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

[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:

[SteveITS]

@TangoOversway You could try opening a TAC ticket. They may be able to help under the free "zero to ping" support since this is a reinstall.

At a high level, the install on ARM devices erases the storage and copies in the new image.

[patient0]

@TangoOversway the 1100 doesn't see the USB stick, I guess you tried the first USB port too with the 3rd USB stick?

[TangoOversway]

I don't know how much this will help, since what I'm seeing could be part of a problem with the file or installer on the USB stick.

Just for reference, I have sticks A, B, and C. Tried etching to A and when it wouldn't boot or do the recovery thing, I tried B, which is a better quality stick. Did most of this with B. Then thought to try C, which is a cheaper USB stick. I tried C in the "Normal" USB connection, on the left of the panel. Got the error message about a bad device, so I stuck it in the other one and I could run usbboot from it, but got the menu again. (And I may have run recovery and had another bad device error.)

So I'm back to B, the good USB stick in terms of quality. Again, used Balena Etcher on all 3 and they verified. So I tried B in the 2nd port (on the right, with the SS on the USB symbol). Bad device, so I tried it back in the left side slot. It did the blocking thing, then started doing more - but things scrolled by so quickly I couldn't see them or see any error messages. (Also, at one point, it cleared the screen.) And, again, I get the main boot menu.

Okay, so I have bad media or something. What to do? Keep etching on other USB sticks and retrying?

Is there any way to verify what's on the stick on a Mac? It comes up as DTBAT0 as a volume. When I list it (with ll -la to get hidden files too), I get:

total 163
drwx------@ 1 hal   staff      0 Feb 20 13:47 ./
drwxr-xr-x  8 root  wheel    256 Feb 20 14:37 ../
drwx------  1 hal   staff    512 Feb 20 14:37 .fseventsd/
-rwx------  1 hal   staff  17302 Sep 19 16:49 armada-3720-gti-doorkeeper.dtb*
-rwx------  1 hal   staff  18022 Sep 19 16:49 armada-3720-netgate-1100.dtb*
-rwx------  1 hal   staff  13733 Sep 19 16:49 armada-3720-netgate-2100.dtb*
-rwx------  1 hal   staff  18022 Sep 19 16:49 armada-3720-sg1100.dtb*
-rwx------  1 hal   staff  13733 Sep 19 16:49 armada-3720-sg2100.dtb*

/Volumes/DTBFAT0/.fseventsd:
total 4
drwx------  1 hal  staff  512 Feb 20 14:37 ./
drwx------@ 1 hal  staff    0 Feb 20 13:47 ../
-rwx------  1 hal  staff   36 Feb 20 14:37 fseventsd-uuid*```

[TangoOversway]

@patient0 Yes. Tried B & C in both ports. Now trying A in the 2nd port.

[TangoOversway]

Got the license screen this time!

Tried usbrecovery, got the main boot menu, but was filling out the form for TAC support and couldn't stop it. So I decided to wait and watch.

Got the license screen. Just wish I knew what kind of magic juju I did to get it!

[TangoOversway]

And lost it....

I must have specified the wrong kind of terminal. I could not respond to accept the license agreement.

So I reboot and get the Marvell prompt and run usbrecovery. It apparently wipes the drive and then I get:

[TangoOversway]

I'm at a sticking point now.

It's complaining that it can't reach the Netgate servers. I have it hooked up, via USB, to my workstation. The connection to my ISP is downstairs from there, so is there some way to get it up and running to the point where I can reach it via wifi before it needs the servers?

[patient0]

@TangoOversway unfortunately you gotta have some way to connect to the internet. I don't see how connected by USB to your workstation helps for that.

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/install-pfsense.html

"This installer is an online installer and requires Internet connectivity to download installation data from Netgate servers. Currently the installer supports DHCP, static IP address, and PPPoE configurations. Connect the WAN port of the device into a live network connection supporting one of those connectivity types."

That is the new installer, maybe TAC can send you an (older) offline installer (not sure that still exists).