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    Boot hang after restoring backup

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • M
      mterwoord
      last edited by

      Hi,

      I have acquired a Protectli FW4B device for replacing a currently virtualized pfsense installation. Doing a clean installation works fine. I can access the web interface, reboot fine (either using web interface, using console, or by pulling power cord), so everything is fine.
      The moment I restore a backup from the virtualized environment, booting the device hangs at with a ichsmb0 interrupt loop. (well, it hangs after it recognized the device with IRQ 18).
      It's odd that restoring a backup does this.

      Is this a known thing about backups?
      How can I work around this issue? Are there any pointers I can look at?

      With kind regards,
      Matthijs ter Woord

      GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • GertjanG
        Gertjan @mterwoord
        last edited by Gertjan

        @mterwoord said in Boot hang after restoring backup:

        or by pulling power cord), so everything is fine.

        Not for long.
        Pulling out the power is the best way to 'kill' the file system.
        Look at one of the many tests to realize this ....

        Nothing special actually : do the same thing with your :
        desktop PC : rip out the power a coupe oftime, and you'll be good for low level surgery on your "disk" device. Most will resort by re installing.
        Laptop : without the power brick connect, remove the battery ...
        Your phone : back then when Nokia M310 was a thing, you could do so. These days : if you were able to remove the power, Samsung won't be able to save you.

        @mterwoord said in Boot hang after restoring backup:

        How can I work around this issue?

        Sure, as mentioned in the thread shown : get an UPS. Or make sure the power never goes out again.

        Btw : best thing to do : get a clean system : get the ISO (USB) and do a clean install.
        Import the backup and you'll be good.

        No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
        Edit : and where are the logs ??

        M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • M
          mterwoord @Gertjan
          last edited by

          @Gertjan Forget about pulling powercord: Restoring my backup on a perfectly fine pfsense installation on the device makes the boot of pfsense freeze.

          GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            Does it actually freeze?

            Most likely cause is that the restored config is setting the primary console incorrectly. The VM install was almost certainly using a VGA console, are you using the serial console on the new hardware?

            M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • GertjanG
              Gertjan @mterwoord
              last edited by

              @mterwoord said in Boot hang after restoring backup:

              Restoring my backup on a perfectly fine pfsense installation on the device makes the boot of pfsense freeze.

              You have available alternative backups :

              7ff9a35b-0a88-48aa-887b-bb956a5cb07e-image.png

              Use any (older) of these.
              Ones you've one that's ok, and more recent one isn't, you only have to find the difference between the two of them, to know why pfSense goes belly up.
              The backup config file are human readable (XML) files.

              Added to the free Netgate ABC 'backup' system, I'm using also a Windows executable that connects over SSH into pfSEnse ones a day - en gets the config file. It will auto recycle these files every XXX days (I've set it up to save 100 copies)

              And yes, you're right : importing a faulty config can 'break' the system.

              No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
              Edit : and where are the logs ??

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • stephenw10S stephenw10 moved this topic from Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software on
              • M
                mterwoord @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10 I'll have a test at this tonight. Original device is a APU 2D4 device. Currently it's running on a normal desktop pc with 2 nics. Backup is from that pc, which has a functioning console (on vga).

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  Hmm, you said it was a config from a virtualised install?

                  M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • M
                    mterwoord @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 Sorry, yes. Running temporarily on that. Before that it was APU 2D4. Point I tried to make was, that currently the VGA console works as well. Tonight I can send a screenshot of the moment it stops working.

                    M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • M
                      mterwoord @mterwoord
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10 And let me clarify: the new device has VGA console. (2x HDMI)
                      But I will definitely test the serial console angle.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        Yes, the APU would have been set as serial primary with igb NICs.

                        If the temporary PC also had igb NICs the console may have appeared to work fine. Once it completes boot the menu appears on both consoles. But if there's an interface mismatch the reassign screen will only show on the primary console. The other console will appear to hang.

                        https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/troubleshooting/boot-issues.html#booting-with-an-alternate-console

                        M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • M
                          mterwoord @stephenw10
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10 This was the golden suggestion. All works now. In the advanced settings I changed to using VGA console as default console, so using VGA works again, which was the behavior I initially expected.
                          Thanks for responding!

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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