APU board won't boot anymore after upgrading from 2.4.2_1 to 2.4.3_1

[sammy2ooo]

I have just kicked of the update process via webinterface as i have done it several times before without any issues.

However this times my APU board fails to boot.

This is all I am seeing after connecting via serial. It seems the kernel isnt even loading. Any ideas?

PC Engines APU BIOS build date: Sep  8 2014
Total memory 4096 MB
AMD G-T40E Processor
CPU MHz=1000
Press F10 key now for boot menu:
drive 0x000f2a80: PCHS=16383/16/63 translation=lba LCHS=1024/255/63 s=31277232
Booting from Hard Disk…

F1  pfSense

F6 PXE
Boot:  F1
|

Questions:

1. I have got a configuration backup (xml) reaching back to October 2017. If I do a fresh reinstall, will I be able to restore from this configuration file?

2. Is there another way I can at least recover the latest configuration from the bricked device?

[sammy2ooo]

I managed to 'resolve' the issue, by restoring the configuration, do a fresh install and restore the old config.

This are the steps I have followed:

1. Download pfSense-CE-memstick-serial-2.4.3-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz
2. Unzip and write to USB stick e.g. with a tool like rufus
3. Boot APU board with USB stick
4. Get a prompt using the rescue shell
5. Plugin an addition USB stick (fat32 preformated) – needed as the installer image lets you mount /dev/da1 only read-only
6. Mount partitions (mount /dev/ada0s1a /mnt && mount -t msdosfs /dev/da2s1 /tmp/usbstick)
7. Copy configuration (cp -Rv /mnt/cf/conf /tmp/usbstick)
9. Do a fresh install and assign interfaces
10. Restore configuration via webinterface
11. Check serial settings...