Cannot install pfsense on new motherbord

wallabybob

Any resolution on the issue? I encountered same problem during installation.

Wild guess: disable USB3 in BIOS then try.

But the original post reported two problems: motherboard NIC not detected and installation hang. Which problem do you have? Which build of pfSense are you attempting to install? What motherboard? etc.

geramelh

@wallabybob:

@geramelh:

Any resolution on the issue? I encountered same problem during installation.

Wild guess: disable USB3 in BIOS then try.

But the original post reported two problems: motherboard NIC not detected and installation hang. Which problem do you have? Which build of pfSense are you attempting to install? What motherboard? etc.

Installing the 2.0.3, success installation but no NIC detected. I tried the 2.1 rc1 20130813-1423 both 32 and 64. It will hang during installation @
" /usr/local/bin/cpdup -vvv I -O /usr/mnt/usr " . I also tried to disable unused devices including USB but same result.

MBOARD: Asus MB-P8B75-M LX

Do we have workaround or any fix possibility on next snapshot?

wallabybob

ASUS reports your motherboard has a Realtek 8111F NIC and USB3 ports. You should probably disable USB3 in the BIOS (if possible) since it seems to have caused trouble for other people.

@geramelh:

Installing the 2.0.3, success installation but no NIC detected. I tried the 2.1 rc1 20130813-1423 both 32 and 64. It will hang during installation @
" /usr/local/bin/cpdup -vvv I -O /usr/mnt/usr " . I also tried to disable unused devices including USB but same result.

Others have reported the system appears to hang at this point during installation, but (at least in some cases) it just takes a long time (30+ minutes in one case if I recall correctly).

Since you seem to have successfully installed pfSense 2.0.3 you could go back to that then do a firmware upgrade to a 2.1 snapshot. Or you could give the 2.1 install a bit more time. In either case, if you see a "hang" try to determine if it is really a hang: Do the keyboard indicators change state when you press the corresponding key (e.g. Caps Lock or Num Lock)? Do you get a response to Ctrl-T (it should give a 1 or more line status report of the current command)?

geramelh

@wallabybob:

ASUS reports your motherboard has a Realtek 8111F NIC and USB3 ports. You should probably disable USB3 in the BIOS (if possible) since it seems to have caused trouble for other people.

@geramelh:

Installing the 2.0.3, success installation but no NIC detected. I tried the 2.1 rc1 20130813-1423 both 32 and 64. It will hang during installation @
" /usr/local/bin/cpdup -vvv I -O /usr/mnt/usr " . I also tried to disable unused devices including USB but same result.

Others have reported the system appears to hang at this point during installation, but (at least in some cases) it just takes a long time (30+ minutes in one case if I recall correctly).

Since you seem to have successfully installed pfSense 2.0.3 you could go back to that then do a firmware upgrade to a 2.1 snapshot. Or you could give the 2.1 install a bit more time. In either case, if you see a "hang" try to determine if it is really a hang: Do the keyboard indicators change state when you press the corresponding key (e.g. Caps Lock or Num Lock)? Do you get a response to Ctrl-T (it should give a 1 or more line status report of the current command)?

No response to Ctrl-T. I need to install it on 5 same model ASUS board. I successfully struggled to install it to the 2 Mboards with inconsistent procedure of doing so. The 1st is i waited long then press any key in the keyboard til it continue. The second board just continue immediately til finished. i tried the 3rd one and leave it overnight. unfortunately, it just stop in " /usr/local/bin/cpdup -vvv I -O /usr/mnt/usr ". I tried the 1st procedure, but no luck. I even tried different dvd drive. How can we possibly troubleshoot this type of inconsistent problem? Hoping for possible fix on this one. TIA.

wallabybob

@geramelh:

I need to install it on 5 same model ASUS board. I successfully struggled to install it to the 2 Mboards with inconsistent procedure of doing so. The second board just continue immediately til finished.

Given that you apparently have a successful install on one motherboard, I would clone the hard drive on that motherboard then move the cloned hard drive to another motherboard, connect the cloned to the motherboard in the same port the used by the original drive, then booth and test the cloned drive in the new motherboard. Repeat until done.

You can clone the boot drive by
1. connecting a new drive,
2. powerup, select option 8 ((Shell prompt) at the menu,
3. give shell command```
dmesg | grep 'mount root'

and extracting the name of the boot drive from the output, for example, my system reports:

> [2.0.3-RELEASE][admin@pfsense.example.org]/root(8): dmesg | grep 'mount root'
> Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a
> [2.0.3-RELEASE][admin@pfsense.example.org]/root(9):

so /dev/ad0 is the boot drive.
4\. Determine other drives in the system by shell command```
sysctl kern.disks
```. For example, my system reports

> [2.0.3-RELEASE][admin@pfsense.example.org]/root(10): sysctl kern.disks
> kern.disks: ad2 ad0
> [2.0.3-RELEASE][admin@pfsense.example.org]/root(11):

so /dev/ad2 is the non-boot drive.
5\. Close the boot drive by shell _dd_ command, for example on my system shell command```
dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/dev/ad2 bs=65536
```will copy from /dev/ad0 (the if parameter) to /dev/ad2 (the of parameter) in chunks of 65536 bytes (to get a faster copy than a sector by sector copy).

@geramelh:

> The 1st is i waited long then press any key in the keyboard til it continue.

The fact that typing something on the keyboard apparently caused the install to continue suggests something  was unexpected waiting for terminal input.

@geramelh:

> How can we possibly troubleshoot this type of inconsistent problem? Hoping for possible fix on this one.

Unfortunately it seems it can be a bit of a challenge to get a pfSense install working on recently released gear. I appreciate this makes starting with pfSense a challenge for newcomers but you should find firmware upgrades much less challenging.

kejianshi

I think its great that pfsense prefers slightly dated hardware. That stuff is cheaper and when you read that "Its reliable" there might be two or three years of use to support that vs buying new stuff where the specs look good but in actuality, you are gambling.

AhnHEL

@geramelh:

it just stop in " /usr/local/bin/cpdup -vvv I -O /usr/mnt/usr ".

This hang should easily be resolved by turning off virtualization, disabling multicore and any other cpu features for saving power, within the BIOS. Once successfully installed, just re-enable those options.

geramelh

Thanks for the assistance and valuable insight @wallabybob,@AhnHEL and @kejianshi. I will keep in mind the provided options for the next 7 sites installation.

onlineph

Sharing my experience… We have the same specs and when I encountered same error, I resorted to virtualized pfsense.

kejianshi

Yeah - virutalization can help with the hardware you have.
But avoiding incompatible hardware in the future is best.