NanoBSD image trashed after first reboot [resolved]

[namezero111111]

Hello folks,

we tried out OpnSense on an Alix 3D2 with 4GB CF Card.
The card was flashed with the OPNsense-18.1.r1-OpenSSL-nano-i386 image using both physdiskwrite and Win32DiskImager (we tried both).

The system comes up on the console successfully on the first boot, but then the file system seems to get trashed on reboot. If we just select option 6 from the console, on the next bootup it hangs at the rotating bar on kernel load. If we then powercycle, the bios says no bootable media can be found.

This seems to have been an issue before (https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=4601.0) (https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=5664.msg23136#msg23136) , but there is no solution in that thread.

Bios is the latest version, and we tried both CHS and LBA settings; the outcome is the same.

If, instead of rebooting, we enter the console and issue a manual sync before reboot, the file system is trashed immediately.
If, instead of rebooting, we configure via WebGUI, eventually the kernel panics with UFS corruption. If not, the reboot does the same.

We have also tried the OPNsense-17.7.5-OpenSSL-nano-i386 image with the same result.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[franco]

Hi there,

See: https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=6942.0


Cheers,
Franco

[namezero111111]

Hi,

thanks,

but the 2D3 does not boot from USB. For whatever reason PCEngines decided not to support that.
I tried full install onto CF Card in Virtualbox, but the hangs at the moving "/" then on bootup (F1 FreeBSD...)

[namezero111111]

I'm thinking, the installer probably chose vga.

Is there a way to force the installer to install with serial output while installing from VGA in a VM?

[franco]

You can set it to serial + bps via System: Settings: Administration (e.g. VGA as secondary to keep it in an installable state).

Installing it from a different serial device with the serial image, then moving the installed media over works fine, too.


Cheers,
Franco

[namezero111111]

Thank you, I missed the webgui part because I was trying to configure serial before initial boot.

I have replied to the linked post with howto do it on an alix 2d3 board.

It would be awesome be able to configure this before initial bootup (i.e. during setup).

Is there a root cause for the (presumable) resizing of the disk destroying the FS?

[franco]

We do not know why this is happening. It's gotten worse with FreeBSD 11, but it's hard to say what happened exactly as the image builds did not change drastically and we tried most knobs known to us. It also does not happen with all devices, not even with all APUs. In fact, I have multiple APUs and one ALIX (and a dusty WRAP) and all of them work for me. oO

Hmm, that's why we have the live environment. You can try all settings and if you are satisfied you start the installer and everything will be kept as you configured it.


Cheers,
Franco