Automatic update from 2.2.5 to 2.2.6 went wrong (can't find Kernel) [SG-4860]

Chti

Greetings

Today I tried updating my SG-4860 unit from 2.2.5 to 2.2.6 using the GUI build-in update, but this time things went wrong (as opposed to all my previous updates). Now the unit no longer boots.

I followed a couple of troubleshooting posts, installed a SiLabs driver on my Mac and managed to access the console:
The SG seems to boot up fine, initially, but then stops with the following message:


can't find kernel
Error while including /boot/menu.rc, in the line:
menu-display
\
can't load 'kernel'

From what I read in various posts it seems I need to reflash my unit from an image file (please correct me if I am wrong here).

I located the download area for the image files, but here already I am not sure which file to download for my SG-4860:


netgate-memstick-2.2.6-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz.sha256
netgate-memstick-ADI-2.2.6-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz
netgate-memstick-ADI-2.2.6-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz.sha256
netgate-memstick-serial-2.2.6-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz
netgate-memstick-serial-2.2.6-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz.sha256

I selected this one:


netgate-memstick-ADI-2.2.6-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz

and in the OSX Terminal entered the following command:

gzcat netgate-memstick-ADI-2.2.6-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=16k

(considering disk2 is my USB stick)

The command does write for a while to the stick but the disk still appears as uninitialized to OSX.
I presume this is due to the file format.

I plugged the USB stick into the SG-4860, power cycled and expected it to boot the from the USB stick, but the USB stick seems simply ignored (the drive's light doesn't blink a single time), and I end up with the same error message.

Pressed F12 (FN+CMD+F12) during the bootup sequence show this:

But selecting Option 1 doesn't do anything either (same as above).

Would anyone be able to tell me what I am doing wrong and/or what I am supposed to do?

Many thanks in advance

cmb

Option 1 is the onboard eMMC. Your USB drive isn't seen or (more likely) isn't bootable. Make sure you umount it first if OS X had it mounted, that might have made it fail to write out correctly.
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Writing_Disk_Images#Writing_Images_in_Mac_OS_X

Chti

Hi
Thanks for the quick reply.
Yes I made sure OSX had it unmounted first before writing the image.
I have tried twice but with no succes.

So just to be sure:
1/ am I using the right image file?
2/ once I plug the USB stick in the unit, will it try to boot from it first automatically or do I need to select it manually?

I will try with a different drive to see if the USB stick is to blame…

Chti

Ok apparently my USB stick had an issue. I tried with a different one and now it's booting.
Will try to restore now…