Serial console output freezes

PelAlmqvist

Hi,

I installed the latest pfSense memstick version on an apu2 which I access through serial port.
After the installation, the machine will reboot but the console output will freeze.

However, the pfsense is working fine, as it'll be accessible through the web interfaces or even through ssh once configured.

I saw from the Installing and upgrading page that
"Intel Atom systems containing HD Graphics chipsets may experience console problems after the update"

and that as I have an AMD CPU, I could be concerned by
"Systems with similar console problems not containing a graphics chip supported by the i915 driver may need to reinstall 2.4.4 to use a UEFI console"

but I am connecting through Serial port so I don't see the graphical part here and I can't really avoid using the serial port as use it for NIC reassignment.

I am currently wandering through the forum looking for similar behavior or issues but didn't find anything yet, so if you have any idea of what I am doing wrong or how to solve my problem I would be happy to ear it.
What bother me the most is that at the end of the install, it reboots correctly, but rebooting it from there will end up in the console getting stuck.

Thanks in advance.

Here's the output I'm getting from pfSense before the console output freezes :

__                               
   _ __  / _|___  ___ _ __  ___  ___       
  | '_ \| |_/ __|/ _ \ '_ \/ __|/ _ \      
  | |_) |  _\__ \  __/ | | \__ \  __/      
  | .__/|_| |___/\___|_| |_|___/\___|      
  |_|                                      
                                                                           
                                                                           
 +============Welcome to pfSense===========+   __________________________  
 |                                         |  /                       ___\ 
 |  1. Boot Multi User [Enter]             | |                      /`     
 |  2. Boot [S]ingle User                  | |                     /    :-|
 |  3. [Esc]ape to loader prompt           | |      _________  ___/    /_ |
 |  4. Reboot                              | |    /` ____   / /__    ___/ |
 |                                         | |   /  /   /  /    /   /     |
 |  Options:                               | |  /  /___/  /    /   /      |
 |  5. [K]ernel: kernel (1 of 2)           | | /   ______/    /   /       |
 |  6. Configure Boot [O]ptions...         | |/   /          /   /        |
 |                                         |     /          /___/         |
 |                                         |    /                         |
 |                                         |   /_________________________/  
 +=========================================+
                                          

/boot/kernel/kernel text=0x17bfd50 data=0xb93c38+0x517b18 syms=[0x8+0x197280+0x8+0x197de9]
/boot/entropy size=0x1000
Booting...
KDB: debugger backends: ddb
KDB: current backend: ddb
Copyright (c) 1992-2018 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
        The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.
FreeBSD 11.2-RELEASE-p4 #2 b00c407ba5d(RELENG_2_4_4): Mon Nov 26 11:41:48 EST 2018
    root@buildbot2.nyi.netgate.com:/build/ce-crossbuild-244/obj/amd64/ZfGpH5cd/build/ce-crossbuild-244/pfSense/tmp/FreeBSD-src/sys/pfSense amd64
FreeBSD clang version 6.0.0 (tags/RELEASE_600/final 326565) (based on LLVM 6.0.0)
VT(vga): resolution 640x480
CPU: AMD GX-412TC SOC                                (998.15-MHz K8-class CPU)
  Origin="AuthenticAMD"  Id=0x730f01  Family=0x16  Model=0x30  Stepping=1
  Features=0x178bfbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CLFLUSH,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,HTT>
  Features2=0x3ed8220b<SSE3,PCLMULQDQ,MON,SSSE3,CX16,SSE4.1,SSE4.2,MOVBE,POPCNT,AESNI,XSAVE,OSXSAVE,AVX,F16C>
  AMD Features=0x2e500800<SYSCALL,NX,MMX+,FFXSR,Page1GB,RDTSCP,LM>
  AMD Features2=0x1d4037ff<LAHF,CMP,SVM,ExtAPIC,CR8,ABM,SSE4A,MAS,Prefetch,OSVW,IBS,SKINIT,WDT,Topology,PNXC,DBE,PTSC,PL2I>
  Structured Extended Features=0x8<BMI1>
  XSAVE Features=0x1<XSAVEOPT>
  SVM: NP,NRIP,AFlush,DAssist,NAsids=8
  TSC: P-state invariant, performance statistics
real memory  = 4815060992 (4592 MB)
avail memory = 4071804928 (3883 MB)
Event timer "LAPIC" quality 600
ACPI APIC Table: <CORE   COREBOOT>
FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 4 CPUs
FreeBSD/SMP: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)
  TSC: P-state invariant, performance statisticsCR8,ABM,SSE4A,MAS,Prefetch,OSVW,IBS,SKINIT,WDT,Topology,PNXC,DBE,PTSC,PL2I>>feb25000-0xfeb253ff at device 17.0 on pci0

jimp

If you can get to the GUI, go to System > Advanced, Admin Access tab and make sure that the serial console is enabled with the speed you expect. Save the page, reboot, and see if there is a change in behavior.

PelAlmqvist

@jimp Checked on the GUI, it is enabled and with the right settings (115200 8N1)

jimp

I saw another post almost identical to this recently where the problem ended up being a bug in the terminal software (minicom, perhaps) where it failed to update/scroll when maximized. Restoring it to a smaller window allowed it to work.

Maybe it's a client-side issue?