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

[stephenw10]

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

boot_serial=NO

Steve

[thearamadon]

@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.

[nielsjlarsen]

@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..

[stephenw10]

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

[nielsjlarsen]

@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.

[stephenw10]

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

[SeaMonkey]

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

[nielsjlarsen]

@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.

[stephenw10]

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

[nielsjlarsen]

@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.

[stephenw10]

@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?

[nielsjlarsen]

@stephenw10

Correct

[stephenw10]

Do you see a console type option in the gui in Sys > Advanced > Admin Access?

You may have initially installed from the memstick serial image accidentally.

Steve

[nielsjlarsen]

@stephenw10

I do, and I have tried selecting VGA console as primary but it doesn't take effect.

Yes this was my concern after having spent many hours troubleshooting and trying various things, so I downloaded and installed the VGA memstick image (triple checked), but there's no difference.

[stephenw10]

Setting a value there should change what is in loader.conf, do you see that?

[nielsjlarsen]

@stephenw10

There's no difference in /boot/loader.conf when changing from VGA console to serial console (in System->
Advanced->Admin Access->Serial Communication) and back again.

[stephenw10]

Hmm, check in /conf. Do you have an enableserial_force file?

If you do what exactly is that hardware?

[nielsjlarsen]

@stephenw10

There's no enableserial_force file in /conf.

[stephenw10]

Hmm, setting that line to 'video' does exactly the same thing as using set console=vidconsole at the prompt. But you say only one of those things works which makes no sense.

What other console options do you have there? Is it a UEFI BIOS?

If it was booting as expected before losing power though it's possible you have some filesystem damage. The easiest thing here is [probably going to be reinstalling clean.

Steve

[nielsjlarsen]

@stephenw10

No other console options apart from serial and video.

Yes it's an UEFI BIOS.

This device has been running pfsense for a while and with earlier versions it worked fine after power loss. At some point after upgrading it broke. No idea in which version or when, but this is a clean 2.6 installation and it doesn't work for some reason.