Nanobsd 2.3.1_1 to 2.3.1_5 upgrade failed - need help to recover

skywalker

All,
i was a bit uncautious upgrading an Alix nanobsd install without a fall-back.
After reboot, the box never came back to live.
Serial console shows:

BIOS drive C: is disk0
BIOS 640kB/261120kB available memory

FreeBSD/x86 bootstrap loader, Revision 1.1
(root@ce23-i386-builder, Tue May 17 19:19:55 CDT 2016)
Loading /boot/defaults/loader.conf
/boot/kernel/kernel text=0x121f21a inflate: invalid code lengths set

readin failed

elf32_loadimage: read failed
can't load file '/boot/kernel/kernel': input/output error
can't load file '/boot/kernel/kernel': input/output error
|
Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt.
Booting [/boot/kernel/kernel]...
/boot/kernel/kernel text=0x121f21a inflate: invalid code lengths set

readin failed

elf32_loadimage: read failed
can't load 'kernel'

Type '?' for a list of commands, 'help' for more detailed help.
OK

Can I recover the box by switching back to the working boot slice on that command prompt? If so how?

thanks so much for help!

phil.davis

Have the console working at the speed set in the BIOS (t might be spitting out the BIOS stuff at 9600 baud). Then watch where it says it is booting from slice 1 or 2 (I think it says F1 or F2 at that point). Press the opposite number to select the other slice. You need to press the ordinary number (1 or 2 key), not the F1 or F2 key.

skywalker

Thanks Phil!
That worked and will be noted in my knowledge-base for future reference.
Before trying this again, I wanted to manually duplicate the slice and check both work well. However duplicating in the web interface times out, there is no progress bar or anything for it.
I have therefore followed a hint I found by googling to use the command line as follows:

nanobsd_detect_slice_info();
global $TOFLASH, $COMPLETE_PATH, $COMPLETE_BOOT_PATH;
echo "Will clone FROM $COMPLETE_BOOT_PATH TO $TOFLASH\n";
if(nanobsd_clone_slice($COMPLETE_PATH)) { echo "SUCCESS\n"; } else { echo "FAILURE\n"; }
nanobsd_detect_slice_info();
exec

I hope that does the same thing.
best!

skywalker

So to be on the safer side I have kicked of a new upgrade attempt on the console which failed like this:

[38/39] Upgrading pfSense-base-nanobsd from 2.3.1_1 to 2.3.1_5...
===> Keeping a copy of current version mtree
[38/39] Extracting pfSense-base-nanobsd-2.3.1_5:
pkg: archive_read_extract() errno -1: Lzma library error: Corrupted input data
[38/39] Extracting pfSense-base-nanobsd-2.3.1_5... done
[38/39] Deleting files for pfSense-base-nanobsd-2.3.1_5: ..... done
>>> Locking package pfSense-kernel-pfSense_wrap... done.
pkg: open(/bin/sh): No such file or directory
pkg: open(/bin/sh): No such file or directory
pkg: Unable to determine ABI
pkg: Cannot parse configuration file!
pkg: open(/bin/sh): No such file or directory
pkg: open(/bin/sh): No such file or directory
pkg: Unable to determine ABI
pkg: Cannot parse configuration file!

any hint?

cmb

You're missing files that are a key core part of the system. Seems likely your CF is flaky.