New 2.1 install works until 2.0.2 config is restored
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I've been trying to migrate to a new pfSense box at home for the past couple days. I'm using 2.1 because 4 of my network ports (out of 5) require drivers from 2.1, making the box pretty much useless under 2.0.x.
My old box is 2.0.2 and the new one is 2.1-20130419 (I've also tried the 20130418 snap); both are full installs, though the old box is 32-bit and the new one 64-bit.
The new install works just fine until I go to restore the old config to the new box. Once I do, reassign the interfaces, and then restart, the system refuses to boot past the spinner. In fact, it doesn't spin at all, just sits there as "|".
Is this an issue with 2.0->2.1, 32-bit->64-bit, or something else?
I suppose I could reconfigure the new box by hand but it would probably take me a couple hours…
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Which "spinner"? If it's what I think you're referring to, that's very, very early in the boot process, long before it reads the config at all.
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@cmb:
Which "spinner"? If it's what I think you're referring to, that's very, very early in the boot process, long before it reads the config at all.
The one right where it says F1 pfSense. As you said, very early in the process.
I've tested it 6 times so far, the 2.1 install works just fine until I restore my 2.0.2 config.
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Yeah that's long before the config gets touched at all. Are you restoring something in addition to the config, like the loader.conf/loader.conf.local? It would have to be something very low level and I can't think of any such things in the config, loader.conf.local items getting restored separately (they aren't in the config) is the only thing that comes to mind that you could restore that would cause the boot to fail that early.
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Does the restored config have the serial port active? that would cause it to touch loader.conf
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Does the restored config have the serial port active? that would cause it to touch loader.conf
Looks like yes. The old box didn't have a VGA port so that was the only way to manage it.
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Could be why, especially if the new box doesn't have a serial port or has some issue initializing it. Try removing the line from the config that activates the serial port, restore the altered file, and see if the behavior improves It would be under the <system>tag somewhere, "<enableserial>". Remove the line if it's there and then restore.</enableserial></system>
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Could be why, especially if the new box doesn't have a serial port or has some issue initializing it. Try removing the line from the config that activates the serial port, restore the altered file, and see if the behavior improves It would be under the <system>tag somewhere, "<enableserial>". Remove the line if it's there and then restore.</enableserial></system>
I can't test this now because I reconfigured by hand and put the box into production. This is almost certainly the issue though as the new box had the serial port disabled in the BIOS.
You might want to consider a warning and option to disable in the restore script, just as you have with interface remapping.
