[Solved] Unable to update repository pfSense (26.03)

bootcable

I just upgraded from 25.11 to 25.11.1 to 26.03 and I am now seeing this notice in the web ui:

check_upgrade: "Updating repositories metadata" returned error code 1 @ 2026-05-08 12:01:06

Running pkg-static update -f results in a bunch of errors saying "Problem with the local SSL certificate":

Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue...
pkg-static: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-core/meta.conf: Problem with the local SSL certificate
pkg-static: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-core/meta.txz: Problem with the local SSL certificate
repository pfSense-core has no meta file, using default settings
Unable to update repository pfSense-core
[…]
Error updating repositories!

(Truncated as this post was getting flagged as spam, maybe because of the URLs?)

Running pkg-static -d update shows the error:

could not load PEM client certificate from /usr/local/etc/pfSense/pkg/repos/pfSense-repo-0000-cert.pem, OpenSSL error error:0480006C:PEM routines::no start line, (no key found, wrong pass phrase, or wrong file format?)

(Removed full output as post was getting flagged as spam.)

This file exists and is non-empty:

-rw-r--r--  1 root wheel 2008 May  8 12:15 /usr/local/etc/pfSense/pkg/repos/pfSense-repo-0000-cert.pem

In case it's helpful, here's the shasum for the file:

$ shasum /usr/local/etc/pfSense/pkg/repos/pfSense-repo-0000-cert.pem
74f601849a910e1ad272bd1810f1efaa401cda6a  /usr/local/etc/pfSense/pkg/repos/pfSense-repo-0000-cert.pem

Not sure how to fix this or what to do from here.

Thanks for your help.

bschapendonk

I'm having the same issue :(

I was playing around with my install at home, and saw this error.

I thought I messed something up, so I reinstalled using the latest installer (netgate-installer-v1.2-RELEASE-amd64.iso).
This worked, but i'm still having errors and packages won't install :(

Probably something in the netgate infrastructure, let's hope that it works again tomorrow.

check_upgrade: "Updating repositories metadata" returned error code 1 @ 2026-05-08 22:22:27

Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue...
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-core/meta.conf: Problem with the local SSL certificate
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-core/meta.txz: Problem with the local SSL certificate
repository pfSense-core has no meta file, using default settings
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-core/data.pkg: Problem with the local SSL certificate
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-core/data.tzst: Problem with the local SSL certificate
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-core/packagesite.pkg: Problem with the local SSL certificate
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-core/packagesite.tzst: Problem with the local SSL certificate
Unable to update repository pfSense-core
Updating pfSense repository catalogue...
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-pfSense_plus_v26_03/meta.conf: Problem with the local SSL certificate
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-pfSense_plus_v26_03/meta.txz: Problem with the local SSL certificate
repository pfSense has no meta file, using default settings
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-pfSense_plus_v26_03/data.pkg: Problem with the local SSL certificate
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-pfSense_plus_v26_03/data.tzst: Problem with the local SSL certificate
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-pfSense_plus_v26_03/packagesite.pkg: Problem with the local SSL certificate
pkg: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-pfSense_plus_v26_03/packagesite.tzst: Problem with the local SSL certificate
Unable to update repository pfSense
Error updating repositories!

stephenw10

Are you still seeing this? It looks like there was a backend issue yesterday but that should have been fixed now.

dgt75

@stephenw10 I am still seeing the errors noted in the earlier posts as of 30 minutes ago on my 26.03 install.

stephenw10

OK digging....

dgt75

@stephenw10 I am not certain if it is at all related to this error, but I did upgrade pfSense-repoc yesterday after receiving a notification of an update available. I do not know if the errors noted in earlier posts started after that. But thought it might be worth mentioning in case.

This is the relevant log entry for versions updated to:

pfSense-repoc upgraded: 20260205.051513 -> 20260507.171713

.RB.

Same issue here. It occurred after the last repoc update yesterday.

pfsjap

Same issue also here. I did go the same route as @dgt75, but the resulting pfSense-repoc version is different:

May 8 23:13:19	pkg-static	9846	pfSense-repoc upgraded: 20260205.051513 -> 20260508.174916

bschapendonk

@stephenw10 I just did a re-install and config restore and that solved my issues, thank you.

fyi yesterday I also upgraded pfSense-repoc which cause the issue, but a re-install / restore did not work at that time.

mvikman

@pfsjap said in Unable to update repository pfSense (26.03):

Same issue also here. I did go the same route as @dgt75, but the resulting pfSense-repoc version is different:
May 8 23:13:19	pkg-static	9846	pfSense-repoc upgraded: 20260205.051513 -> 20260508.174916

I have the same version of repoc upgraded and now also getting error notifications

pkg-static: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-core/meta.conf: Problem with the local SSL certificate
pkg-static: Failed to fetch https://pfsense-plus-pkg.netgate.com/pfSense_plus-v26_03_amd64-core/meta.txz: Problem with the local SSL certificate

stephenw10

Ok, yes, it looks like this was a repoc issue. It's since been updated again to fix so new installs are not affected.

But if you're still hitting it try running this command to fix the certs and update repoc:

pfSense-repoc -N && sh -c 'for f in $(grep -L -m1 "^-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----" /usr/local/etc/pfSense/pkg/repos/pfSense-repo-*-cert.pem 2>/dev/null); do if [ -e "$f" ]; then sed -i "" "s/.\\{64\\}/&\n/g" "$f"; sed -i "" -e "1s/^/-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\n/" -e "\$s/\$/\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----/" "$f"; fi; done' && pkg upgrade -y pfSense-repoc

luckman212

Hmm. I just checked mine, and I've got 20260508.234816

pkg query -x %v pfSense-repoc
20260508.234816

guess that's the latest then?

.RB.

@stephenw10
That fixed it for me, thank you!

dgt75

@stephenw10 Looks like that did the trick for me as well, no errors. Thank you for this!

bootcable

@stephenw10 Thanks for your help. That fixed it for me.

Doesn't look like I can edit the post title to say solved.

stephenw10

@luckman212 Yup that's the latest repoc pkg.