pfSense CE 2.8.0 upgrade stalls after reboot and gets stuck in Stage 2

eracerxrs

Yes, I'm sure that would be the case for a fully corrupt bootloader, but I've encountered issues where it partially loads, but hangs where there are outdated or mismatched driver versions in the bootloader that required updates to initramfs with the expected versions.

To investigate a bit further:

Previously it would freeze after configuring the harddisk da0. Last line being:

da0: 16384MB (33554432 512 byte sectors)

Now that is successfully boots, here are the lines between that and the "pfSense" ascii graphic:

Configuring crash dumps...
Using /dev/da0p2 for dump device.
Filesystems are clean, continuing...
Mounting filesystems...
Mounting ZFS boot environment... done.

For kicks, I reloaded the 2.7.2 snapshot and redid the upgrade, again, it froze, so when I used the old kernel to reboot I scoured the output and this is the only thing that stood out soon after booting:

>>> Removing vital flag from php82...done.
>>> Locking package pfSense-pkg-System_Patches...done.
>>> Reinstalling pkg due to ABI change...
Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
The following 1 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked)

Installed packages to be REINSTALLED:
            pkg-1.21.3_4 [pfSense]

Number of packages to be reinstalled: 1
[1/1] Reinstalling pkg-1.21.3_4...
[1/1] Extracting pkg-1.21.3_4: .......... done

And it continued installing similar to before, but this time ending in success upon reboot.

stephenw10

If you're able to test further try setting boot_verbose=YES in /boot/loader.conf.local.

That should show you where it's actually hanging or not during the boot at each stage. In the normal boot you don't see any output after it mounts root until init starts.

dave.opc

i tried to install clean 2.7.2 then updated to 2.8.0 and during boot chose kernel.old
it started booting and updating to 2.8 (as mentioned before) but after reboot it's still stuck on the same spot, rebooting. so didn't help in my case

InstanceExtension

Note: Updated the topic to include the fact that the issue was occurring during stage 2 of the upgrade.

chrcoluk

something I learnt last week, was it seems the display for the console can freeze whilst the system carries on booting and working as normal.

No idea if it is happening here, but it is odd it stops on a video message.

InstanceExtension

@chrcoluk As stated above "Letting it sit trying to load for an hour" no effect. When this happened to me (and others) the entire system was completely locked up. Nothing but a hard reset would bring it back.

manoj-synetal

may be I go the issue we just nee dot reboot the firewall and select the old kernel and boot the firewall after boot it will reboot again and you can access the latest version of firewall which 2.8.0 I tried and it work for me.

mtis

Does 2.8.1 fix these issues?

stephenw10

Which issues specifically? The UEFI console issue is still present AFAIK. Though it doesn't actually affect anything I have available to test.

mtis

@stephenw10

I haven’t caught up with the whole thread. All I can say is 2.7.2 works okay on my HP DL380gen9 but 2.8.0 won’t boot after the upgrade.

stephenw10

It appears to hang immediately after loading the kernel at the UEFI console?

Try booting legacy to confirm it's the same issue.

andres-asm

I have this issue too, it will fail to boot (it's a VM in unraid)
The fix, to change console to video first

stephenw10

Like set video console as primary before running the upgrade? Interesting. I wouldn't have expected that to affect it.

andres-asm

@stephenw10 no, when rebooting after updating it got stuck on the menu screen, never booted, so I changed to video console and then it booted

InstanceExtension

OP here. FYI, for a point of reference, I did not have this issue when upgrading from 2.8.0 to 2.8.1.

bamypamy

I tried to follow the thread but got lost.
Is there a fix for the issue when it gets stuck at da0: on proxmox 8.3.3 when updating from 2.7.2?
I get this issue when going to 2.8.0 or 2.8.1 doesn't matter.

stephenw10

@bamypamy said in pfSense CE 2.8.0 upgrade stalls after reboot and gets stuck in Stage 2:

it gets stuck at da0:

Where exactly is that happening?

How do you have the VM configured in Proxmox? I haven't seen any upgrade issues there.

andres-asm

@stephenw10 try changing console to video, that worked for me

bamypamy

@andres-asm I read that in the other posts but I don't know waht it means.

skybot

Hi everyone,

I am running into the same problem described here – the pfSense CE 2.8.0 upgrade stalls after reboot and gets stuck in Stage 2.

In my case, this happens on several HPE servers:

ProLiant DL20 Gen9

ProLiant DL160 Gen9

ProLiant DL160 Gen10

Unfortunately, switching from UEFI to BIOS is not an option in my environment. At this point I am stuck and don’t know how to proceed further.

Has anyone found a workaround or solution for this issue on HPE ProLiant systems? Any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance!