PfSense 1.2.3 RC3 locking up at boot (ad0: TIMEOUT - WRITE retrying)

dotdash

I've had some 133x rated cards and they didn't have problems. I was thinking of those 300x cards that say UDMA. How'd you write the image, physdiskwrite from a Windows box? I have some vague recollection of someone getting pre-formatted cards and they had to blow away the partition or format the card before writing the image.

DrNo

@dotdash:

How'd you write the image, physdiskwrite from a Windows box?

Yeah, I used physdiskwrite in a Windows XP environment. My card's didn't come pre-formatted, and I don't think I ever formatted them to FAT/32 or NTFS. When I got them I used them for M0n0wall, but recently wanted to convert to pfSense.

I'll get a cheap CF card and see how that works. I'm not out too much since I got these CF cards from Woot (not refurbs).

I still need to try turning off UDMA (if it is on), but I guess I'll try writing pfsense through Ubuntu and see if that works any different. I'll post back what I find out.

jimp

I believe pfSense on nano already sets the sysctls to disable DMA.

superwutze

i encountered the same error and it is reproducible.
my hardware is an alix 2d3 board and the software is pfsense 1.2.3-rc* on various cf-cards. always a new install.

at first boot try to reassign the interfaces and (most times) you get that error.
alix 2d3 has got vr0 - vr2. at bootup they are vr0 -> lan and vr1 -> wan. i tried to set vr0 -> wan and vr2 -> lan. it also happens with snapshots.
there is no problem if i restore a config file and reboot (maybe because the settings are applied after the reboot).

dotdash

@superwutze:

i encountered the same error and it is reproducible.
my hardware is an alix 2d3 board and the software is pfsense 1.2.3-rc* on various cf-cards. always a new install.

at first boot try to reassign the interfaces and (most times) you get that error.

I've got a half-dozen 2c3/2d3's running 1.2.3rc's and I have never seen that error. I've got a bunch of different brands of cheap CF cards: A-Data, Kingston, Trancend, Lexar.
Why would it be assigning interfaces? Nano defaults to vr0 and vr1. A restore will prompt you to re-assign if the interfaces are different. The OP concerns nano, so if you are trying to run full off a CF you should not be jacking this thread.
If you are having ad0 timeout errors on a a nano 1.2.3 rc build, post more details on your setup and what steps can reproduce the problem.

superwutze

to get more into detail:

write the image (of course embedded nano, why else would i write in this thread) to the cf
insert cf into alix 2d3
attach serial console
boot alix2d3
when the menu appears hit 1 and enter and reassign the interfaces
in 9 out of 10 times that procedure leads (on various alix 2d3 (0.99h) with various cf-cards) to the mentioned 'ad0 timeout'. tested with 1.2.3-rc3 and various snapshots.

or in short:
at first boot try to reassign the interfaces and (most times) you get that error.

jimp

I've tried this on my 2d3 a few times in a row and had no problem. No errors at all.

And this is using a well-worn Sandisk 4GB CF running a 2GB nano image.

dotdash

I tried this several times on a 2d13 and couldn't reproduce the error. I even grabbed a 2c3 that came in for a refresh and tested it, after updating the BIOS to 99h. No problems. I used yesterday's snap of 1.2.3, but I don't think anything has changed for a week or so.
I followed your procedure and on re-assign tried reversing the order, just adding vr2 as OPT, etc. Didn't get any errors.
For reference, here are my BIOS settings (mostly default)
PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.99h
640 KB Base Memory
261120 KB Extended Memory

01F0 Master 044A CF 1GB
Phys C/H/S 1966/16/63 Log C/H/S 983/32/63

BIOS setup:

9 9600 baud (2) 19200 baud (3) 38400 baud (5) 57600 baud (1) 115200 baud
C CHS mode (L) LBA mode (W) HDD wait (V) HDD slave (U) UDMA enable
(M) MFGPT workaround
(P) late PCI init
R Serial console enable
(E) PXE boot enable
(X) Xmodem upload
(Q) Quit

@superwutze:

(of course embedded nano, why else would i write in this thread)

No offense to you, but if you read through the forum, you will see that it is unwise to assume a newbie user knows where to post their question, forum etiquette, etc. That's why I asked.

superwutze

@dotdash:

No offense to you, but if you read through the forum, you will see that it is unwise to assume a newbie user knows where to post their question, forum etiquette, etc. That's why I asked.

no offense taken, and no offense to all of you either, but for my last reply i tried it once more and the error was there again. i'll give it some in-depth research next week when i'm again at the office. there are still some variables to investigate (i.e. i always had vr0 and vr1 connected to the same switch). i'll post any suspicions.

cmb

I have what sounds like the same Kingston CF, and using the 4 GB image works perfectly. Not to mention about 40 other various CF cards. The looping fsck is bad, that would indicate file system corruption. I've only seen that on images where the build process went awry, that hasn't happened for months though.