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pfSense won't boot unless I manually interrupt the boot process and change the console to VGA

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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  • T
    thearamadon
    last edited by Mar 11, 2022, 6:11 PM

    @stephenw10

    Serial console is disabled.

    Here's my loader.conf:

    kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
    kern.ipc.nmbclusters="1000000"
    kern.ipc.nmbjumbop="524288"
    kern.ipc.nmbjumbo9="524288"
    autoboot_delay="3"
    hw.hn.vf_transparent="0"
    hw.hn.use_if_start="1"
    net.link.ifqmaxlen="128"
    

    I'm not super familiar with the options but it doesn't seem to have any of the console ones...

    S 1 Reply Last reply Mar 11, 2022, 6:23 PM Reply Quote 0
    • S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @thearamadon
      last edited by Mar 11, 2022, 6:23 PM

      @thearamadon said in pfSense won't boot unless I manually interrupt the boot process and change the console to VGA:

      it doesn't seem to have any of the console ones...

      I agree.

      Ok, so if you do nothing where does it stop booting?

      And you are simply pressing 5 at the loader menu?
      Rather than setting console=vidconsole?
      https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/troubleshooting/boot-issues.html#booting-with-an-alternate-console

      Could be a uefi console issue. Or a video hardware issue. What hardware is it?

      Steve

      T 1 Reply Last reply Mar 11, 2022, 6:31 PM Reply Quote 0
      • T
        thearamadon @stephenw10
        last edited by Mar 11, 2022, 6:31 PM

        @stephenw10 said in pfSense won't boot unless I manually interrupt the boot process and change the console to VGA:

        Ok, so if you do nothing where does it stop booting?

        Unfortunately I can't tell exactly because there's no output to observe. The main booting screen (where you can hit spacebar to interrupt) displays briefly. Probably for the 3 second autoboot delay. Shortly after that, the keyboard goes unresponsive. My guess is that it's trying to open a serial port that doesn't exist.

        It's running on a Gigabyte F2A88XM-D3H with an AMD A10-7890K CPU. The GPU is integrated.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by Mar 11, 2022, 7:30 PM

          Ok, well what's the last thing you see?

          Just the BIOS output?

          You must be able to see the boot loader since you can interrupt it.

          Steve

          T 1 Reply Last reply Mar 11, 2022, 7:32 PM Reply Quote 0
          • T
            thearamadon @stephenw10
            last edited by Mar 11, 2022, 7:32 PM

            Yes, the last thing I see is the boot loader (slightly different version of this)

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by Mar 11, 2022, 7:40 PM

              So how different? I assume that's not your device?

              Try interrupting the bootloader and hitting esc to reach the prompt and then run:

              set console=vidconsole
              boot
              

              If that works you can just add that line to /boot/loader.conf.local.

              Steve

              T 1 Reply Last reply Mar 12, 2022, 5:59 AM Reply Quote 0
              • T
                thearamadon @stephenw10
                last edited by Mar 12, 2022, 5:59 AM

                @stephenw10 said in pfSense won't boot unless I manually interrupt the boot process and change the console to VGA:

                So how different? I assume that's not your device?

                Try interrupting the bootloader and hitting esc to reach the prompt and then run:

                set console=vidconsole
                boot
                

                If that works you can just add that line to /boot/loader.conf.local.

                Steve

                I've included a picture of my actual menu below. Turns out the problem isn't console (which is set to efi), but actually that boot_serial=YES. If I do set boot_serial=NO, then it boots just fine. Unfortunately, adding that to /boot/loader.conf.local doesn't work, nor does adding unset boot_serial. So either its not taking that file, or the problem is happening before the file is loaded.

                What's the right way to change this?

                20220311_213824.jpg

                S 1 Reply Last reply Mar 12, 2022, 2:25 PM Reply Quote 0
                • S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @thearamadon
                  last edited by Mar 12, 2022, 2:25 PM

                  What exactly did you put in the file? You don't include 'set' there.

                  T 1 Reply Last reply Mar 12, 2022, 5:27 PM Reply Quote 0
                  • T
                    thearamadon @stephenw10
                    last edited by Mar 12, 2022, 5:27 PM

                    @stephenw10 said in pfSense won't boot unless I manually interrupt the boot process and change the console to VGA:

                    What exactly did you put in the file? You don't include 'set' there.

                    I tried both set boot_serial=NO and unset boot_serial. Both of these work if I enter them directly into the boot console, but not if I add them to the file

                    S 1 Reply Last reply Mar 12, 2022, 7:46 PM Reply Quote 0
                    • S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @thearamadon
                      last edited by Mar 12, 2022, 7:46 PM

                      Neither would work in the file, it should be just:

                      boot_serial=NO
                      

                      Steve

                      T S 2 Replies Last reply Mar 12, 2022, 9:57 PM Reply Quote 2
                      • T
                        thearamadon @stephenw10
                        last edited by Mar 12, 2022, 9:57 PM

                        @stephenw10 said in pfSense won't boot unless I manually interrupt the boot process and change the console to VGA:

                        Neither would work in the file, it should be just:

                        boot_serial=NO
                        

                        Steve

                        That did the trick! Thanks so much for the help.

                        N 1 Reply Last reply Jun 3, 2022, 8:14 PM Reply Quote 1
                        • N
                          nielsjlarsen @thearamadon
                          last edited by nielsjlarsen Jun 3, 2022, 8:15 PM Jun 3, 2022, 8:14 PM

                          @thearamadon and @stephenw10

                          I have the exact same issue. Also running 2.6 on x86 hardware.
                          It's normally working perfectly, however for some reason we've had a few power outages lately and every time pfSense powers up again I need to manually power off, break the boot sequence (press space) and change the console to VGA (press 5) and continue with the boot process (press Enter).
                          If I do nothing it just freezes, black screen and no action on any keyboard input.

                          After getting fed up with this I researched and thought I might've installed the memstick serial image by mistake, so I downloaded the memstick VGA image and did a fresh install.
                          I see the same behaviour with a completely fresh VGA install, with nothing more than assigning the adapters i.e. no restore from backup.

                          I've tried adding boot_serial=NO in /boot/loader.conf.local with no luck.
                          I've also tried reaching the prompt in the bootloader and run:

                          set console=vidconsole
                          

                          but it fails and tells me there's no vidconsole, but efi and a few other options, none of which sound right.

                          I've also tried assigning the VGA console as the primary console in the GUI and although this setting is persistent after a reboot, it changes nothing.

                          Any help appreciated as I'm traveling more and more for work and I know I'll have a priority 1 incident if "the WiFi" fails while I'm away from home and my teens cannot watch TikTok etc.. 😂

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by Jun 3, 2022, 8:53 PM

                            It probably is an efi console. What does the menu entry say?

                            N 1 Reply Last reply Jun 3, 2022, 9:55 PM Reply Quote 0
                            • N
                              nielsjlarsen @stephenw10
                              last edited by Jun 3, 2022, 9:55 PM

                              @stephenw10

                              What menu entry do you mean?
                              In the boot options or in the web GUI?

                              I've tried using efi console, but it doesn't work.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by Jun 4, 2022, 12:57 AM

                                I mean what does menu option 5 in the loader show when you select it?

                                N 1 Reply Last reply Jun 4, 2022, 8:31 AM Reply Quote 0
                                • S
                                  SeaMonkey @stephenw10
                                  last edited by Jun 4, 2022, 2:54 AM

                                  @stephenw10 Thanks! I was suffering from the same issue.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • N
                                    nielsjlarsen @stephenw10
                                    last edited by Jun 4, 2022, 8:31 AM

                                    @stephenw10

                                    When it boots it's set to serial regardless of the settings I've played with in loader.conf.local or in the console settings in the GUI.
                                    I have to change that to video to be able to boot successfully.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by Jun 4, 2022, 1:01 PM

                                      So the menu shows option 5 as 'serial' and you press it to change to 'video' and then it boots correctly?

                                      What do you have in loader.conf and loader.conf.local?

                                      Steve

                                      N S 2 Replies Last reply Jun 4, 2022, 6:30 PM Reply Quote 0
                                      • N
                                        nielsjlarsen @stephenw10
                                        last edited by Jun 4, 2022, 6:30 PM

                                        @stephenw10

                                        loader.conf

                                        kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
                                        kern.ipc.nmbclusters="1000000"
                                        kern.ipc.nmbjumbop="524288"
                                        kern.ipc.nmbjumbo9="524288"
                                        opensolaris_load="YES"
                                        zfs_load="YES"
                                        kern.geom.label.gptid.enable="0"
                                        kern.geom.label.disk_ident.enable="0"
                                        autoboot_delay="3"
                                        hw.hn.vf_transparent="0"
                                        hw.hn.use_if_start="1"
                                        net.link.ifqmaxlen="128"
                                        

                                        There's no loader.conf.local at the moment.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @stephenw10
                                          last edited by Jun 4, 2022, 7:17 PM

                                          @stephenw10 said in pfSense won't boot unless I manually interrupt the boot process and change the console to VGA:

                                          So the menu shows option 5 as 'serial' and you press it to change to 'video' and then it boots correctly?

                                          N 1 Reply Last reply Jun 4, 2022, 7:23 PM Reply Quote 0
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