Unable to install packages

ncted

I am not new to pfsense, as I have been using Netgate appliances on non-public networks at work for years, but I am having a particular issue similar to the one reference above from 2020. I am running CE 2.7.2-release on a Seeed Studio Odyssey X86J4105800 I had lying around from a previous project which I am using as my home router. It works great in general, just like all the other pfsense devices I've used in the past, with the exception of my inability to install any packages.

The WebUI will load the list of available packages correctly, but once I click on the install button, the interface just reverts to the Installed Packages view with no packages installed. I have tried installing the packages via the command prompt, and they install, but the functionality doesn't seem quite right. For instance, pfBlockerNG doesn't seem to actually create any rules when I try to setup geoIP reputation blocks. I have setup pfsense on this hardware twice from scratch to see if I perhaps made a mistake along the way. If I did, I made the same mistake multiple times.

I have some NAT & WAN rules that allow traffic to certain internal services, like http, https, and openvpn (currently hosted on a RPI 3B+), and I have some DHCP reservations setup. Other than that, I am not doing anything that isn't a vanilla setup.

Are there some requirements for installing packages that I am missing. I've gone through the documentation a bit, and I didn't see anything that led me to believe it should be anything other than simple to use, but maybe I wasn't looking in the right place.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ted

stephenw10

Nothing special should be required there.

It almost sounds like a user privilege issue. Are you logged in as admin to test that?

ncted

@stephenw10 Yes, I login as admin. No other users configured at this time. I am tempted to try reinstalling again this weekend, and do the package installations first, before making any other configuration changes. In the meantime, do you know if there are any log files which might tell me what is going on when I attempt to install packages through the WebUI?

Thanks!

stephenw10

Yes, you can look in /conf. You should see an install log for any packahes installed in the gui.

ncted

@stephenw10 Well, no install logs exist. It is like the process doesn't even get started. Thanks again.

stephenw10

Any errors in the main system logs?

ncted

@stephenw10

Not much.

Some messages in the GUI Service log that get flagged as spam for some reason when I try to post them here. Here is the gist:

GET /pkg_mgr_installed.php HTTP/2.0" 200
POST /pkg_mgr_installed.php HTTP/2.0" 200
GET /pkg_mgr.php HTTP/2.0" 200
POST /pkg_mgr.php HTTP/2.0" 200
GET /pkg_mgr_install.php?pkg=pfSense-pkg-pfBlockerNG HTTP/2.0" 302 0 "https://192.168.1.1/pkg_mgr.php"
GET /pkg_mgr_installed.php HTTP/2.0" 200
POST /pkg_mgr_installed.php HTTP/2.0" 200

No Package log present.

stephenw10

Hmm, same behaviour from different web browsers? Different client devices?

ncted

@stephenw10 Yeah, I tried from Chrome and Safari on Mac and Firefox on Ubuntu 23.10. I also confirmed the behavior on an SG3100 at work running 23.09 with the same rules setup. I think it must have something to do with the NAT/WAN rules I have in place somehow.

On the SG3100, I can install packages on a factory-reset config, but once I have the rules in place, no joy. I'll have to add them one at a time to see which one is the problem.

stephenw10

Huh, yet you can still install them at the CLI? Hard to imagine what rules could only affect the GUI.
Seems a lot more likely to be a user level restriction since it's not even logging am error like it's not even trying.
Must be something in the config though.

ncted

@stephenw10 After a factory reset, it is working now. All my WAN rules are back in place, and I was able to install multiple packages from the GUI. Still not sure what the problem was.