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    2.4.3_1 system does not detect 2.4.4 release - troubleshooting instructions also fail?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
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    • B
      bblacey
      last edited by

      I have been a long-time user and fan of pfSense and have never had an issue upgrading however, the 2.4.4 release does not show on my system running 2.4.3-RELEASE-p1 (amd64) on Lanner gear. When following the upgrade troubleshooting instructions, the command pkg-static clean -ay ; pkg-static install -fy pkg pfSense-repo pfSense-upgrade fails with the following:

      pkg-static: Invalid configuration file: error while parsing <unknown>: line: 1, column: 4 - 'string value must not be empty', character: '0x00'
pkg-static: Error parsing: '/usr/local/etc/pkg/repos//pfSense.conf': error while parsing <unknown>: line: 1, column: 0 - 'key must begin with a letter', character: '0x00'
pkg-static: No active remote repositories configured
pkg-static: Invalid configuration file: error while parsing <unknown>: line: 1, column: 4 - 'string value must not be empty', character: '0x00'
pkg-static: Error parsing: '/usr/local/etc/pkg/repos//pfSense.conf': error while parsing <unknown>: line: 1, column: 0 - 'key must begin with a letter', character: '0x00'
Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
The most recent version of packages are already installed

      It appears that /user/local/etc/pkg/repos/pfSense.conf is empty.

      Any ideas how to remedy the situation? TIA.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • jimpJ
        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
        last edited by

        /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/pfSense.conf should be a pointer to the real repo file in /usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos/ -- are there any files present there? You may have to create a new link, for example:

        ln -s /usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos/pfSense-repo.conf /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/pfSense.conf

        Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

        Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

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        B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • B
          bblacey @jimp
          last edited by

          @jimp said in 2.4.3_1 system does not detect 2.4.4 release - troubleshooting instructions also fail?:

          /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/pfSense.conf should be a pointer to the real repo file in /usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos/ -- are there any files present there? You may have to create a new link, for example:

          ln -s /usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos/pfSense-repo.conf /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/pfSense.conf

          There are files in /usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos

          [2.4.3-RELEASE][root@firewall]/root: ls -l /usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos/ 
total 80
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   17 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-244.abi
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   18 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-244.altabi
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  444 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-244.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   34 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-244.descr
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   17 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-devel.abi
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   18 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-devel.altabi
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  463 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-devel.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   56 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-devel.descr
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   17 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-legacy-23.abi
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   18 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-legacy-23.altabi
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  444 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-legacy-23.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   51 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-legacy-23.descr
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   17 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-legacy-devel-23.abi
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   18 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-legacy-devel-23.altabi
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  458 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-legacy-devel-23.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   56 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo-legacy-devel-23.descr
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   17 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo.abi
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   18 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo.altabi
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  444 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel    0 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo.conf.default
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   30 Sep 14 15:30 pfSense-repo.descr
[2.4.3-RELEASE][root@firewall]/root:

          And the symlink exists...

          [2.4.3-RELEASE][root@firewall]/root: ls -al /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos
total 12
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel  512 Sep 27 21:00 .
drwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel  512 Mar 19  2018 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   26 Mar 19  2018 FreeBSD.conf
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   56 Sep 27 21:00 pfSense.conf -> /usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos/pfSense-repo-244.conf
[2.4.3-RELEASE][root@firewall]/root:

          But the target of the link (pfSense-repo-244.conf) is empty when cat'd... Oddly, ls -l shows that is it 444 bytes so...

          [2.4.3-RELEASE][root@firewall]/usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos: hexdump -C pfSense-repo-244.conf 
00000000  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001b0

          [2.4.3-RELEASE][root@firewall]/usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos: diff pfSense-repo.conf pfSense-repo-244.conf 
[2.4.3-RELEASE][root@firewall]/usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos:

          Thanks for your help/guidance. Any other pointers?

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          • jimpJ
            jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
            last edited by

            If the files are empty, I would be strongly suspicious of a disk issue. There is no telling what other files might be empty. Take a backup immediately and reinstall.

            You can recover the current configuration during the reinstallation process, making it very quick and painless: https://www.netgate.com/docs/pfsense/backup/automatically-restore-during-install.html#recover-config-xml

            Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

            Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

            Do not Chat/PM for help!

            B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • B
              bblacey @jimp
              last edited by

              @jimp said in 2.4.3_1 system does not detect 2.4.4 release - troubleshooting instructions also fail?:

              If the files are empty, I would be strongly suspicious of a disk issue. There is no telling what other files might be empty. Take a backup immediately and reinstall.

              You can recover the current configuration during the reinstallation process, making it very quick and painless: https://www.netgate.com/docs/pfsense/backup/automatically-restore-during-install.html#recover-config-xml

              Yeah, the eye of Hurricane Florence passed directly over my home and we have had a lot of power interruptions and surges. The power fluctuations killed the UPS that powers the firewall and I just replaced it. pfSense is running from on an SSD but I'll bet your suspicion is spot-on given the recent power instability. Thanks for your insight, help and guidance!

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              • B
                bblacey
                last edited by

                Just to close the loop here - following @jimp's instructions, I was able to install with Recover Config as advised. However, if I had it to do over again, I would have tried to install with 2.4.3_1 w/Recover and then upgrade vs. 2.4.4 w/Recover because the resulting install was very slow and became non-responsive whenever it brought up the WAN interface and while the install removed some packages, there were vestiges of the old settings in places like the Services menu and on the Service Status widget on the dashboard. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the 2.4.3_1 disk images are available anywhere.

                To resolve the slow WAN issue, I inspected the config diffs that the install/upgrade recorded and notice "an unknown interface change" - it turned out that advanced DHCP settings were enabled for the WAN interface with none entered so I disabled it and that seemed to solve the WAN access and performance issue.

                To eliminate the package vestiges, I installed the various packages and then removed them to purge them fully. I probably could have downloaded the config and removed any semblance of the packages instead but wanted to rely on more supported methods.

                The system seems to be working properly now and I really appreciate @jimp's prompt insight, help and guidance. Rock on!

                Cheers

                Lanner FW-7525A
                Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU C2358 @ 1.74GHz
                2 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 2 core(s)
                AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (active)
                Hardware crypto AES-CBC,AES-XTS,AES-GCM,AES-ICM

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