SG-1100 upgrade attempts to 23.01

kj32

Both failed.

For the first attempt, I connected to the web configurator and was offered a direct upgrade from 21 to 23. I tried to to do that. After a long time, where the web configurator would wait for minutes, then try again to connect, I tried to reboot. Nada.

For the second attempt, I connected to the serial port, and this time I asked the web configurator to upgrade to 22. That seemed to work fine. I reset the box to factory defaults, and then configured the LAN port and DNS enough so the the web configurator would work, and started the upgrade to 23. There was an unexpected power loss, but the system rebooted into 22, so I launched another upgrade. That seemed to be fine until the reboot, which timed out at a Marvell>> prompt on the serial console.

I saved the upgrade output to the web configurator, and the output to the serial port, in case someone wants to see that. This bit seems like it is important, but I don't really know.

## Starting EFI application at 07000000 ...
Card did not respond to voltage select!
Scanning disk sdhci@d0000.blk...
Disk sdhci@d0000.blk not ready
Scanning disk sdhci@d8000.blk...
Found 4 disks
efi_load_pe: Invalid DOS Signature
## Application terminated, r = 9223372036854775806

YMMV, but I would proceed with real caution before upgrading any production SG-1100 units.

These were not in production -- they did not work reliably for the intended purpose when purchased, so they have been on the shelf since then. Since 23 looks like a big change from 22, I thought I would try it out on these before I touched the production SG-3100 (used for a different purpose).

Best wishes,

Ken

SteveITS

@kj32 there have been a few posts about 1100/2100. See https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/13967

kj32

Thank you for the relevant reply.

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/13967

Searching the captured output to the web configurator, I found:

Updating the EFI loader
cp: //boot/efi/efi/boot/BOOTaa64.efi: No space left on device
[2/2] Upgrading pfSense-kernel-pfSense from 22.05 to 23.01...
[2/2] Extracting pfSense-kernel-pfSense-23.01: .......... done
===> Keeping a copy of current kernel in /boot/kernel.old
>>> Removing unnecessary packages... done.
System is going to be upgraded.  Rebooting in 10 seconds.
>>> Unlocking package pkg... done.
Success

This happens right at the end. The 'Success' declaration turns out to be premature...

Best wishes,

Ken

SteveITS

@kj32 Yeah, that's the bug I think, it should stop.

Does your 1100 have ZFS? Just wondering if that's relevant.

kj32

@steveits

Not that I know of, but how would I know? Or how can I find out from the Marvell>> prompt?

Best wishes,

Ken

SteveITS

@kj32 Not sure you can from there... One can from shell, or the Disks dashboard widget. ZFS was the default starting in I think 22.01 so if it's less than a year old it would probably have ZFS. A reinstall is probably your shortest path now.

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/sg-1100/reinstall-pfsense.html

kj32

@steveits

More than a year old (circa April, 2019), so probably not ZFS.

Sure. Unfortunately, my customer chose not to continue a support relationship with Netgate some time back, so as far as I can tell, I am unable to complete that form.

My current plan is to wait for the next release (23.03???) before I try to update the SG-3100, which is a production system.

Best wishes,

Ken

bigsy

@kj32 You don't need a support contract to request the firmware from Netgate. It's covered under 'TAC-Lite'.

rcoleman-netgate

@bigsy said in SG-1100 upgrade attempts to 23.01:

You don't need a support contract to request the firmware from Netgate. It's covered under 'TAC-Lite'.

Correct.

https://go.netgate.com

Updating the EFI loader
cp: //boot/efi/efi/boot/BOOTaa64.efi: No space left on device

Also this is a known issue... we've suspended the online upgrade path for these so get a backup file before you reimage -- you will want it afterwards.

kj32

@rcoleman-netgate

Thanks. I received a link to an image to directly install 23.01 on the two SG-1100s. I did one last Friday, worked fine. I plan to do the second one shortly. These were not in production so there was no useful configuration to back up before the online update attempts bricked them.

Once they are both working, I plan to use them to become familiar with new features of 23.01 while I wait for clear stability before upgrading the SG-3100 that is a production device.

Best wishes,

Ken