Strange bootslice changing after update 2.1.5 -> 2.2

[EmL]

I have a little test environment (Alix) at work. Before updating 2.1.5 to 2.2RC I duplicated my active slice 1 to slice 2, which would enable me to have 2.1.5 on slice 1 and 2.2RC on slice 2 after the update. After duplicating I'd defined slice 2 as the active slice and rebooted my alix.

After the reboot I set up the proper update url and performed directly the update from 2.1.5 to 2.2RC and rebooted again.

Then i noticed, that my boot slice was again slice 1 on which i thought, 2.1.5 should be there. But it wasn't anymore. It was now 2.2RC. Logged into WebGUI again and switched to slice 2 … just to look if 2.1.5 is maybe there ... and rebooted.

After rebooting in slice 2 i saw in WebGUI, that there is now the old 2.1.5, which i meant it should effective now be located in slice 1. But my serial output via putty shows me the following:

*******************************************************************************
* WARNING!                                                                    *
* The current configuration has been created with a newer version of pfSense  *
* than this one! This can lead to serious misbehavior and even security       *
* holes! You are urged to either upgrade to a newer version of pfSense or     *
* revert to the default configuration immediately!                            *
*******************************************************************************

It seems like there's something going wrong while the update. Maybe the update installs everytime to slice 1? And maybe the update updated my config file from the wrong installation base/slice?

After restoring my old 2.1.5 config the error was away. Finally i got 2.1.5 and 2.2RC working on my alix. Just with some issues and on interchanged slices. So it's not a real problem, but I think it's worth to report it here.

btw: Also i noticed, that i normally would expect, that you have some seconds time to choose your bootup slice … and there was a message which indicates that. I think the message is gone. I don't see it anymore. Also a power off/on doesn't show me that (regardless of whether booting 2.1.5 or 2.2RC).

[phil.davis]

The upgrade always installs onto the opposite slice to what you are booted from. That way you do not lose a known working bootable slice.
You copied 2.1.5 slice 1 to slice 2, then rebooted from slice 2. So you started with 2.1.5 on both slices.
The upgrade then wrote 2.2-RC to slice 1, and switched the booting to boot from slice 1.
That is as designed - slice 2 contains the old 2.1.5 as you have found out.

So actually there is no need to do any slice replicating before an upgrade - the "other" slice is going to have the upgrade written to it anyway.

From 2.1.5 to 2.2-RC there are some format changes to things in config.xml - the config gets converted as part of the upgrade. If you go back to 2.1.5 then you should really restore the original config.xml - and of course everyone makes a backupof config.xml before upgrading.

[EmL]

ooops … so i completely misunderstand the philosphy behind until now!

I thought i have to ensure manually to make a backup from my slice. This means also, that there is no way to hold a defined backup of a working config on a different slice since the update and switch slice is performed automatically. Thanks for clarification and point me that out.