Read-only File System Errors - 1.2.3-RC2 NanoBSD

kf · Jan 26, 2011, 3:18 AM

Attempting to run a pfsense NanoBSD off a CF on an ALIX. Version is 1.2.3-RC2. Getting read-only filesystem errors any time I try to configure the system; no changes will save.

Primarily fwrite/fopen errors such as:

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /etc/inc/pfsense-utils.inc on line 3429

And:

[Sat Jan  1 00:14:08 2000] [apc-error] apc_fcntl_create: open(/tmp/.apc.pmd26N, O_RDWR|O_CREAT, 0666) failed: Read-only file 
system

I'm building the image myself (had to integrate Madwifi driver modifications) and using physdiskwrite to put the generated 1GB NanoBSD.full.img on a 2GB CF card. Would that cause any problems?

I think the only other modification with the build environment is a custom theme and config file.

Some trouble-shooting I've already carried out:

Played with the BIOS quite a bit- UDMA is off, I've toggled between LBA and CHS modes with no notable difference.
I've gone into the "OK" shell and disabled DMA (hw.ata.ata_dma=0), as well as in /boot/loader.conf
Noticed that errors dissipated temporarily if I remounted with /sbin/mount -u -w but would return after making changes (such as setting the LAN IP address)
/etc/rc.conf_mount_rw gives me read-only file system errors as well - unless I run /sbin/mount -u -w first, but the errors soon return all the same
Getting desperate, I modified /etc/fstabs and changed both RO entries to RW. No noticeable improvement.
I've noticed that an image of 1.2.3-RELEASE I downloaded produced similar errors, but was still operable. I also noticed 2.0-BETA produced no errors at all, and seemed quite fine. Have there been some updates to address these kinds of issues?

Anything obvious I might be missing? Anything subtle?

jimp · Jan 26, 2011, 4:03 PM

The CF on NanoBSD is kept read only except when the system tries to make changes it switches to RW temporarily.

I haven't seen it fail to switch to rw mode unless there was a problem with the filesystem (faulty CF, fs needs a fsck, etc).

You would need to be on either 1.2.3-RELEASE or 2.0 beta images, you shouldn't use 1.2.3-RC <x>images after the -RELEASE is out.

When in doubt, completely reflash the CF or use a different CF, and don't just do a firmware update.</x>