Restoring configuration during fresh install: PFI and ECL not working

rmaeder

I have two APU-1 units (AMD G-T40E), one used as a cold spare.
I took the spare and wanted to do a fresh install of 2.4.2, and restore the latest configuration taken from the active unit.
Seems easy enough: put the configuration on a FAT-formatted stick, at /conf/config.xml, and insert it into an USB port during install (or reboot).
This is described in the docs: https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Automatically_Restore_During_Install
The install itself via the serial console went fine, it's really a lot simpler than with older versions.

But it never found the configuration! I verified that

mount -t msdosfs /dev/da1s1 /mnt

worked and the config file was where it was supposed to be.
Once I was able to restore the configuration via the web interface it proceeded nicely with installing the missing packages.
This procedure would also be useful when replacing units, as it is supposed to look for such a configuration also on reboot (called ECL).

Is there a way to restore a configuration via the cmdline? Since I was able to access the file, this could have saved my day.

rmaeder

This problem remains unsolved. It just tried this method of restoring a configuration from an USB stick with a fresh install of 2.4.4.
Restoring it manually does work: mount the stick, overwite the config and delete the cache, or do /etc/rc.reload_all start

stephenw10

Did you try with config.xml in the root of the USB stick? That is what use with ECL and has worked in 2.4.4 last I tested.

/conf/config.xml will only work with PFI during install.

Steve

rmaeder

@stephenw10 said in Restoring configuration during fresh install: PFI and ECL not working:

Did you try with config.xml in the root of the USB stick? That is what use with ECL and has worked in 2.4.4 last I tested.

/conf/config.xml will only work with PFI during install.

Steve

I put it into /conf, and the docs say that both should work:

This procedure is nearly identical to the PFI method in the previous section, but you can insert the USB disk containing the configuration (in /config.xml or /config/config.xml) at boot time after the installation and the firewall will read it in from there.

stephenw10

To quote your quote: It must be in /config for ECL.
/conf only works at install time with PFI

Steve