Kernel Panic error while installing

stephenw10 · Feb 12, 2018, 11:30 AM

What version of pfSense was it previously running? What version are you trying to install now?

At the db> prompt if you run 'bt' you will see the backtrace from the crash which might give us more to go on.

Steve

jotape956 · Feb 12, 2018, 1:59 PM

"What version of pfSense was it previously running?" I'm not sure but definitely one of the latest ones.
"What version are you trying to install now?" I've tried 2.1, 2.3.5 and 2.4.2

After running bt at the db> prompt I get:
db> bt
Tracing pid 0 tid 100000 td 0xffffffff81391dd0
kdb_enter() at kdb_enter+0x3b
panic() at panic+0x180
interrupt_trigger() at interrupt_trigger+0x3e
madt_parse_ints() at madt_parse_ints+0x1cd
acpi_walk_subtables() at acpi_walk_subtables+0x29
madt_setup_io() at madt_setup_io+0x32
apic_setup_io() at apic_setup_io+0x13
mi_startup() at mi_startup+0x77
btext() at btext+0x2c
db>

kpa · Feb 12, 2018, 2:06 PM

Based on the backtrace it looks very much like a buggy ACPI BIOS.

johnpoz · Feb 12, 2018, 3:43 PM

This is a small box that I bought with pfSense installed.

Where did you buy this box - its not legal for a company to sell pre installed pfsense boxes without being partnered with netgate/pfsense..

jotape956 · Feb 13, 2018, 1:23 PM

Where did you buy this box

This is a Qotom box that I bought for testing purposes.

This is the one that I got: https://goo.gl/Kns8ER

kpa · Feb 13, 2018, 3:23 PM

That's ok otherwise but they aren't allowed to sell that with pfSense preloaded because that is a violation of the pfSense trademark. If they just sold it without anything preloaded and stated that pfSense is supported on it that would be fine.

jdeloach · Feb 13, 2018, 4:43 PM

@johnpoz:

This is a small box that I bought with pfSense installed.

Where did you buy this box - its not legal for a company to sell pre installed pfsense boxes without being partnered with netgate/pfsense..

This policy may be true, but if one looks out on Ebay, there are dozens of companies selling boxes similar to the Qotom somebody posted in another message with pfSense installed. They have been doing this for years. I have considered buying one but have stuck to using another pc to run pfSense because I thought it was more reliable.

If it was really illegal, I would have thought somebody would shut them down by now.

johnpoz · Feb 13, 2018, 4:59 PM

My take on it is enforcement and finding of them.. Your talking sites in other countries, etc. etc. I do believe netgate/pfsense has gone after those that they can.. But I believe its almost an impossible task..

And then when you have people here that suggest people buy such hardware - it doesn't help.. There is one thing suggesting build your own PC or buy hardware from decent sites that abide but trademark rules, etc. But there are quite often links to hardware here that clearly are in violation - sometimes the links are removed from the forum here.. But good luck removing them from sites like reddit and other forums, etc.

Like the saying friends do not let friends drive drunk - around here is should be friends of pfsense do not let others buy crap ;)

stephenw10 · Feb 13, 2018, 11:47 PM

Mmmm. :-\

But, yes, that looks like a bad table entry in the ACPI the BIOS is passing. Is there a BIOS update available?

Are there any ACPI options in the BIOS?

Did you add any hardware to it?

There are quite a few people running that (as much as I'd rather they weren't ;)) so something is odd with yours.

Steve

jotape956 · Feb 15, 2018, 1:27 PM

Update:

I reset the bios yesterday and I was finally able to install pfSense.

The box came with a small M.2 SSD which I replaced to a sata SSD in one of my attempts to make it work. I was getting the same error on both SSDs.

Now that I had pfSense installed in my sata SSD I thought that I could put back again the M.2 SSD that the box came with and try to install it there, after all, what solved my issue was resetting the bios.

I tried the M.2 SSD and got the kernel panic issue again, reset the bios and tried again but still the same error. I put back the SSD which had pfSense installed and I'm still getting the kernel panic issue, even after resetting the bios! :(

Any ideas of what it could be will be appreciated.

Grimson · Feb 15, 2018, 2:32 PM

@jotape956:

Any ideas of what it could be will be appreciated.

It's just crappy hardware, replace it.

jotape956 · Feb 15, 2018, 3:03 PM

It's just crappy hardware, replace it.

I think that's what I'll end up doing…

Although it is not really a defective hardware as I'm able to install no matter which other OS, that's what concerns me.

Gertjan · Feb 15, 2018, 3:16 PM

Hi,

I rewrite your words :

After you reset the BIOS, You have a working situation.

Then you changed drives, reset the BIOS, and you have a no-go.

The original drives goes back in, another BIOS reset, and still a no-go.
Or, are back at the first, beginning state.

This means that you omitted to mention something that you did … if not, this is my advise : get certified material because of random failures ;)

Btw : I know, pfSense ought to work on your device.

stephenw10 · Feb 15, 2018, 11:29 PM

It is possible to override parts of the ACPI tables to by-pass things like this.
https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=acpi&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+11.1-RELEASE+and+Ports&arch=default&format=html

But that should not be required. You might enable acpi debugging info, that might give you more idea what's happening.

hw.acpi.verbose=1

The fact you are hitting this and even others running the same hardware are not implies either you have a faulty board or you have added something faulty to it or you have a different BIOS version.

Steve