Upgrading to 2.4.4_3 and failed and I am stuck!

kcallis

@dragoangel Thanks for the rapid response. How does back up the config.xml file if the only connection I have is via the console cable?

dragoangel

@kcallis :

What hardware/hypervisor you run?
If this hardware: you can put-in and mount preformed flash-drive and use cp to copy file
If this VM you can simply use "Snapshot" and try to reinstall without copying file: on full reinstall of OS - installation wizard will give you option to recover from config of previous install. This little bit risky: if you will format drive and not finish install you will loose your config.xml. But with Snapshot you can simply go back.
If you was enabled Auto Config Backups and know your "Device Key" and "Encryption Key" then you not need to worry - you can restore from cloud backups.

kcallis

@dragoangel said in Upgrading to 2.4.4_3 and failed and I am stuck!:

@kcallis :

What hardware/hypervisor you run?

If this hardware: you can put-in and mount preformed flash-drive and use cp to copy file

If this VM you can simply use "Snapshot" and try to reinstall without copying file: on full reinstall of OS - installation wizard will give you option to recover from config of previous install. This little bit risky: if you will format drive and not finish install you will loose your config.xml. But with Snapshot you can simply go back.

If you was enabled Auto Config Backups and know your "Device Key" and "Encryption Key" then you not need to worry - you can restore from cloud backups.

I am using the Netgate APU, probably the last unit before the new devices. So one console port, one USB port (duh, I forgot the I have a USB port) and three interfaces (WAN, LAN, OPT).

viragomann

If you have SSH enabled you may also use SCP or WinSCP to download the config via network.

dragoangel

@viragomann he can if LAN connectivity or SSHD daemon not broken too...

kcallis

Looking at the Backup and Recovery, I installed a boot thumb drive in the first USB port and a vfat formatted thumb drive in the second. I then tried to recover the config.xml, but nothing was written to the data thrumb drive. What did I miss? I am not a FreeBSD person, so I am not sure how to mount the data drive so I can copy the file. And do I need to create a config directory on the data drive or can I just name it config.xml and do I need to convert if from dos2unix? I do now that the file is in place in the /tmp/recoved_config/config.xml.

dragoangel

If you can still boot to current OS: first backup your CONFIG.XML. For this you need not boot from Installation Flash-Drive - remove it.
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/backup/automatically-restore-during-install.html
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/apu/reinstall-pfsense.html
In future better begin to backup configs before updates, or use Cloud Backups or use separated Linux machine to take backups remotely by bash script with crontab:

#!/bin/bash
 
# [Editable] Source pfSense IP Address
PFSENSE_URL=https://pfsense:port
 
# [Editable] pfSense User (create user with allowed backups page only permissions)
PF_USER=backup
 
# [Editable] pfSense Password
PF_PASSWORD=password
 
# [Editable] ZIP Password
ZIP_PASSWORD=zip-password
 
# [Editable] Destination backups folder:
PFSENSE_BACKUP_ROOT=/mnt/some_storage
 
# [Editable] Temprorary folder for rsync files:
TEMP_FOLDER=/tmp/pfsense_backup
 
# [Static] Common envirement:
DATE=$(date +"%Y%m%d")
TIME=$(date +%Y.%m.%d' '%H:%M:%S)
PFSENSE_CONFIG=$DATE-config.zip
 
#
# Begin backup job
#################################################
mkdir -p $PFSENSE_BACKUP_ROOT
mkdir -p $TEMP_FOLDER
rm -rf $TEMP_FOLDER/*
chown -R $(whoami):$(whoami) $TEMP_FOLDER
chmod -R 750 $TEMP_FOLDER
cd $TEMP_FOLDER
 
#
# Use WGET to get backups, documented in https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Remote_Config_Backup
##################################################
# Fetch the login form and save the cookies and CSRF token
echo $TIME Starting backup...
wget -qO- --keep-session-cookies --save-cookies cookies.txt --no-check-certificate $PFSENSE_URL/diag_backup.php | grep "name='__csrf_magic'" | sed 's/.*value="\(.*\)".*/\1/' > csrf.txt
 
# Submit the login form along with the first CSRF token and save the second CSRF token (can't reuse the same file) -- now the script is logged in and can take action.
wget -qO- --keep-session-cookies --load-cookies cookies.txt --save-cookies cookies.txt --no-check-certificate --post-data "login=Login&usernamefld=$PF_USER&passwordfld=$PF_PASSWORD&__csrf_magic=$(cat csrf.txt)" $PFSENSE_URL/diag_backup.php  | grep "name='__csrf_magic'" | sed 's/.*value="\(.*\)".*/\1/' > csrf2.txt
 
# Submit the download form along with the second CSRF token to save a copy of config.xml
wget --keep-session-cookies --load-cookies cookies.txt --no-check-certificate --post-data "download=download&donotbackuprrd=yes&__csrf_magic=$(head -n 1 csrf2.txt)" $PFSENSE_URL/diag_backup.php -O config.xml
 
zip -P $ZIP_PASSWORD $PFSENSE_BACKUP_ROOT/$PFSENSE_CONFIG config.xml
rm -rf $TEMP_FOLDER
 
# Delete backups older then 14 days.
find  $PFSENSE_BACKUP_ROOT -type f -mtime +14 -name '*-config.zip' -delete

kcallis

@dragoangel I can get into single mode, but I don't know how to mount the usb thumb drive.

dragoangel

@kcallis simply use Google for this, pfSense is FreeBSD based, so mostly manual for FreeBSD can work with pfSense.
Try:

mount -v -t msdosfs /dev/find_your_drive_here /mnt/

or

mount_msdosfs /dev/find_your_drive_here /mnt/

try Tab to see possible commands to use in console when write first part of command =)

kcallis

@dragoangel Thanks... I couldn't find the proper type!!! msdosfs!!! I was calling it all sort of other names.

kcallis

@dragoangel @viragomann The problem is be squared away and thanks for all the pointers!