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Can't load 'kernel'

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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  • D
    dims
    last edited by Aug 5, 2019, 7:06 AM

    After power outage, I got pfSense box not booting. On screen I see a message

    Can't load 'kernel'
    

    Then is suggests to type question mark for list of commands and prints OK

    I have simple commands like ls, lsdev, but I don't have cd or cat.

    ls shows a 2 column list of apparent directories (d) and files, but I can't ls with path

    OK ls boot
    open 'boot' failed, no such file or directory
    

    This can hint that filesystem was damaged, but I can see any file in first level, like

    OK more COPYRIGHT
    ...<shows file>...
    

    Can we suggest that filesystem is OK, but something like BIOS settings are bad? Or may be some automatic update changed kernel, which appeared not bootable.

    Neither commands like

    boot kernel.old
    load /boot/kernel.old
    

    worked.

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • G
      Gertjan
      last edited by Gertjan Aug 5, 2019, 8:27 AM Aug 5, 2019, 8:27 AM

      Time to run a fsck.

      No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
      Edit : and where are the logs ??

      D 1 Reply Last reply Aug 5, 2019, 8:47 PM Reply Quote 0
      • D
        dims
        last edited by Aug 5, 2019, 8:44 AM

        Is it possible to run it from boot loader? How to run it?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • G
          Gertjan
          last edited by Gertjan Aug 5, 2019, 8:49 AM Aug 5, 2019, 8:48 AM

          See here https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/hardware/troubleshooting-disk-check-errors-fsck.html

          and or here https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/hardware/boot-troubleshooting.html

          No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
          Edit : and where are the logs ??

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by Aug 5, 2019, 2:35 PM

            At the OK prompt do:

            OK load /boot/kernel.old/kernel                                                 \
            /boot/kernel.old/kernel text=0x17c69f8 data=0xb94940+0x517b18 syms=[0x8+0x198228
            +0x8+0x198f6d]                                                                  -
            OK boot -s
            

            Steve

            D 1 Reply Last reply Aug 5, 2019, 8:45 PM Reply Quote 1
            • D
              dims @stephenw10
              last edited by Aug 5, 2019, 8:45 PM

              @stephenw10 it says

              can't find '/boot/kernel.old/kernel'
              can't find '/boot/kernel.old/kernel'
              

              (twice)

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • D
                dims @Gertjan
                last edited by Aug 5, 2019, 8:47 PM

                @Gertjan it didn't help

                I ran fsck it found some errors, fixed them, finally said filesystem is ok, but if booting then situation is the same. While in command line, I was able to mount that filesystem and browse it. boot directory was browseable.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • D
                  dims
                  last edited by Aug 5, 2019, 9:55 PM

                  After I made

                  gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i1 ada0s1
                  

                  I got worse situation on boot

                  Invalid partition table
                  
                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • J
                    jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                    last edited by Aug 7, 2019, 12:11 PM

                    If it got to the point where it can't load the kernel, I wouldn't settle for anything less than a wipe+reload. I'd also be suspicious of the disk itself.

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                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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