pfSense upgrade from 2.4.4_p3 to 2.4.5 on Intel Bay-Trail J1900 (Asrock Q1900-ITX)

mario.pfsense

Hi,

today I upgraded via pfSense web console from 2.4.4_p3 to 2.4.5
And after the upgrade the system won't boot up, the PC turns on, starts to boot pfSense but after few messages I get stuck on "Booting".
Only hard reset can restart the PC, no CRTL+ALT+DEL.
I created fresh USB stick with 2.4.5 but it also won't boot, the same deal, I get stuck on "Booting".

Is there a known limitation for my CPU (Intel Bay-Trail J1900 on my Asrock Q1900-ITX motherboard)?
Since some other posts related to FreeBSD 12 seem to report similar problems.

To resolve the issue I had to dig deep on the internet and find 2.4.3 that is clean and managed to install it and restore my backup from before.
Currently I am on 2.4.3 but would like to upgrade if possible.

Thanks!

stephenw10

You're almost certainly hitting the Intel HD graphics issue:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/upgrade-guide.html?highlight=hd%20graphics#upgrading-from-versions-older-than-pfsense-2-4-4

Interrupt the boot loader and at the prompt run:

set kern.vty=sc
boot

Once it's booted add that line to /boot/loader.conf.local

Steve

mario.pfsense

@stephenw10

Hi,

thanks for the info, I was hesitant at first since I got the system up and running but ended up in upgrading it from 2.4.3 back to 2.4.5 again.
Today I tested your command and it worked!
I was able to see the output on the monitor and config the firewall afterwards (restored my configuration).

Few points and lessons here:

Even though I was stuck on "Booting" screen with ":" and blinking cursor, the firewall was actually operational, I just had to access the web configuration through the initial page 192.168.1.1 (it was my mistake when I thought that it didn't boot, it booted normally but only the monitor wasn't displaying the process of booting and the boot menu after complete bootup)
The added command at boot (set kern.vty=sc) helped with the display output on the monitor (attached to the firewall PC) and I was able to see the boot process along with the boot menu afterwards
The adding of the command (set kern.vty=sc) to the /boot/loader.conf.local didn't help, the boot process didn't pick up the command
To use the /boot/loader.conf.local I had to enter "include /boot/loader.conf.local" into the /boot/local.rc file. After that it picks up the /boot/loader.conf.local file and now everything is working as expected (I can see the boot process normally on the Firewall attached monitor and no manual actions are required).

Thanks for the help, I am writing this for anyone else that might encounter something simmiliar.

Regards,
Mario

stephenw10

Hmm, curious. It should certainly read /boot/loader.conf.local by default.

jimp

When adding directives to /boot/loader.conf.local you don't use set on the contents. In there, you would just have:

kern.vty=sc