Upgrade from 2.1.5 to 2.2 fails on Alix2d2 Board

eihcet

I had the same issue with an ALIX 2D13. Upgrade from 2.1.5 to 2.2 would complete, but system would not boot up properly. I see the same error message from serial console. I am certain my issue was with the CF card. I was able to upgrade without issue after replacing the CF card. I wanted to be sure, I loaded the new CF card with 2.1.5, restored config, then upgrade to 2.2. Same process, works with the new CF card, which failed with the old CD card.

new CF card is SanDisk Ultra 8GB 50MB/s, brand new.
old CF card is SanDisk Ultra II 8GB 15MB/s, been using it for at least 2 years.

I don't know what's the issue with the old CF card. I am able to format it in Windows and read/write to it. Not sure if there are any tools I can use to do error checking on it.

I had a similar issue, tried a few times to upgrade from 2.1.5 to the 2.2.x versions and they all would fail with the same errors as earlier in the thread. I did a clean install, changed the boot loader configs and still had issues where it wouldn't boot up. Both of the cards tested were 2GB Sandisk rated at 15MB/s and regardless of the DMA & other settings from the upgrade docs they wouldn't boot more than half way failing with the same error. Both cards worked fine with 2.1.5. I ended up ordering a couple 8GB cards from amazon rated at the 50MB/s and now it's all going again.

To test the upgrades (all the troubleshooting) and finally get it installed without interrupting my "users" too much, I setup a Virtual Machine for BSD. I added a serial port and a second virtual nic and set the vm to use the CF card as a physical disk (after writing the image). In windows I had to use a utility (Named Pipe TCP Proxy) http://shvechkov.tripod.com/nptp.html and Putty set to access the named pipe to configure the adapters, etc. Once I got the virtual image up and running I backed up the config from my production box, and restored it to the VM, shutdown both, swapped the cards, and all is golden again.

TL;DR the CF cards with slower speeds seem to have an issue with the 2.2.x updates on Alix platform. Disabling DMA doesn't fix it. Perhaps forcing a slower PIO mode might resolve it but I didn't have the patience to test it that far, a $10 upgraded CF card resolved the issue for me. Still have DMA disabled.

stephenw10

Which 2.2.X version did you try? There were some changes to Nano that made some cards significantly slower.
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/2.2.3_New_Features_and_Changes#Security.2FErrata_Notices

Steve

eihcet

Had the same issues with 2.2.1 through 2.2.4. Only swapping to a newer card fixed it. Like I said, maybe forcing the loader to use a slower PIO mode may have worked, but I was having entering commands using the serial console (for some reason only with 2.2.x) and loading the image in vmware to save/restore configs was making the troubleshooting a hassle.