Serial Output Fails on XG-7100 with Netgate Installer

asayler

I have an XG-7100 device that's been in service for a number of years now. I'm in the process of trying to perform a fresh pfSense install on it following the directions from https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/install-pfsense.html. I'm using the Netgate Installer - AMD64 Memstick USB (Intel x64 Netgate appliances) netgate-installer-v1.2-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz image.

Unfortunately, every time the device boots to USB to start the install, the serial output becomes garbled and unusable. This issue only occurs when trying to boot the installer, however. When I boot the device normally, the serial output works as intended. Similarly, the initial serial output is fine when booting, and only corrupts after the installer launches. You can see the moment the output corrupts below (note the repeating characters as soon as the installer launches). Everything after that is just black/unrendered characters in the serial feed.

iPXE (http://ipxe.org) 06:00.1 C200 PCI2.10 PnP PMM 7F675690 7F5D5690 C200

Press ESC for boot menu.

Booting from Hard Disk... harddrive_index=0
//bboooott//ccoonnffiigg::  --SS111155220000  --DD

I'm running with the recommended serial settings: 115200 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. The issue occurs regardless of whether flow control is set to None or XON/XOFF. The issue occurs across both Linux (screen) and Windows (putty). I've also tried it across multiple USB sticks with the pfSense installer loaded.

Any idea what might be going on here? And why the serial output breaks when using the installer (but works fine during a normal boot)? Anything else I can do to debug it? Is there a UART header on the board I could attach to to bypass the built-in UART-to-USB chip? Any way to perform a headless fresh install even without a working serial terminal?

Gertjan

@asayler said in Serial Output Fails on XG-7100 with Netgate Installer:

//bboooott//ccoonnffiigg:: --SS111155220000 --DD

I put my bets on the setting you didn't mention : local echoing (your communication program on the 'PC') has echo set to 'on', so set if to off.

stephenw10

Mmm, I have seen that but the installer menu should still appear as normal. It doesn't prevent installing as far as I know?

AndyRH

My guess is a baud rate change. A screen shot might provide better clues. Those of us that have been around a while will recognize a baud mismatch.

stephenw10

It's not a baudrate problem. The console text does appear, it;s just shown as black on black for some reason. You can still copy/paste it out for example. At least when I've seen it that's true.

asayler

@stephenw10 that matches the behavior I'm seeing. It seems like something is being sent, but it just renders as black boxes across multiple terminal apps and I'm unable to read or respond to any of the install prompts as a result. I can grab a screenshot later, but it's basically just a black screen.

Is there a way to fix it? Is this a bug in the installer? The normal boot output still works fine, so it does seem specific to booting the Netgate install media.

stephenw10

But it should still generate the installer menu readably once it changes mode at that point?

asayler

@Gertjan I disabled local echoing. The behavior is the same.

@stephenw10 The menu never appears. I get 30-40 seconds of the cursor jumping around with black output I can't see, and then nothing.

I uploaded a recording of the output at https://youtu.be/X18gxAJwF2w.

asayler

Okay, so I think I figured it out -- I had to disable the "Allow terminal to specify ANSI colours" option in Putty (and presumably would have to do this in screen as well). Doing so ensures the output displays correctly, allowing me to navigate the menus and complete the install.

I'm not sure if this implies the installer is setting an ANSI color that isn't playing nice with the default settings in most terminal programs (or at least in Putty on Windows and Screen on Ubuntu 26.04). But the workaround is to disable ANSI colors.

stephenw10

Hmm, that's different to what I have seen then. Might have been a local setting you had I guess.