Strange bootslice changing after update 2.1.5 -> 2.2

EmL

I have a little test environment (Alix) at work. Before updating 2.1.5 to 2.2RC I duplicated my active slice 1 to slice 2, which would enable me to have 2.1.5 on slice 1 and 2.2RC on slice 2 after the update. After duplicating I'd defined slice 2 as the active slice and rebooted my alix.

After the reboot I set up the proper update url and performed directly the update from 2.1.5 to 2.2RC and rebooted again.

Then i noticed, that my boot slice was again slice 1 on which i thought, 2.1.5 should be there. But it wasn't anymore. It was now 2.2RC. Logged into WebGUI again and switched to slice 2 … just to look if 2.1.5 is maybe there ... and rebooted.

After rebooting in slice 2 i saw in WebGUI, that there is now the old 2.1.5, which i meant it should effective now be located in slice 1. But my serial output via putty shows me the following:

*******************************************************************************
* WARNING!                                                                    *
* The current configuration has been created with a newer version of pfSense  *
* than this one! This can lead to serious misbehavior and even security       *
* holes! You are urged to either upgrade to a newer version of pfSense or     *
* revert to the default configuration immediately!                            *
*******************************************************************************

It seems like there's something going wrong while the update. Maybe the update installs everytime to slice 1? And maybe the update updated my config file from the wrong installation base/slice?

After restoring my old 2.1.5 config the error was away. Finally i got 2.1.5 and 2.2RC working on my alix. Just with some issues and on interchanged slices. So it's not a real problem, but I think it's worth to report it here.

btw: Also i noticed, that i normally would expect, that you have some seconds time to choose your bootup slice … and there was a message which indicates that. I think the message is gone. I don't see it anymore. Also a power off/on doesn't show me that (regardless of whether booting 2.1.5 or 2.2RC).

phil.davis

The upgrade always installs onto the opposite slice to what you are booted from. That way you do not lose a known working bootable slice.
You copied 2.1.5 slice 1 to slice 2, then rebooted from slice 2. So you started with 2.1.5 on both slices.
The upgrade then wrote 2.2-RC to slice 1, and switched the booting to boot from slice 1.
That is as designed - slice 2 contains the old 2.1.5 as you have found out.

So actually there is no need to do any slice replicating before an upgrade - the "other" slice is going to have the upgrade written to it anyway.

From 2.1.5 to 2.2-RC there are some format changes to things in config.xml - the config gets converted as part of the upgrade. If you go back to 2.1.5 then you should really restore the original config.xml - and of course everyone makes a backupof config.xml before upgrading.

EmL

ooops … so i completely misunderstand the philosphy behind until now!

I thought i have to ensure manually to make a backup from my slice. This means also, that there is no way to hold a defined backup of a working config on a different slice since the update and switch slice is performed automatically. Thanks for clarification and point me that out.