log/system.log | less

          Also give us the output of 'ifconfig' the failed instance.

          Steve

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          • A
            AnWi
            last edited by

            I have made quite a few attempts to get pfsense starting from a usb-flash. My latest try is 2.1 BETA
            A: Running pfSense-LiveCD-2.1-BETA1-i386-20121226-2125 and Installing to flash memory
            B: pfSense-memstick-2.1-BETA1-i386-20121226-2125 and using unetbootin to transfer the image to the USB-flash
            In both cases the diskless computer boots from the USB-flash and in both cases it runs until "mountroot>". Available devices are acd0 and fd0 but I cannot get the system to accept any of them.
            I can get the system to work from the Live CD

            Please help

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            • W
              wallabybob
              last edited by

              Have you read and acted on http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Boot_Troubleshooting

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              • M
                mromero
                last edited by

                Have you reproduced your issue on a separate box to ensure it is not something in your hardware?

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                • A
                  AnWi
                  last edited by

                  @wallabybob:

                  Have you read and acted on http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Boot_Troubleshooting

                  I have but it didn't help

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                  • A
                    AnWi
                    last edited by

                    @mromero:

                    Have you reproduced your issue on a separate box to ensure it is not something in your hardware?

                    No! The box itself is working when running from Live CD. The startup-problem only appears when i boot from USB-flash

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                    • A
                      AnWi
                      last edited by

                      @AnWi:

                      @mromero:

                      Have you reproduced your issue on a separate box to ensure it is not something in your hardware?

                      No! The box itself is working when running from Live CD. The startup-problem only appears when i boot from USB-flash

                      My mistake :-(
                      I missed overlooked the option of pressing 3 in the menu. When I do, pfSense boots perfectly from the USB.

                      /AnWi

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                      • C
                        cpthk
                        last edited by

                        Hi
                        I am not sure why the topic changed, any suggestion on my issue?

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                        • W
                          wallabybob
                          last edited by

                          @cpthk:

                          any suggestion on my issue?

                          How about providing the additional information requested before AnWi hijacked the thread.

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                          • C
                            cpthk
                            last edited by

                            @wallabybob:

                            @cpthk:

                            any suggestion on my issue?

                            How about providing the additional information requested before AnWi hijacked the thread.

                            Hi:

                            As I mentioned earlier, the issue happens about 1-2 times every 5 startups. Everything looks normal on the pfsense box, got WAN IP correctly. Computers under the pfsense LAN does not get IP addresses.

                            Is there any logs I should be collecting? I would do that the next time I encounter. As this happens kind of random, it may take a bit of time.

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                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Well it could be a number of things causing this you have to gather as much info as possible when it doesn't come up correctly to narrow it down. For example it could be:
                              1. The NIC is not attaching to the driver correctly. Seems unlikely since you said earlier you could see it had a 192.168.1.1 address. If you provide the output of ifconfig that will confirm that.

                              2. The firewall is blocking traffic. That should never happen if you are running a DHCP server but sometimes things get weird. You would see that in the firewall log however.

                              3. The DHCP has stopped. If the DHCP server crashed out you should see something in the system log.

                              4. Something else on your LAN is running a DHCP server that is grabbing requests. This happens quite often.

                              Steve

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