It was not possible to identify which pfSense kernel is installed

padhi

Hello,

I am using pfSense 2.6.0 in a virtual machine (QNAP TVS-872 NAS, QTS 5). It worked like a charm since years.
Today I am facing this error message : "It was not possible to identify which pfSense kernel is installed" shown via the console.
From this console, a password is requested.
I cannot access the webgui. I did not ask for any pfSense update. Other posts with same error did not help me or I did not catch what to do.
My usual password is rejected by the console.
Trying to access the terminal with Boot Single user option : this user seems to not have rights to use scp command in order to allow me to save the config.xml file to an external storage.

May be other useful messages could help but they quickly go outside the console window.
I am totally stuck there with my network down.
I wonder if someone would kindly help to recover normal pfSense running or at least a way to save the config.xml file on a distant volume.
Thank you for your help.

SteveITS

@padhi if the disk is readable you can try during install: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/backup/restore-during-install.html
Always save backups…

padhi

Thank you for reading.

That did not help because pfSense is run from an img file (not directly from a disk).

Under Ubuntu, I tried to mount the ufs filesystem using losetup -P and mount -t ufs -o ufstype=ufs2 but that failed because loop<n>p1 is not created.

Of course I have a backup of config.xml file but it is not the very last.

I understand that the current pfSense img file I have is not working anymore and I get no evidence in logs that an event could explain this situation.

If you see something else, do not hesitate. Thank you.

Gertjan

@padhi said in It was not possible to identify which pfSense kernel is installed:

in a virtual machine

The VM manager doesn't permit you to 'browse' the file system offline ?

@padhi said in It was not possible to identify which pfSense kernel is installed:

but they quickly go outside the console window

Even the dumb 'free' Hyper-V permits to log the console. For easy analysis afterwards. Yours ?

edit :
Example : as I'm using this one : https://github.com/KoenZomers/pfSenseBackup/blob/master/README.md

So all you need is a Windows PC. Set it up so that every day a xx h it grabs a backup.
Or have it backup when you start (boot) it.
Now your taking the advantage of the fact that if you have a very recent backup, you'll never need it

padhi

Thank you for your ideas. Finally I was able to recover the last config.xml file using a FAT USB key attached to the faulty pfSense VM.

From the early pfSense menu in console: Boot Single user
I entered these commands:

mount -o rw /
mount_msdosfs /dev/da0s1 /media
cp /cf/conf/config.xml /media

I used the same ISO pfSense image version as the pfSense VM version that crashed to build a new default pfSense VM, then I imported the config.xml.

That worked for me.

Thank you for the pfSenseBackup solution. The author also provides a Linux version I will try for sure.

padhi

I am new here so, a moderator may kindly mark this thread as solved.
Thank you.