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    No config.xml found

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • JKnottJ
      JKnott @gtrovato
      last edited by

      @gtrovato

      I have been using pfsense for about 5 years and have never seen that. I also have several backups, should it be necessary to replace that file. Check to see if that file is there, then reboot properly and see if it's still there.

      PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
      i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
      UniFi AC-Lite access point

      I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

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      • jimpJ
        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
        last edited by

        Any number of things changed, the hardware, the disk controller/disk itself, the OS, etc.

        Sometimes the OS will cache writes, but also disks lie to the OS about whether or not they have flushed data to storage in the name of speed. Some filesystems cope better than others. If you "write" to disk and immediately yank the power there is no telling what state you left things in.

        ZFS is more resilient against this kind of problem than UFS. It's not perfect, but much better.

        Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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        • AKEGECA
          AKEGEC
          last edited by

          @gtrovato , it could happen with different hardware other than Netgate hardware. This means your writing/reading speeds are sometimes not synchronize,as a result corrupted.

          Just unplug and re-plug the power switch, do it over again. Or you can boot (S)ingle user with pfsense bootable usb and type: fsck -y
          /sbin/reboot

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          • A
            akom
            last edited by akom

            I just had this issue after several power outages in a row. My UPS failed also. What happened was that pfsense backed up an empty configuration file, no doubt because of the rapid power cycling. It then would attempt to restore it on boot, and hang.

            The solution was to log in, find the offending backup file (zero size) and delete it. After that, the router booted using the previous backup file.

            This is probably a bug.

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            • jimpJ
              jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
              last edited by

              It's not a bug per se, but a known problem with UFS in FreeBSD, and with many filesystems in general. Removing power unexpectedly leads to an unclean filesystem. The fix is to use a proper UPS and avoid unclean shutdowns where possible.

              If you want to have better protection against it, use ZFS if you can. It's much better than UFS when it comes to avoiding this kind of problem, as mentioned earlier in the thread..

              Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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              Do not Chat/PM for help!

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              • P
                peterlecki
                last edited by

                I just experienced this in my brand new SG-5100. I gracefully shut down computers, of course, but never in my 20-year career in IT have I seen an appliance corrupt its config because the power was pulled. That's kind the whole purpose of using appliances versus VMs.

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                • A
                  akom
                  last edited by

                  I still believe that adding a bit of logic would make the appliance more resilient. I understand "filesystem is not our problem", but "this config backup is unusable so let's try the one before" seems pretty reasonable to me.

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                  • jimpJ
                    jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                    last edited by

                    It does try to use backups if the main configuration is corrupt. By default about 30 such backups are kept on disk, and it will try them all. There was recently a bug in that code, but it's been fixed in 2.5.2.

                    Also, it's possible that other parts of the filesystem are corrupt, not just the configuration file(s).

                    If you are worried about that kind of thing, reinstall using ZFS and also use a UPS.

                    Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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                    • A
                      akom
                      last edited by

                      That explains it, thanks @jimp .
                      I think you're referring to https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/11748

                      Based on my experience with 2.5.1, I was under the mistaken impression that this was not a feature.

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                      • jimpJ
                        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                        last edited by

                        Yes, that is the issue. But to hit that problem both the current and first backup both had to be corrupted in just the wrong way.

                        Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

                        Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

                        Do not Chat/PM for help!

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                        • P
                          peterlecki
                          last edited by

                          I made the changes again since the previous config save. Then downloaded the xml for safe keeping. Attempted to put the device in production but it wasn't working. So I took it back down and tried to see what's up. Now it's bootlooping, orange LEDs flashing every minute, never comes up. This is a brand new device and even if it could be wiped, reloaded, I'm not gonna put such an unreliable device in production. RMA requested.

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