[Resolved] VK-T40E4-30GB – LAN DHCP, WebGUI fails

IamHeath

I have a newpfSense box, model in Subject. I started configuring it last week. Mainly, I set the WAN and LAN IPs, and started configuring a VPN. Everything seemed okay until I lost power. I didn't have connectivity, and the console cables didn't work after I found a laptop that still had a serial port. (New job, getting things in shape.) Fast-forward a week, finally have a USB->Serial cable. Okay, I can start troubleshooting.

Step 1, reset to factory default through console. (Previously did the 'reset' button as described in another post.)

Result 1. After it says it completed successfully, and rebooted, I get the same symptom, 'Cannot connect' error in browser, and box will not assign IP for attached machines. Okay, I can move to step 2.

Step 2, restart WebConfigurator.

Result 2. Browser reports 500 ISE.

Step 3. Restart PHP-FPM.

Result 3. Errors:

>>> Killing php-fpm
[ERROR] [pool lighty] cannot get gid for group 'wheel'
[ERROR] FPM initialization failed

Browser now displays 503 - Service Not Available.

Step 4. Assign static IP in the /24 range that LAN should believe it is. Enable SSHd, option 14

sudo service netif restart
bge0: blah-blah
            inet 192.168.1.2 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
            media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex,master>_
            status: active

~% ssh 192.168.1.1
ssh: connect to host 192.168.1.1 port 22: Operation timed out</full-duplex,master>

Step 5. Option 4) Reset to factory defaults

Results 5. Identical to previous steps after reboot.

Step 6. Option 13) Upgrade from console.

Option 1) Update from URL
'auto' to use <--foo-->latest.tgz
'Success'
Reboot
Assign interfaces
Set Interface(s) IP address
[code]

Results 6.  Identical to all previous steps.[/code]

This is where I am at.  Am I missing something?  Please help me migrate from an aging linux csf system that crashes every few days.

Thanks

Addendum:

[code]
I have tested all three ports by reassigning them.  All function as WAN, and can ping out to the internet using Option 7) Ping host.

I also ran Option 9) pfTop and watched for dhscp requests, but saw no activity on any port.

I verified functionality of laptop (pcBSD) and desktop (Windows7) on another switch.  They send the requests and handle leases fine.
[/code]

IamHeath

So, Resolved. I submitted a trouble-ticket with support. Since I couldn't find any reference of this on the search engines or within this forum, I'll post the fix:


From the looks of your errors, it seems that /etc has become corrupt on your filesystem. The safest thing to do here is a clean install.

The memstick image you'll need to download is located here:
https://firmware.netgate.com/firmware/memstick/netgate-memstick-serial-2.2-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz

Instructions for extracting that image and writing it out to a USB memstick can be found here:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Writing_Disk_Images

Once written, connect to your serial console and boot device from the USB memstick. You may need to pick Option 3 to boot from USB device at the first menu.
At the install menu, choose quick/easy install. When prompted for the system type select APU/VK-T40E.