Alix2d3 - can't upgrade from 2.1_RC0 to RC1

wallabybob

Any idea's on that error? Strange that the disk is saying it's ok and then coming up with invalid disk partition….

First some names: The Master Boot Record (MBR) allows for 4 partitions. FreeBSD calls these slices. Each slice that specifies it is a FreeBSD slice then has a BSD label and FreeBSD partitions. A device name such as /dev/ad0s2a indicates FreeBSD partition "a" within FreeBSD slice 2 on ATA disk ad0.

Your log indicates slice 1 and 2 are OK, but slice doesn't appear to have a valid BSD label.

If I recall correctly nanoBSD should have 3 slices: one of which is used for configuration information so that information can be easily shared by the other two slices.

@louis-m:

fdisk: invalid fdisk partition table found
bsdlabel: /dev/ad0s3: no valid label found
bsdlabel: /dev/ad0s3: no valid label found
mount: /dev/ufs/pfsense1 : Device busy
cp: /tmp/pfsense1/etc/fstab: No such file or directory
sed: /tmp/pfsense1/etc/fstab: No such file or directory
umount: /tmp/pfsense1: not a file system root directory

Note the problem is reported on slice 3 which is not reported in the disklabel log.

louis-m

Do you know how to fix this? Is it an edit in the shell?

doktornotor

@louis-m:

Do you know how to fix this? Is it an edit in the shell?

Uh. Rewrite the image to the card, restore configuration backup? (Note: I definitely am not convinced the card is OK, frankly I'd just dump it.)

Klaws

fsck is not a sure-fire way to detect CF card errors (well, the same is true for SSDs and traditional HDs).

Had a suddenly appearing, strange issue with port forwarding once. Replaced the CF card. Issue solved.

jimp

Some of those "invalid" type errors are fine and expected during an upgrade.

The "busy" one is what catches my eye. That means something already has that slice mounted or open and is trying to work on it when it shouldn't.

Have you rebooted the ALIX between upgrade attempts?

louis-m

yes, removed packages. rebooted etc. not sure what's going on with it.

jimp

When in doubt, wipe it and reload the card (or replace it, ideally). It could have been done already. :-)

Klaws

@kejianshi:

"Industrial Grade" isn't a spec, although sellers like you to think it is.

Actually, it is (for electronics used in aerospace and military environments). Typical grades are:

Commercial grade: 0 °C to 70 °C
Industrial grade: -40 °C to 85 °C
Military grade: -55 °C to 125 °C

According to my experience, the higher the advertized grade is, the more likely it is you are facing a counterfeit product with low-quality electrnoics inside (typically lower than that of standard versions). YMMV.

if the original poster insists that his pfSense box needs to be operated in the temperature range between 70°C and 85°C, then the CF card is not the problem. The problem is that the ALIX board has an operating temperature range of 0°C-50°C only.

louis-m

I only got industrial grade because I was told it handled more writes before failing and a normal card would probably only last a year or two if I was writing logs etc to it.

kejianshi

Temperature… Now thats a spec I can relate to.

For frequent writes, I would have to have SLC but I'd still avoid frequent writes.

This forum is absolutely full of "My SSD / Flash crashed" threads.

Personally, I still trust HDD so much more in most cases.

Klaws

@louis-m:

I only got industrial grade because I was told it handled more writes before failing and a normal card would probably only last a year or two if I was writing logs etc to it.

Um….remote logging?

I don't know how frequently data gets written when a non-embedded version is used, but assuming one write once a minute means 1440 writes per day. Without TRIM support, wear levelling is quite limited in effect.

CF cards can also fail for other reasons. In my case, the failure occured after a power surge (which fried the power supply). Nope, not my WRAP, not my office, not my infrastructure!

kejianshi

I still stick to my statement that if you just must write to these frequently that SLC is the only way to go.

Get yourself a few of these. If you can break them, you are good at breaking stuff.

http://www.comx-computers.co.za/TS16GCF100I-P-specifications-70564.htm