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    Can view package list, but nothing installs.

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • B
      bglamb
      last edited by

      (V 2.4.4-RELEASE-p2)

      I can see the package list fine, but when I try and install any package, it freezes on "Please wait while the update system initialises."

      I've just done a factory reset after hitting this issue during setup yesterday. It was also hanging on this step when trying to remove packages before the reset, but since the reset, package removal is working.

      It let me install packages via the command line "pkg install ...", and I was able to install the FreeRadius3 PFSense package, and get it mostly working, but there were some lingering bugs that (the start/stop service button in the gui didn't work) that made me wonder if bypassing the gui was a bad idea.

      Anyone know what could be broken, that only affects the gui installer, but not the package list or CLI installer? Even after a factory reset?

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      • KOMK
        KOM
        last edited by

        Anything in the System log when you try to fetch something fro the repository via WebGUI?

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        • B
          bglamb
          last edited by

          Nope. It shows there when I install from the CLI, but not when I try from WebGUI.

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          • B
            bglamb
            last edited by

            Actually, sorry, it looked unrelated, but it is displaying "check_reload_status", "Syncing firewall" when I hit confirm on the install.

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            • KOMK
              KOM
              last edited by

              Netgate have been doing a lot of forum maintenance over the past week, relatively speaking. Maybe something was up there?

              Are you an IPv6 user? I've seen some funnies related to that.

              check_reload_status is a command-dispatching daemon. That message is likely informational. I also have several instances of that in my logs.

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              • B
                bglamb
                last edited by

                Not IP6, no. Nothing strange about the setup, all very basic.

                I assumed the package manager was just calling pkg, or similar, so I couldn't work out why it would fail from the GUI but not the CLI, especially after a factory reset. I can't work out what it's doing differently.

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                • KOMK
                  KOM
                  last edited by

                  You could do a packet capture on WAN while trying to fetch a package and see what happens, because right now it's not clear if the problem is related to the local prep, or is it related to the network?

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                  • B
                    bglamb
                    last edited by

                    It doesn't look like there are any related packets going out, from what I can see.

                    I was assuming it's not a network issue, as it can get the package list, and works from the CLI, and the firewall rule is ANY/ANY.

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                    • KOMK
                      KOM
                      last edited by

                      What hardware are you installing on?

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                      • B
                        bglamb
                        last edited by

                        I'm struggling to work out how to tell! It's a 1U device, 4 physical ports. No serial or other identifying marks. What info specifically do you need?

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                        • KOMK
                          KOM
                          last edited by

                          Oh nothing in particular. I was suspecting some sort of bizarre hardware error and wanted to know what you had.

                          Are you able to install to a virtual machine just to confirm that the issue is confined to that specific hardware?

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                          • B
                            bglamb
                            last edited by bglamb

                            Err....I got this hardware with the software already installed (and just updated/factory reset it), so learning how to install on a VM is a pretty big step.

                            Interestingly, the package manager was working on this hardware before I did the software update (via the auto update). When I did the auto-update, a lot of stuff broke, and I was able to get it all working again via SSH and a lot of pkg commands (basically just force reinstalling all the packages), but the package manager WebGUI stopped working completely.

                            That's when I did a second factory reset, and was expecting the package manager to be fixed! But it's only half fixed.

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                            • B
                              bglamb
                              last edited by

                              I'm wondering if it might be easier to troubleshoot why Radius misbehaves when I install it via the CLI.

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                              • KOMK
                                KOM
                                last edited by

                                Don't do a factory reset of a borked config. I suspect it's just resetting some things while others remain broken.

                                Take a config.xml backup via Diagnotics - Backup & Restore. Download pfSense and reinstall from scratch, then restore from your config backup.

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                                • bmeeksB
                                  bmeeks
                                  last edited by bmeeks

                                  This was an issue with the earlier 2.5-DEVEL snapshot releases (maybe a couple of months back), but was quickly fixed. I don't recall it ever being an issue in 2.4.4, though. Here is a link to the Redmine bug report about the issue in 2.5: https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/9410.

                                  If you have a pfSense/Netgate branded appliance, their support staff will be happy to help you out. You can contact them or open a ticket here: https://www.netgate.com/support/contact-support.html.

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                                  • B
                                    bglamb
                                    last edited by

                                    Aha! It has that exact error message in that file! Legend!

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                                    • B
                                      bglamb
                                      last edited by

                                      It's strange that I'm seeing that on 2.4.4_2. Should I just move to the Devel branch do you think?

                                      bmeeksB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • KOMK
                                        KOM
                                        last edited by

                                        That message gets displayed every time you apply an update. Why it's hanging for you may be completely different from the 2.5 issue in Redmine. Considering how you manually tried to fix the issue, I would definitely reinstall 2.4.4 and restore your config.

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                                        • bmeeksB
                                          bmeeks @bglamb
                                          last edited by

                                          @bglamb said in Can view package list, but nothing installs.:

                                          It's strange that I'm seeing that on 2.4.4_2. Should I just move to the Devel branch do you think?

                                          No, it should not be happening to you on the 2.4.4-RELEASE branch. It sounds like your box is maybe part 2.4 and part 2.5 or something. If you manually installed a package, you might have inadvertently overwritten some dependencies. I would totally wipe the box and install from original source media.

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                                          • B
                                            bglamb
                                            last edited by

                                            I've just spent the whole day getting it back up and running after the factory reset. Not sure I can afford to wipe everything and take another day. I'll see though. Thanks for your input both.

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