SG-1100 Won’t Reboot on Upgrade - no internet access!

[TangoOversway]

I’m having to do this through my mobile devices, which is confusing for me, since I depend on a big screen.

I started upgrading pfSense on my SG-1100 and it won’t reboot. When I search for help, I always get something about using the console - but I have no way to connect to a monitor. All I have on it are 2 USB ports and the RJ45 jacks. I have looked in the manual about connecting by USB. There is a Mac download for a driver so I can do that - but the link in the manual goes to a page on the Prolific site that does not have any drivers - just a selection of their different chips.

So downloading a driver is going to be frustrating - no internet access for my desktop and the link is not good. (We’re in a rural location - so using a cell hotspot is limited in usability and speed!)

After about 30 minutes of the upgrade page not being able to connect and continually retrying, I ran a ping command in a terminal. There is no response from my SG-1100. After another 10 minutes, I went downstairs to check on it. The black diamond LED was blinking slowly (update available, right) and the power LED was on. Still, it was just, as far as I could tell, trying to reboot.

So it’s down. Won’t boot.

When I was upgrading, it was making me go through one upgrade at a time. I have a reset button, but, of course, that doesn’t do a factory reset.

I’d like to just do a reset and install the latest version that can work on my SG-1100, then reload my configuration file (yes, I saved it before upgrading) - and do it without going through every upgrade step along the way.

So what’s next since I have no hardware way to do a factory reset

[TangoOversway]

UPDATE:

It was a slow download, but I got the driver by using my phone as a hotspot.

So I have a serial connection. It prompts me with login:. I enter admin and then it prompts me with Password: and I type my password and it says Login incorrect. Tried several times, typing slowly and carefully to be sure my password is correct.

So it's a brick and I'm without practical internet.

[patient0]

@TangoOversway said in SG-1100 Won’t Reboot on Upgrade - no internet access!:

It prompts me with login:. I enter admin and then it prompts me with Password: and I type my password

pfSense user to SSH in is root. Sorry, if you connect with a serial connection then there is no login, the pfSense menu should just be there.

[TangoOversway]

@patient0

It's autobooting - before I can finish reading the menu and then I get the prompts. (Autoboot timeout seems to be a second or two, it's so fast!)

[SteveITS]

@TangoOversway Does it show the pfSense menu and boot screens?

Sounds like it’s stuck and boot looping. https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/sg-1100/reinstall-pfsense.html is probably the fastest way back. Then restore your config file.

[TangoOversway]

Ugh!

So I need to have a store account. Don't have one. Bought my SG-1100 from the Netgate store on Amazon.

[patient0]

@TangoOversway what kind of prompt to you see? None require a login from the serial console (at least I thought so).

Boot menu:

pfSense Menu after boot up:

[SteveITS]

@TangoOversway Store account and installer are free.

There’s a pfSense setting to password protect the console. I’m guessing OP isn’t getting that far and is in some partially installed state.

[TangoOversway]

Okay, did get an account and downloaded and put the installer on a USB stick. I put it in, booted, got the Marvell prompt, and used run usbboot and it booted - but went straight to the menu - the one in the first image from @patient0. I don't see any install menu or anything like that. (Also, if it matters, still can't ping my SG1100, even though I have it connected to my LAN.)

TL;DR stuff
Sorry if I'm snarky or short. We got a big snow and my wife's boss wants her to log on remotely, so I'm under pressure to get this up quickly and using a cellular hotspot is not but so fast here.

I ran into a frustration that the output during boot would jump back up to the top of my terminal window and start writing more text, so when the menu came up, it was hard to distinguish the message about hitting a key to stop autoboot from other text - took me several times before I saw that.

[TangoOversway]

Oh - and the current situation is after trying to reboot and doing run usbboot 2 or more times.

[SteveITS]

@TangoOversway If you take out the USB what does it do?

Did you run the usbrecovery command in the note in step 3, to wipe it?

[TangoOversway]

@SteveITS

@SteveITS said in SG-1100 Won’t Reboot on Upgrade - no internet access!:

Did you run the usbrecovery command in the note in step 3, to wipe it?

Making sure I get this from the instructions correctly. I reboot again and, instead of using run usbboot I run usbrecovery a the Marvell prompt?

[TangoOversway]

Used run usbrecovery at the Marvell prompt. It gave me some messages about blocks, but I didn't get a screenshot before it wiped them and went on, then brought up the same menu (the first image in @patient0's reply).

[TangoOversway]

I've tried to use both usbboot and usbrecovery. They just end up with the normal menu appearing. This time I got a screen shot of part of the screen after running usbrecovery:

It stayed there a while, then gave me the normal menu, so I booted to the default and now I have this:

I've been there before. It does nothing for a long time. No status indicator or anything. Is it wiping my drive to prep for a recovery? Shouldn't I see something giving me an indication it's doing something? And if that is normal, how long should I wait?

[patient0]

@TangoOversway how did you write the image you got from Netgate to the USB? And what was the file named you got?

The message you are seeing means the installer is corrupt or it can't boot from it.

[SteveITS]

@TangoOversway The installer should start at a license screen:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/install-walkthrough.html

Paging @stephenw10 ...

Just to ask, you did burn the USB stick with Etcher?
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/write-memstick.html

[TangoOversway]

The filename is netgate-installer-aarch64.img.gz. After it wouldn't work with usbboot or usbrecovery, I put it on another USB stick to see if that was the issue. I'm using Balena Etcher.

I haven't seen a license screen yet.

It's at mountroot> random: unblocking device. Last time it was there and I hit <return> after a few minutes, I got a message that made it sound like a process was terminated.

[TangoOversway]

Finally got something firm. Tried burning it to a 3rd USB stick. Ended up with the main menu again, so I hit reboot and ran usbrecovery:

So I'm getting a bad USB device. Never got that - just saw it stop at the 1MMC erase: dev #`....1 line before.

[patient0]

@TangoOversway you are doing it all correct, the file is the correct one and Etcher is perfect for the job.

The 1100 has to USB ports, can you try the other port?

[TangoOversway]

@patient0 Just thought of that - and took the USB stick I know is a better quality product and put it in the other port: