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    PfBlocker broke my pfsense

    pfBlockerNG
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    • M
      MikeP715
      last edited by

      I was so excited to run pfsense. I bought the gear, downloaded and installed pfsense and pfblocker, ran the wizard and I was off to the races. My box has 8Gb ram and 64Gb storage. I thought it could handle enabling TLD blocking. saved, reloaded, then it died. The console reported "Swap pager out of swap space" What did I do wrong? Is it that easy to blow up a PFsense box? It would only boot to a # prompt at which point I was at a loss on how to troubleshoot.

      BBcan177B 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • BBcan177B
        BBcan177 Moderator @MikeP715
        last edited by

        @mikep-0

        With Unbound Mode, and TLD Enabled, Unbound will create a pointer in memory for each domain.

        So more domains == more memory.

        Click on the blue infoblock for the TLD option for more details.

        There is code to try and reduce this issue, but there is no easy way to stop Unbound OOM.

        With the new Python mode, it uses considerable less memory and is faster.

        You should do a reboot following that OOM issue.

        "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

        Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
        Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
        Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

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        • BBcan177B
          BBcan177 Moderator @MikeP715
          last edited by

          @mikep-0 said in PfBlocker broke my pfsense:

          The console reported "Swap pager out of swap space"

          Re-read your post. What else is using memory in your box?

          Run a "top -aSH" to see

          "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

          Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
          Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
          Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • M
            MikeP715 @BBcan177
            last edited by MikeP715

            @bbcan177 Thanks for your reply. My kid had e-learning and I had to get something working. Unfortunately I blew it away and installed Untangle 14 day trial. I might reinstall and try again afterwards. Do I need more than 8 gigs of ram? The only packages I was running were suricata and pfblocker. Pfsense ought to have a "Safe-mode" choice of some kind where you can boot without loading packages. I would have tried restoring to factory defaults and attempt to reconfigure.

            BBcan177B S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • BBcan177B
              BBcan177 Moderator @MikeP715
              last edited by

              @mikep-0 said in PfBlocker broke my pfsense:

              @bbcan177 Thanks for your reply. My kid had e-learning and I had to get something working. Unfortunately I blew it away and installed Untangle 14 day trial. I might reinstall and try again afterwards. Do I need more than 8 gigs of ram? The only packages I was running were suricata and pfblocker. Pfsense ought to have a "Safe-mode" choice of some kind where you can boot without loading packages. I would have tried restoring to factory defaults and attempt to reconfigure.

              The wizard doesn't add that many domains, so if you just enabled TLD with the default wizard, 8GB of memory is more than enough. I suspect that you had some other issue that caused a lack of memory in your install.

              Start with basic settings, see how it goes, ensure that its working for a bit, then add one things at a time, rinse and repeat...

              "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

              Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
              Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
              Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • S
                SteveITS Galactic Empire @MikeP715
                last edited by

                @mikep-0 said in PfBlocker broke my pfsense:

                Pfsense ought to have a "Safe-mode" choice of some kind where you can boot without loading packages

                Did you not get the console menu during boot?
                https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/config/factory-defaults.html

                Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
                Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

                M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • M
                  MikeP715 @SteveITS
                  last edited by

                  @teamits I did not. It halted during boot and led me to a "#" prompt

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