Bug in Netgate Installer v1.1 PPPoE Implementation

dkmonaghan

Hello,

I've just run into an issue when using the new "Negate Installer" for the first time and trying to use a PPPoE WAN connection. There's an error in the lines it writes to mpd_wan.conf which render PPPoE non-functional.

As you can see, /var/etc/mpd_wan.conf calls an up-script at /usr/local/libexec/installer/pfSense-pppoe-linkup. However, this file doesn't exist.

The correct path is at /usr/local/libexec/installer/backend/pfSense-pppoe-linkup.

By correcting this manually in my mpd_wan.conf and making the file immutable so the installer couldn't overwrite it, I was then able to progress with the install.

I am shocked this made it past QA. This seems like a fairly fundemental part of a piece of software designed to connect to the internet.

As a side note - why can't the installer read my WAN config from the config.xml that I'm importing? Isn't the new installer supposed to make things easier? For the first time in over 15 years I'm considering moving away from pfSense - a shame.

Cheers.

patient0

@dkmonaghan That indeed seems like a bug, you can report it on redmine.pfsense.org

@dkmonaghan said in Bug in Netgate Installer v1.1 PPPoE Implementation:

I am shocked this made it past QA. This seems like a fairly fundemental part of a piece of software designed to connect to the internet.

It's software and software breaks, Cloudflare had one major and one not-that-major outage in the last 3 weeks, it can happen to the best.? Reporting it is the best thing you can do.

@dkmonaghan said in Bug in Netgate Installer v1.1 PPPoE Implementation:

For the first time in over 15 years I'm considering moving away from pfSense - a shame.

That is a bit of an odd conclusion, after 15 years of use there is a install-stopping error and you consider not using the software again? What runs on your client computer (or any device) that can meet these expectations?

dkmonaghan

@patient0 You’re right, perhaps my response was a little knee-jerk. My frustrations stem from the fact that previously installing pfSense was a breeze. The new installer introduces both friction and extra complication that never used to be there to no benefit to me as an end user at all, which is both disappointing and frustrating.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/1ohsk5g/new_netgate_installer_version_11_available/

Clearly I'm not the only one that feels this way, but I suppose that's irrelevant to the topic at hand.

Issue raised on Redmine at https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/16577.

stephenw10

Mmm, just to be clear is this the first time you have tried to use it or a regression since the previous installer version?

dkmonaghan

@stephenw10 This is the first time I've ever used the installer so cannot comment on previous versions.

stephenw10

Ok cool. Thanks for reporting.