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    2.4.0 does not boot without Monitor

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
    35 Posts 17 Posters 15.6k Views
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    • ?
      Guest
      last edited by

      Can you post hardware specs and other info?

      It's a bit like saying my car won't start - what's wrong with it!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • M
        Mufflon
        last edited by

        Oh, sorry . Forgot this.

        Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6600 CPU. I use a shuttle xpc dh170.

        Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6600 CPU @ 3.30GHz

        Current: 3300 MHz, Max: 3301 MHz

        4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)

        AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (active)

        Bios is up to date.

        Do you need any more information?

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        • DerelictD
          Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
          last edited by

          Unfortunately, that will probably need to be dealt with on the bios/uefi side. What did you upgrade from? If 2.3.4 that did not support UEFI at all. Perhaps there's a "legacy bios mode" or something on that hardware that might fix that. pfSense/FreeBSD does not care if there is a monitor connected or not, as long as there is a console presented it can attach to.

          Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
          A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
          DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
          Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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          • M
            Mufflon
            last edited by

            the previews version was 2.3.4-p1
            So, you suggest that it is a hardware problem of my device?
            But why did this problem arise recently (and not for the 2.3.4 version)?

            Accordingly, UEFI should be enabled/disabled?

            (sorry, I still just don't it)

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            • DerelictD
              Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
              last edited by

              FreeBSD 11.1 supports UEFI. FreeBSD 10.3 did not.

              It is really hard to say. If you can't boot now (without a monitor connected) I would suggest trying to disable UEFI and trying again.

              Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
              A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
              DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
              Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • M
                Mufflon
                last edited by

                okay!
                This did not lead to a solution.

                Mayby, me description was a bit missleading, because the machine itself boots, but not pfsense.

                I try to describe the problem in detail:
                After the update from 2.3.4-p1 to 2.4.0 the system only starts in case of a plugged-in monitor.
                In case of an unplugged monitor the system does not start or does not start pfsense (the machine itself starts!)
                Accordingly, I can not access pfsense to get any logs and other info (plugging in the the monitor has not effect, of course)

                In this case, I have to plugin the monitor and re-boot the machine. Now, pfsense boots and everything works fine.

                To sum up: the machine starts, but not pfsense, in the case of an unplugged monitor.

                According to UEFI:
                I disabled it, but then I get the message that there is no boot option.

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                • DerelictD
                  Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                  last edited by

                  Then pfSense/FreeBSD does not have a console to attach to. It is up to the host system to present one.

                  You are trying to use a system designed for digital signage as a firewall. It is going to be difficult to diagnose if the only available output is to the console and you are having trouble booting without a console.

                  You might try seeing if it will boot if you change the console to serial in System > Advanced.

                  Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                  A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                  DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                  Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • M
                    Mufflon
                    last edited by

                    okay…

                    This is the actual setup... and it does not work

                    https://picload.org/view/dgipwrpl/options.png.html

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                    • DerelictD
                      Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                      last edited by

                      Sorry. That's all I can suggest. Maybe someone else will chime in with other suggestions on that hardware.

                      Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                      A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                      DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                      Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • M
                        Mufflon
                        last edited by

                        Ok… solved it.
                        There was a very recent (yesterday) bios update.
                        Now it works perfect.

                        However, many thanks for assisting me.

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                        • ?
                          Guest
                          last edited by

                          So not a bug in pfSense then… hmm, how unusual... not. ::)

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • B
                            Bleupomme
                            last edited by

                            This just happened to me too on a shuttle XPC:

                            • Updated the BIOS, but this did not solve the problem
                            • Brute forced BIOS settings
                              -> by disabling the Serial ports the computer boots normally

                            Does pfsense 2.4 default to Serial and wait for some sort of connection when there is no monitor?

                            My two cents…

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                            • ?
                              Guest
                              last edited by

                              No, nothing to do with pfSense.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • K
                                kpa
                                last edited by

                                The console initialization is the BIOS/UEFI's job, the FreeBSD boot code that looks for a usable VGA/UEFI console blindly trusts what it's told about the hardware, if there is no console present it will not try to use one nor will it fall back to serial console on its own.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • B
                                  Breezelaters
                                  last edited by

                                  @Bleupomme:

                                  This just happened to me too on a shuttle XPC:

                                  • Updated the BIOS, but this did not solve the problem
                                  • Brute forced BIOS settings
                                    -> by disabling the Serial ports the computer boots normally

                                  Does pfsense 2.4 default to Serial and wait for some sort of connection when there is no monitor?

                                  My two cents…

                                  This fixed my firewall not booting after upgrading to 2.4 for me on a Shuttle DH110 mini PC.  Disabling the serial ports allowed it to boot without a monitor attached to the HDMI port.  Thank you!

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • ?
                                    Guest
                                    last edited by

                                    The only way pfSense could be perhaps invited, could be that someone is taking the false image, not matching
                                    or according to his hardware, otherwise it is often related to the hardware or BIOS of this hardware.

                                    pfSense-CE-memstick-serial-2.4.1-RELEASE-arch.img.gz USB memstick installer (Serial Console)
                                    pfSense-CE-memstick-2.4.1-RELEASE-arch.img.gz         USB memstick installer (VGA Console)

                                    pfSense-CE-2.3.5-RELEASE-size-arch-nanobsd.img.gz       NanoBSD/embedded (Serial Console)
                                    pfSense-CE-2.3.5-RELEASE-size-arch-nanobsd_vga.img.gz NanoBSD/embedded (VGA Console)

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • K
                                      Kenni
                                      last edited by

                                      @Breezelaters:

                                      @Bleupomme:

                                      This just happened to me too on a shuttle XPC:

                                      • Updated the BIOS, but this did not solve the problem
                                      • Brute forced BIOS settings
                                        -> by disabling the Serial ports the computer boots normally

                                      Does pfsense 2.4 default to Serial and wait for some sort of connection when there is no monitor?

                                      My two cents…

                                      This fixed my firewall not booting after upgrading to 2.4 for me on a Shuttle DH110 mini PC.  Disabling the serial ports allowed it to boot without a monitor attached to the HDMI port.  Thank you!

                                      +1 :)

                                      Thank you so much, there are definitely some compatibility issues with Shuttle PCs and pfSense 2.4…I'm using a Shuttle DS77U with latest v1.05 BIOS, a clean install of pfSense 2.4.2 (with ZFS), and the BIOS configured for legacy boot (no UEFI).

                                      Everything was working perfectly fine when connected to a screen through HDMI, but once I disconnected the screen, the system never booted to a working state. Disabling the two serial ports in BIOS did indeed fix the issue.

                                      I don't know when pfSense/FreeBSD starts catching ACPI calls (like when you press the power button), but I did notice that when the system wasn't able to boot, a click on the power button resulted in an instant (hard) shutdown. When the system booted successfully, a click on the power button would result in the OS catching the ACPI call and initiated a proper shutdown. Eg. I assume it starts to respond to such ACPI calls briefly after the kernel has initiated, so it could seem like the kernel never took off. I don't have time for further debugging of the issue at the moment, unfortunately, so this workaround will have to do for now.

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                                      • N
                                        NRgia
                                        last edited by

                                        One of the machines is a Shuttle XH110. The same issue happens. And I use the same workaround.

                                        The idea is, I want to use a nullmodem serial cable + usb adaptor to connect to the system, in order to be able to update BIOS, or see errors, without attaching a monitor, keyboard.

                                        I mean, why have a serial console if we can't use it.

                                        From the comments above I see that there is no agreement on where the root cause is, Free-BSD or Shuttle BIOS.

                                        Can anybody help further?

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • J
                                          jack290
                                          last edited by

                                          I have a motherboard which displays a manufacturers logo when starting the boot process.  The logo display can be turned off in the BIOS,  and the machine will then boot normally with a monitor attached.  However, the machine will not boot without a monitor attached if the logo display is  turned off.

                                          I set up the machine, obviously with an attached monitor, with the logo display set to off and it booted just fine.  When using the system I do not have an attached monitor and it took some while to figure out why the system hung at boot without the monitor.  The BIOS default is to display the logo - I found out that the system booted without monitor with BIOS defaults, but not with my seemingly small "tweak".

                                          The BIOS is now set to display the manufacturers logo,  no monitor attached,  and the system boots OK.

                                          This may help,

                                          Regards.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • N
                                            NRgia
                                            last edited by

                                            @jack290:

                                            I have a motherboard which displays a manufacturers logo when starting the boot process.  The logo display can be turned off in the BIOS,  and the machine will then boot normally with a monitor attached.  However, the machine will not boot without a monitor attached if the logo display is  turned off.

                                            I set up the machine, obviously with an attached monitor, with the logo display set to off and it booted just fine.  When using the system I do not have an attached monitor and it took some while to figure out why the system hung at boot without the monitor.  The BIOS default is to display the logo - I found out that the system booted without monitor with BIOS defaults, but not with my seemingly small "tweak".

                                            The BIOS is now set to display the manufacturers logo,  no monitor attached,  and the system boots OK.

                                            This may help,

                                            Regards.

                                            I don't see any boot logo on Shuttle pc's, and there are no options to disable the logo anyway. The ideea is, if it was a hardware issue, why the console via com ports it's working on Linux ?

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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