bug with inputs on ESXi?

zippydan · May 21, 2020, 8:46 AM

I have installed 2.4.5 on two separate machines both running ESXi 5.5 and had the following experience:

Occasionally, but often enough to be annoying, the console would stop accepting any inputs except the up and down arrow keys would function to scroll the screen up and down (as if I was using more or less). The system was still responsive (I could browse the webUI and make changes, and pfSense continues to process traffic), I just couldn't use the console from within ESXi.

I just had the same experience while doing an initial install in ESXi 5.1, and it's annoying as hell because now I can't finish the install and my only recourse is to do a hard reboot to get input working again.

kiokoman · May 21, 2020, 8:56 AM

i had a similar problem but with hypervisor, try with adding more memory (RAM) to the vm.

zippydan · May 21, 2020, 11:48 AM

@kiokoman

Surely 2GB should be plenty enough to run the installation, or to run the basic console setup on an unconfigured install?

I've had to restart my new pfSense install (on ESXi 5.1) three more times now (after finally successfully installing) because it keeps freezing while I'm trying to setup the WAN and LAN interfaces.

kiokoman · May 21, 2020, 11:50 AM

yes but with some test i have done under hypervisor i had to increase the ram to 4gb to complete the installation, after that I was able to lower again to 2gb

zippydan · May 21, 2020, 12:49 PM

I'd still consider that a bug if I can't run a CLI on 2GB.

jimp · May 21, 2020, 3:20 PM

You hit Scroll Lock on your keyboard

Rod-It · Jul 18, 2020, 8:42 PM

Not sure if you ever fixed this or not, but ESXi 5.1 and 5.5 are both end of life, as is ESXi 6.

If you didnt fix this you should try 2.4.5P1 and see how you go

zippydan · Jul 19, 2020, 2:51 AM

@jimp said in bug with inputs on ESXi?:

You hit Scroll Lock on your keyboard

This is definitely a plausible explanation, however:

I was doing other linux-based VM installs on the same ESXi machine at the same time and only had a problem with the pfSense instances, multiple times.
I am working from a MacBook which does not have a Scroll Lock key (that I'm aware of). Is there a way to unwittingly send a Scroll Lock equivalent key stroke - perhaps with the right key combo?

I researched this a bit, and found some indication that Fn + Shift + F12 is the equivalent Macbook key combo for activating Scroll Lock. I wouldn't have ver had any reason to use those keys while doing my ESXi or pfSense tasks. I also found an old thread here where someone seems to have the same problem with Macbook randomly activating Scroll Lock and people discuss other possible key combos.

Still, it's hard for me to buy the explanation that this bug would only manifest itself in an ESXi console window and only for pfSense.

Unfortunately, I've finished those projects for now and don't know when I'll next have the opportunity to explore the possibilities of what might have been behind this bug.