PfSense lost config after reboot

unex

Hey everybody,

i´m new to pfSense so the answer to my question might be pretty simple.
I installed pfsense (pfSense-memstick-2.1-RELEASE-amd64-20130911-1816.img) on a 2GB CF Card since (pfSense-2.1-RELEASE-4g-amd64-nanobsd-20130911-1817.img) didn´t boot..

The memstick version boots perfectly but after i´ve set up the network and WAN Adapters i couldnt connect to the web configurator.
After i unplugged the WAN cable i was able to connect to the web configurator.

It still works if i re plug the WAN cable.

To make sure that this issue wont occure after the next reboot i rebooted the pfSense.

After it rebooted i had to assign the adapters again and set up everything from scratch.

Is this because im using the memstick version? Why is the config lost after a reboot?
Have you ever heard of the issue with the web interface connection?

Thanks

Hannes

unex

i installed it on the CF card via physdiskwrite…

stephenw10

And now you're good?
The memstick image is meant to boot from in order to install to something permenant. It's the equivalent of the CD. It can run as a live disk but it won't store the config as you've found. Either use the Nano image, on a CF card or a USB flash drive, or install to a HD after you've booted the memstick image.

Steve

onlineph

I has same issue. What I did I select "I" first. Install it in my HD and I'm good.

unex

The Problem was that i was using the wrong version, i accidently downloaded the 4 GB version.
After i installed the 2GB Version (pfSense-2.1-RELEASE-2g-amd64-nanobsd-20130911-1817) it didnt boot at all.

So í downloaded another version:
pfSense-2.1-RELEASE-2g-amd64-nanobsd_vga-20130911-1817.img

This one boots properly and keeps its settings after a reboot.

BUT

When it boots up it shows a boot screen with:
f1 - pfsense
f2 - pfsense
f6 - PXE

i dont think it makes any difference if i press f1 or f2, since the confic is the same.
But why is there even a boot selection? is the "VGA" version a dual boot version?

stephenw10

The standard NanoBSD image (without VGA) uses the serial port for the console so if you weren't looking at that if would appear not to boot.
The Nano_VGA image uses the standard console (keyboard/monitor).

The boot selection is due to how NanoBSD works. There are two boot slices and a config slice in the image. Intially they are both identical but when you upgrade the firmware one slice is overwritten and the bootloader is set to switch to the new boot slice. If, for whatever reason the new slice fails to boot correctly you can always switch back to the known working slice. There are some options in the Diagnostocs: menu in the webgui such as switch slice manually and copy the working slice to the backup.
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/NanoBSD_Diagnostics
It should go past the boot menu after the timeout without requiring any interaction.

Steve

unex

thank you very much!