Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Upgrade to 2.2.4 failed

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
    15 Posts 7 Posters 2.3k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • D
      dexcs
      last edited by

      Error on boot:

      "can't find kernel"

      See screenshot….
      ![Screen Shot 2015-07-27 at 08.45.32.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-07-27 at 08.45.32.png)
      ![Screen Shot 2015-07-27 at 08.45.32.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-07-27 at 08.45.32.png_thumb)

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • C
        cmb
        last edited by

        Don't see how that could happen outside a hardware failure, like sometimes a dead drive doesn't show as such until you reboot. But that looks like a Xen VM, in which case that seems unlikely unless the host OS is having issues.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Com DACC
          Com DAC
          last edited by

          I got the same error when upgrading 2.2.3 to 2.2.4 inside a Hyper-V VM. Since the machine is in my test environment I went to just wipe and re-set it up. The VM had a 1GB drive and it failed to install with something about not enough space for the swap partition (can't remember the exact message). I remade the drive as a 2GB drive and it installed without issue.

          If I get time I'll try and setup another 2.2.3 box and try the upgrade again.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • jimpJ
            jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
            last edited by

            We've seen that happen a number of times with VMs that run out of disk space on upgrade. Provisioning a VM with only a 1GB disk is asking for trouble…

            The 2.2.4 OS image is a few MB larger than previous versions so it will take a little more room, you're probably just lucky it never happened before.

            Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

            Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

            Do not Chat/PM for help!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Com DACC
              Com DAC
              last edited by

              ok so I should be fine in production as it's already 2GB in size. Is there a recommended minimum disk size?

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • C
                cmb
                last edited by

                Ah yes, forgot about the running out of disk space possibility when I posted yesterday. How much free disk space did you have pre-upgrade? We have a ticket open to add a check there to not try to upgrade if there isn't enough free space.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Com DACC
                  Com DAC
                  last edited by

                  no idea how much free space there was as the machine was dead and is now rebuilt. The production machine that I have still to update only has 700MB available. Will that 700MB be enough?

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • GertjanG
                    Gertjan
                    last edited by

                    Well, as said above, if upgrading with one GB space left is asking for trouble, then guess what "700 MB" will be ….

                    No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                    Edit : and where are the logs ??

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • DerelictD
                      Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                      last edited by

                      Well, as said above, if upgrading with one GB space left is asking for trouble, then guess what "700 MB" will be ….

                      @jimp said "a 1GB disk" with no mention of free space.  Sounds like we'll have a free space check next time.

                      Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                      A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                      DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                      Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Com DACC
                        Com DAC
                        last edited by

                        the upgrade with 700MB free space went without issue.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • D
                          docdawning
                          last edited by

                          – Update 1: Problem identified --

                          /boot/kernel

                          /boot/

                          – Update 2: I got it working, details below --

                          • I booted off the LiveCD in to Recovery mode.

                          • I saw the OS partition I run on mounted under /tmp/rescue

                          • Within my OS partition, I found I had several full system backups from previous upgrades, the latest of which likely tipped the balance and left the drive with very little free space. I deleted about 10GB of older backup images.

                          • Since my LiveCD was the exact version of pfsense I was upgrading to, I copied its /boot/kernel/kernel.gz to /tmp/rescue/boot/kernel/

                          • I made note that I could come back in to /tmp/rescue and grab my full system backup and config.xml if all this didn't work out.

                          • I rebooted. The updated pfsense install booted properly, all appears well. So ultimately I was at most 13MB short (kernel.gz size) for the upgrade to work on its own.

                          So I guess the moral of the story is those full system backups can kill ya. I'm inclined to recall the wisdom of running with many well defined partition sizes for core functionality and having transient data exist safely on other volumes. Suffice to say, I'm glad I found a solution. Hopefully these notes help someone else.

                          – Update 3: Needed a little more --
                          Yes Update 2 above got me up and running again, but many things weren't working at all, my webui was down, I couldn't ssh in, etc. Many things were also working fine, like dhcp. From the console on the router I invoked a console upgrade, thankfully it didn't seem to care about versions it just ran the script. After that, now I think I'm 100%.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • DerelictD
                            Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                            last edited by

                            Reinstall frersh (don't upgrade) and restore your config.xml.  Should take under 5 minutes.

                            Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                            A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                            DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                            Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • D
                              docdawning
                              last edited by

                              @Derelict:

                              Reinstall frersh (don't upgrade) and restore your config.xml.  Should take under 5 minutes.

                              I bet config.xml doesn't capture minor under-the-hood changes I've made: Adding a secondary dedicated hard drive for a squid cache.

                              Generally speaking, I think your advice is really good though. Upgrading is generally inherently tricky.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • DerelictD
                                Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                                last edited by

                                Nope.  Upgrading in the first place will clobber most of that anyway.  Pretty much on you to have a log of the out-of-gui changes you have made so you can duplicate them on a reinstall.

                                Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                                A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                                DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                                Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • D
                                  docdawning
                                  last edited by

                                  @Derelict:

                                  Nope.  Upgrading in the first place will clobber most of that anyway.  Pretty much on you to have a log of the out-of-gui changes you have made so you can duplicate them on a reinstall.

                                  Yup, fair enough for the cowboy that goes off-road, such as myself. I wanted to see if I could salvage the situation without blowing the escape hatch, it's been a couple days, so far so good. :)

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • First post
                                    Last post
                                  Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.