OPNsense Forum

English Forums => 26.7 Series => Topic started by: tessus on August 05, 2026, 12:26:23 PM

Title: "old" rules show up in "Rules [new]" without migration
Post by: tessus on August 05, 2026, 12:26:23 PM
I am running OPNsense 26.1.11_10-amd64 and even though I have never touched the Migration Assistant (nor created any new rules manually), all my rules are shown on the Firewall: Rules [new] page.

I am slightly confused right now. According to all the posts regarding the migration to the new rules setup, one has to actually migrate the old rules by exporting the legacy rules and importing them into the new GUI (Rules [new]).
I have never done that, yet they are shown.

I also just tested to change the description of one of my legacy rules.... and guess what, the new description shows up under "Rules [new]".

So, what is going on?

Why do they show up under "Rules [new]", even though I never migrated them?
How do I know whether my rules are really migrated (and not just an echo from my legacy rules)?
Title: Re: "old" rules show up in "Rules [new]" without migration
Post by: SchengFui on August 05, 2026, 12:34:42 PM
i think this is normal, they are shown but you cannot edit them.

in the commands-column you can only lookup the rule reference, after migration, you can edit them.
Title: Re: "old" rules show up in "Rules [new]" without migration
Post by: tessus on August 05, 2026, 01:02:21 PM
Quote from: SchengFui on Today at 12:34:42 PMi think this is normal, they are shown but you cannot edit them.

in the commands-column you can only lookup the rule reference, after migration, you can edit them.

Ahhhh, thanks! This makes sense.

Just an idea for the devs for the future: a reference could have a different color. The text (columns in the row of the rule) is shown as black, but a reference could be shown as blue or orange.
Title: Re: "old" rules show up in "Rules [new]" without migration
Post by: Monviech (Cedrik) on August 05, 2026, 01:18:03 PM
Sure, and then the next user is like "Why are my rules orange I don't understand whats going on".

We did the most we could with the links. I would have hoped users try to click them if they don't find the edit button.
Title: Re: "old" rules show up in "Rules [new]" without migration
Post by: tessus on August 05, 2026, 01:32:16 PM
Quote from: Monviech (Cedrik) on Today at 01:18:03 PMSure, and then the next user is like "Why are my rules orange I don't understand whats going on".

We did the most we could with the links. I would have hoped users try to click them if they don't find the edit button.

I did not even look at the available buttons until @ShengFui mentioned them. I only saw the same rules in 2 different pages.

In that case the UI could have explained this - only if references are actually available and shown. Even an entry in the Changelog that the new rules page also shows references could have helped.

I also understand that stuff like this is not easy and I probably could have looked at the icons. I only saw the rules and was therefore rightfully confused.

P.S.: Also, if the project makes it clear that references are differently color coded, a whole new world opens up. ;-) To be fair, references are usually shown differently and clearly marked. That is if you look at Unix/Linux after 1999 (symlinks as an example). But UIs also often make the distinction between original and references/aliases/links.
Title: Re: "old" rules show up in "Rules [new]" without migration
Post by: Monviech (Cedrik) on August 05, 2026, 02:08:00 PM
Yeah, I understand that.

There is no universal visual indicator for a reference yet (that is universal in the OPNsense design on any page), so users still have to learn what a color or icon means. The fact that "this is a link" seems obvious only after it has been discovered (hindsight 20/20)

A clearer UI hint or changelog entry could have helped, but changing it now is too late since the knowledge about what happens and what the link button does is getting clearly communicated in the community since a while.

To be fair we hid the old rules before and only revealed them when pressing "Inspect", but a lot of users were confused about "where are all of my automatic and legacy rules" so we flipped the default.

And now the other side of the medal is that other users are confused. I guess destiny is to confuse someone xD
Title: Re: "old" rules show up in "Rules [new]" without migration
Post by: tessus on August 05, 2026, 02:20:09 PM
Quote from: Monviech (Cedrik) on Today at 02:08:00 PMI guess destiny is to confuse someone xD

I hear you. Haha.

Quote from: Monviech (Cedrik) on Today at 02:08:00 PMA clearer UI hint or changelog entry could have helped, but changing it now is too late since the knowledge about what happens and what the link button does is getting clearly communicated in the community since a while.

To be fair we hid the old rules before and only revealed them when pressing "Inspect", but a lot of users were confused about "where are all of my automatic and legacy rules" so we flipped the default.

I agree with you, which is why I mentioned "for the future". The situation has been clear after the first reply, so I am all good.
But references are not uncommon in UIs and I also recall that there were references on certain pages in OPNsense.
All I am saying is that using a different color for references is a good idea, whether it might happen or not. The situation I described in this topic was only one example of a reference. Establishing some sort of differentiation for references (color coding or whatever) could be an improvement. Not in this instant, but when the devs plan new features/UI changes/ideas in the future.