It's unusual to see an update so destructive as 23.01

NMBabb 0

The 23.01 update made my NetGate 3100 pretty much useless until a factory reset and new set up with generic settings. (a reload of previous settings turned it to mush again)

At first, trying to update continually failed:

System Update Failed!

Setting vital flag on php74... done.
Updating repositories metadata... done.
23.01 version of pfSense is available

Tried Upgrade issue steps and ended up with the following:
repository pfSense contains packages for wrong OS version: FreeBSD:14:armv7

Restarted, backed up config, ran update, didn't work. Restored config, didn't work:

No internet connection
Wan addresses correct and could ping addresses on the 3100 but no further
Set FW Rules to generic all pass, but still nothing
Reset to factory, put in same address info and rules, and it started working.

23.01 was a killer

Cool_Corona

@nmbabb-0 A lot of people has issues.

AndyRH

I do not know that there are more or less problems vs. the last major upgrade. Temper what you are seeing with the fact most people do not post "No problems".
Mine went fine, a friend with the exact same hardware, not so good. This is one of the reasons I hate OS upgrades, you never know if it will be good or bad. I always have a plan to get back to start.

NMBabb 0

@andyrh Yeah. Thought I had a plan with full backups and easy restore. When it finally updated but no internet (even though the WAN interface was working and responding inside my heart sank. Confirmed when I reloaded the config from backup and was in the same spot. Something with the latest package didn't like something from the old config at all. Didn't have time to troubleshoot so factory reset to 23.01 and quick/dirty setup got it going again.

There's always a way back. Someways are easy, and some are unnecessarily complicated.