Unexpected VLAN and interface assignments prompt at boot

[mikahe]

Hi pfSense users and developers!

One of the best features of pfSense is the ability to swap interfaces easily. Some time back I thought that one physical primary wan interface was causing issues, so I swapped the interface assignments with another wan and swapped ethernet cables. Done! Didn't even reboot.

However, if e.g. you're using usb ethernet-like devices and those are acting up and not showing up at all, you're in trouble or big trouble, depending on your configuration. Some people are not recommending such interfaces ever and now I tend to fully agree, even though I've been using one such for many years. Now that I decided to retire it, I got the backfire.

In this case when pfSense reboots and there's no ue0, it starts to ask about VLAN assignments. I hadn't struggled with this in years even with a device that requires always a mode switch. (Last time around was when I moved pfSense configuration to new PC hardware and the usb device mode switching didn't work initially reliably.) Now that my configuration has grown in complexity, this wasn't easily if not at all answered situation.

Some of the interface and VLAN assignments is possible to get right when looking into the configuration backup file, but hard to remember. So why ask at all?
But then it doesn't understand anything about bridges and gifs at least, so these optional interface assignments can't go right, nor skipped. In the end one missing opt interface in between causes the system to boot into very broken state. Hopefully this can be improved at some point.

Cheers and keep up the good work!