Messages

I already updated the bootloader and it's in this thread too at #13 - I meant whether I should have changed from legacy BIOS to EUFI within the appliance BIOS... np, forget about my question.

Also, running

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sysctl machdep.bootmethod I get

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machdep.bootmethod: BIOSShould I consider to change to UEFI? But then I have to figure out how to do so :-)

One more question: I'm reading about whether early or late loading of the cpu microcode is better and considering I'm not experiencing any issues with the recently installed v26.7.1, I'd say there's nothing I need to do. Is that the case, or should I create the file

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/boot/loader.conf.local and add those two lines?

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cpu_microcode_load="YES"
cpu_microcode_name="/boot/firmware/intel-ucode.bin"
I just want to understand whether the early loading is strictly necessary or if it's simply recommended.

Ok, autotrim is already on, and scrub once a month, or ?

One more thing: I noticed in the cron section that there are two ZFS-related tasks I can enable: scrub and trim. Should I schedule these to run periodically?

As for point (3), is there any sort of step-by-step, fool-proof guide?

....
Sorry I don't have better news. Go ahead and try the script, report any errors you encounter. If e.g. your second EFI partition is really not formatted properly, you can update the first and then just "dd" over the whole partition to the second drive.

If you are familiar with what a partition table is, what "dd" is etc. none of this is a big deal. If you are not go step by step and we will try our best to guide you along.

Kind regards,
Patrick

Thanks Patrick, so in the end I went ahead and updated from v26.1 to v26.7 + I tried the script (shoot-me) to upload the bootloader too, and so far so good, this is the new output of the command show-me:

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loaders-update v1.4.1

One or more efi partition(s) have been found.

Examining ada1p1...
mount -t msdosfs /dev/ada1p1 /mnt
EFI loader /mnt/efi/freebsd/loader.efi is up-to-date.
EFI loader /mnt/efi/boot/bootx64.efi is up-to-date.
umount /mnt
Examining ada0p1...
Efi partition ada0p1 is already mounted in /boot/efi.
EFI loader /boot/efi/efi/freebsd/loader.efi is up-to-date.
EFI loader /boot/efi/efi/boot/bootx64.efi is up-to-date.

One or more freebsd-boot partition(s) have been found.
The root file system is zfs.

Examining ada1...
The pmbr on this disk is up-to-date.
The freebsd-boot partition ada1p2 is up-to-date.
Examining ada0...
The pmbr on this disk is up-to-date.
The freebsd-boot partition ada0p2 is up-to-date.

-------------------------------
Your current boot method is BIOS.
One or more target partition(s) have been found...
All loaders are up-to-date.
-------------------------------

Many thanks for your support!

Thanks, and considering that everything is working fine, there is no need to risk breaking my system :-)

I ran the command

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/sbin/zpool status
and this is the output

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pool: zroot
 state: ONLINE
status: Some supported and requested features are not enabled on the pool.
        The pool can still be used, but some features are unavailable.
action: Enable all features using 'zpool upgrade'. Once this is done,
        the pool may no longer be accessible by software that does not support
        the features. See zpool-features(7) for details.
  scan: resilvered 529M in 00:00:02 with 0 errors on Mon Feb 26 19:03:35 2024
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        zroot       ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada1p4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada0p4  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors
Do I need to worry for those features not available at all?

Tia.

[Rules [new]]

Decided today to migrate the rules, but if I click on Rules [new] that's already populated with floating rules and interface rules: does it mean OPNsense migrated the rules already?

No. Thats just a preview with links to legacy rules. Just follow instructions in migration assistant and keep in mind that transition is not done until you delete your legacy rules. Once the migration assistant is gone from the menu, that means that transition is fully completed. Dont forget to migrate your NAT rules too.

Good to know, thanks.

[Rules [new]]

Decided today to migrate the rules, but if I click on Rules [new] that's already populated with floating rules and interface rules: does it mean OPNsense migrated the rules already?

I also noticed that a bunch of legacy rules were disabled and those were not migrated, but not a big deal.

So, can I simply now remove the legacy rules?

Tia.

Thank you Patrick, much appreciated.

And least now I understand that it's completely beyond my capabilities, so will plan a new/fresh install.

I'm not particularly tech-savvy, and judging by the number of typos I make, I may well have undiagnosed dyslexia or something similar 😄

So yes, I ask questions that may seem obvious or "silly" to more experienced users. But hey, why someone would spend his/her own time writing unhelpful replies that don't actually answer the question is totally beyond my comprehension.

That said, I must have installed the script at some point in the past, I just don't remember when or why.

I can see the output of the option help, but it doesn't help ma at all:

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loaders-update v1.3.2
Usage: loaders-update mode [-befgqry] [-m efi_mount_dir] [-s loaders_source_dir]
mode can be one of:
  show-me: just show the commands to type, change nothing.
  shoot-me: may update the loader(s), but ask for confirmation before each one.
Options:
  -b: scan only BIOS loaders (excludes EFI loaders).
  -e: scan only EFI loaders (excludes BIOS loaders).
  -f: won't check the freebsd-boot content for BIOS loaders update.
  -g: force to use 'gpart show' for disk detection.
  -q: quiet mode. No output to the console.
  -r: won't check the root file system for BIOS loaders update.
  -y: answer yes for shoot-me mode. Use with caution!
Return codes:
  0: no error.
  1: an error occured.
  2: at least one loader isn't up-to-date.
  3: = 1 + 2.

That's precisely why I'm asking about the correct way to update the bootloader, so if anyone knows the current recommended method, I'd genuinely appreciate the information.

So, (1) remove the intel cpu microcode; (2) upgrade to v26.7; (3) update bootloader.

As for point (3), is there any sort of step-by-step, fool-proof guide?

My installation is about 3.5 years old, and I read somewhere that before upgrading from v26.1 to v26.7, I should update the disk bootloader. Is that correct?

I ran the following command:

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./loaders-update show-me

and this is the output:

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loaders-update v1.3.2

One or more efi partition(s) have been found.

Examining ada1p1...
mount -t msdosfs /dev/ada1p1 /mnt
Would run: cp /boot/loader.efi /mnt/efi/freebsd/loader.efi
Would run: cp /boot/loader.efi /mnt/efi/boot/bootx64.efi
umount /mnt

Examining ada0p1...
Efi partition ada0p1 is already mounted in /boot/efi.
Would run: cp /boot/loader.efi /boot/efi/efi/freebsd/loader.efi
Would run: cp /boot/loader.efi /boot/efi/efi/boot/bootx64.efi

One or more freebsd-boot partition(s) have been found.
The root file system is zfs.

Examining ada1...
Would run: gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 2 ada1

Examining ada0...
Would run: gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 2 ada0

-------------------------------
Your current boot method is BIOS.
Updatable EFI loader: 4
Updatable BIOS loader: 2
-------------------------------

Could some kind soul guide me on the next steps?

Tia.

Yes, it is a strange thing that opening CSV files without the specific CSV dialogue in Excel shows each row as being one text column only. To fix this, you need to import the file properly. In the English version of Excel, use the following menu path: Data > From Text/CSV (located in the Get & Transform Data group)

Yep, it worked, thanks.
Anyway, I don't think I need to modify anything in the file, so I can just export the rules and then import them according to the instructions, right?