PfSense 2.0.1 freezes on Alix platform
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Hello there,
I'm not asking for a solution here, as i don't know how to commit a decent crash report. So in fact my question is: next time it crashes, how can i find logs to see what has happened?
A bit of the context: I'm a home user and certainly no expert and definattely a *nix noob. Happy user of pfSense though, since the betas back 4 years ago. pfSense has never crashed on me, not once, only since the last install on new Alix hardware with version 2.0.1, pfsense froze twice in one week. No internet traffic, no webgui response, no ping response. I have to do a cold hardware reboot.
So next time it happens, or even now (from the last crash), i'd like to be able to help debugging. But how?
Kind regards,
Marc -
If you use torrent, you maybe reaching firewall maximum states.
Try to increase it in system -> advanced -> firewall/nat
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If you use torrent, you maybe reaching firewall maximum states.
Try to increase it in system -> advanced -> firewall/nat
Thanks for the tip.
I've changed this to 64000 now. But I don't think this is the issue. Nobody here uses torrents and the max state count i've seen so far is lower than 450.
I really would like to help find this problem. I could just as well revert to v1.2.3, which is rock solid, but i'd rather help get to the bottom of this and contribute to help improve the latest version.I'll start by listing my installation:
platform: brand new Alix 2D13, with new 2GB SLC CF, Wistron CM9 miniPCI (atheros based 802.11b/g) installed with embedded pfSense v2.0.1.
I'd gladly send my config file to someone too.That's about all useful information i can give so far, without some help. I'll gladly look for log files or crash dumps (if any exist) if I would know where to look.
Kind regards, Marc
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platform: brand new Alix 2D13, with new 2GB SLC CF, Wistron CM9 miniPCI (atheros based 802.11b/g) installed with embedded pfSense v2.0.1.
Is that the nanoBSD based pfSense or the full install without VGA? The nanoBSD version doesn't have a swap file so there is nowhere to write crash dumps.
It could be useful to capture the output of the serial console. If the system panics (crashes) it will output a crash cause to the console. If the system restarts "spontaneously" (perhaps due to a power dip) you won't see anything "special" on the console.
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Is that the nanoBSD based pfSense or the full install without VGA? The nanoBSD version doesn't have a swap file so there is nowhere to write crash dumps.
It could be useful to capture the output of the serial console. If the system panics (crashes) it will output a crash cause to the console. If the system restarts "spontaneously" (perhaps due to a power dip) you won't see anything "special" on the console.
Yep, nanobsd based pfSense. I've setup the serial console log. There is no spontaneous reboot, i have to do a manual reboot, so a kernel panic will be the last thing on the console and i might have a chance in capturing something.
OTOH, i could add a HDD and mount a writeable volume. Is there a possibility to easily mod the installation and log more?
We'll see where we get from here. I'll report back when something happens.
Cheers, Marc
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Small update here, but basically nothing to report.
I didn't exaggerate about the regular crashes before, but since the console is attached with a laptop connected (last 2 weeks now) nothing happened. The only thing that I could see was the occasional 'ath0: stuck beacon message', but i couldn't notice anything on a functional level.
I've no idea what could have changed in the network behavior or usage of the homy users, nothing that I know of.
I'll be back… (if something happens).
Cheers, Marc
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To get more extensive logging try setting up a remote syslog server as described here.
Steve
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Wow, message to self: never try becoming a sysadmin. I've setup pfsense for remote logging (easy), i've installed and configured Syslog Watcher on Windows (also easy), then it took me 3 days to figure out Windows Firewall was blocking the UDP packets on port 514. Anyway, it's remote logging now. We'll see what happens :)
Thanks for the hint.
