LiveCD-2.1-RC1-amd64-20130822-1130 Installation Issues
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I attempted to do a Firmware upgrade in the webGUI from 2.0.3 to 2.1-RC1-20130822-1130 with poor results. I apologize in advance for not taking notes, but I wanted to post the hardware and my installation SOP in the event there's something wrong with those before I spend time digging deeper into the issue(s).
Here is the hardware that I am installing it on:
Motherboard
Intel BOXDQ77MK LGA 1155 Intel Q77 (dual-NIC with Intel 82579LM and Intel 82574L)CPU
Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155PCIe NICs (2 of them)
Intel EXPI9301CTBLK Network Adapter 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express 1 x RJ45 (82574L)RAM (4GB total)
Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600Hard Drive
Western Digital WD Blue WD3200AAKX 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"Network
WAN - Cable DHCP
WAN2 - Cable Static IP
LAN - DHCP, 1000base-T wired to switch
LAN2 - DHCP, 1000base-T wired to switchI have 2.0.3 running on this hardware and it's doing a great job. No issues in the past year. I have a client that I built a 2.1 box for and decided to upgrade my system onto the latest 2.1 RC1 snapshot.
The firmware upgrade from 2.0.3 to 2.1 RC1 completed without issue in the webGUI and the box rebooted without issue. I logged back into pfSense 2.1 after the upgrade via the webUI and everything looked like it was working without issue. However, my internal DNS server could not make DNS queries to the root servers. It could not find the root servers. I did a DNS lookup in the pfSense diagnostics and my internal server could not complete lookups from pfSense (although 8.8.8.8, and OpenDNS name servers seemed to work from pfSense). I checked the firewall and it looked like pfSense was blocking DNS lookups. I tired troubleshooting the issue and could not determine what was causing internal DNS lookup to be blocked by the firewall.
Since I had backed up my 2.0.3 installation prior to the upgrade I decided to take the radical step of reformatting my pfSense box and installing 2.1 RC1 from the LiveCD. At one point during installation it hung when pfSense was installing. I rebooted to box and did an easy install, which reformatting the drive again to ensure a clean installation. It installed without error the second time and the box rebooted.
However, when the fresh installation of 2.1 RC1 came up, the network was incredibly slow. I could not load the webGUI at all. I have console access to the box and the console worked perfectly. I reconfigured the LAN via the console, and it gave out DHCP addresses without any issues. pfSense could also do DNS lookups (using my ISP's name server given to pfSense via the WAN DHCP) without issue or delays. I decided to reboot pfSense to see if it was an error during boot, and still experienced the same results: slow (nearly unusable) network access and the pfSense webGUI would not load.
I was in a rush so I decided to reinstall 2.0.3 from the LiveCD. Did an easy install and the box came right up. I logged into the webGUI without any issue and uploaded my backed up settings. The box rebooted and everything came back online without any issue. The network is blazing a long nicely, DNS lookups from my internal DNS server work fine, and the webGUI works great.
I'm not sure if there's an incompatibility with my hardware and 2.1 RC1, so I thought I'd start there and see if there was something glaring with my hardware. I'll probably take another shot at upgrading again today or tomorrow, and more than likely will start with a clean 2.1 RC1 LiveCD installation versus a firmware upgrade.
I didn't see any issues like the ones I'm experience listed in the forums, but any guidance/insight would be greatly appreciated. If you need any more information, let me know. When I do the 2.1 RC1 installation again I'll be sure to collect more information including posting logs.
Thanks in advance.