Topics

1

Development and Code Review / Future updates of Freebsd 13

« on: February 14, 2022, 07:48:12 pm »

Update 22.1 having integrated version 13 of Freebsd, I discovered that my machies have a problem with this version.
I use converted machines from the Watchguard XTM 850/870/1250 series...
After a lot of research and help from several people, I found that it came from the APEI part (has write in an other post, setting in boot loader "set hint.apei.0.disabled=1" make a work around for the moment).

After having been able to make a detailed report to the person in charge of this part on Freebsd - Alexander Motin -. He made a modification of the code which now makes it possible to run correctly the new version of Freebsd 13, on machines like the one I use.

My question is to know if the transmission of the tree structure of Freebsd 13, on the future iterations of OPnsense 22.1 will be done automatically (and thus will automatically integrate the patch) or if I must submit this to the development team (unfortunately not being able to have the skills to do it myself).

2

22.1 Legacy Series / 22.1 crash my WatchGuard XTM-870 –> Apei boot problem with FreeBSD 13

« on: February 03, 2022, 01:44:43 pm »

For a few years now, I have been using second-hand routers where I install a **sense in them, (first PFsense, then for some time OPNsense). It opens up possibilities for me that I could not fund otherwise. A big thank you to the whole OPNsense team and to all those who have gone before, and to the whole BSD movement for this superb software and knowledge.

My last machines are WatchGuard XTM-870 and XTM-1525 (in fact it is a derivative of the Lanner FW-8758) machines a little old, but very reliable, with very good characteristics and powerful (for my needs in all cases and it is possible to find used ones at very affordable prices, since they are a bit dated!)

The machine was updated regularly without any problems. But the last 22.1 update broke everything for me (by the way, a little reminder in passing: don't forget the backups!! I hadn't done it and it was complicated to recover the configuration file, but that's is another story and above all just my fault!)

After the crash, wanting to install a clean 22.1, I couldn't do it, while I could easily put a clean 21.7 back. This put me on the trail of changing the operating system. In fact 21 is based on a derivative of FreeBSD 11 while 22.1 is based on a much more recent true FreeBSD.
After several hours of testing, I was able to define that all FreeBSDs up to 12.1 can be installed without problem on this machine, but not the following ones (from 12.2 and all following impossible!)

After a lot of reading on the forums and IRC and especially the precious help of several people, the problem was the APEI management (part of ACPI). I also managed to inform the maintainer of this module on FreeBSD, Alexander, whom I thank very much.

By using the following variable at boot time I was able to work around the problem :

set hint.apei.0.disabled=1

I have a few questions:

1/ Have other users of WatchGuard or other machines encountered this problem? Were they able to update the BIOS (I couldn't). Where did they find another workaround?

2 / having no computer studies base, I find it difficult for me to better define the problem and to be able to solve it, but perhaps others have experience that would allow things to move forward. It is happy that I can do tests on my machine, if that can help to solve the issue and improve the product for everyone.

3/ while waiting for a more lasting solution to be found, I need to be sure that future updates will not modify my workaround (and broke all an other time). From what I have read the most consistent create a file /boot/loader.conf.local and put hint.apei.0.disabled=1 there. I can consider to do in ssh, but i prefer to make it from GUI interface if possible, to be more in the spirit of OPNsense.
I go on the page system:settings:tunables but I'm having trouble to create the file loader.conf.local. Could you give me a hand to do it as correctly as possible.

Thank you and have a nice day (and sorry for my googelized English!)