Installer hangs at "Select Task" on Hyper-V Generation 2 VM

[bimmerdriver]

There is a thread about Hyper-V Generation 2 VMs in the 18.1 Legacy Series forum: https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=7128.0.

I'm starting a new thread here, because the specific issue of font incompatibility in that thread seems to be different with the 19.1b snapshot. Changing from the default font to 8x14 no longer makes any difference. The installer hangs at the "Select Task" step. I tried using set hw.vga.textmode="0" and that also made no difference.

I'm testing on Windows Server 2012R2 Hyper-V.

[marjohn56]

OK.. as I said in my PM, tested this to death now, and it works every time. Franco, I don't know why this works, but it does and it may help you to resolve the issue.


When the installer gets to the prompt for 'Use Guided...' it freezes, or appears to, but it hasn't, it just appears it's waiting for something; Hit CTRL-C and you will drop to the command prompt. Once more login as installer with pw: opnsense and this time it will complete the installation.

[bimmerdriver]

In my case, I had to CTRL-C twice (at two different stages of the installation), but it eventually installed.

Also, it worked without changing the font, so that problem seems to be gone.

[bimmerdriver]

I just finished switching over to the development version and I'm pleased to report that it appears to be working perfectly, including IPv6. So, it appears the freebsd patch fixes the IPv6 problem on hyper-v.

[franco]

Test image at https://github.com/opnsense/core/issues/2961#issuecomment-450907034


Cheers,
Franco

[bimmerdriver]

@franco, I read the comments over on github. Do you want me to try this on my Windows 2012R2 Hyper-V system or do you have enough to go on from the other tests?

[franco]

You could help me with this theory. Can you try the normal 18.7 image and go to console and type:

# pfctl -d
# opnsense-installer

I am unable to locate the issue, but if this is a time shift of the VM due to the host system sync mechanism it could be that the local host communication is rejected based on state problems since the installer communicates with its backend in TCP.


Thanks a lot,
Franco

[marjohn56]

It's odd that FreeBSD itself will install without any issue AFAIK.

[franco]

It's only odd if you consider "bsdinstaller" (DragonFlyBSD, earlier pfSense, OPNsense) and "bsdinstall" (FreeBSD, later pfSense) to be the same thing. 


Cheers,
Franco

[marjohn56]

Now who's being pedantic. 


I meant, as I am sure you are aware,  that FreeBSD 11.2 will install without issue. Therefore I could, though I have not tried, install Opnsense in a similar way to that used for using ZFS.

[franco]

Just trying to explain... I suspect the same Hyper-V issues were in pfSense, but find a version with the old installer that runs in recent Hyper-V... They made a good call to migrate to the FreeBSD installer which was probably mostly for UEFI and ZFS support.

Remember we had UEFI support sooner by patching our installer, but I know we only focus on issues that are worse so let's keep on topic and ditch perspective.

For us it's simply that the old installer other than Hyper-V has very little problems and a lot of potential for breakage when migrating away from it. I don't have a budget for my after-work-hours to undertake a migration, but ZFS support is nearly there with 19.1 anyway.

That being said, I changed the installer backend from TCP to named pipes via:

https://github.com/opnsense/bsdinstaller/commit/6a1709b254

And built an image with it to try out:

https://pkg.opnsense.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/snapshots/OPNsense-201901141441-LibreSSL-dvd-amd64.iso.bz2


Cheers,
Franco

[marjohn56]

I'll fire it up now..


Watch this space.

[marjohn56]

Almost instant crash when starting FreeBSD, doesn't even get as far as firing up any Opnsense stuff. Same installer works fine on VMWare.


I'd wait for bimmerdriver to test it though, my W10 install is brand new and it appears MS have done some wonderful stuff which now makes it impossible to have VMWare working and Hyper-V installed.

[franco]

This gets stranger by the minute. I'm afraid that I don't practice voodoo at the moment nor be able to learn it quickly enough to fix freezing19.1 install for Hyper-V...


Thanks,
Franco

[bimmerdriver]

You could help me with this theory. Can you try the normal 18.7 image and go to console and type:

# pfctl -d
# opnsense-installer

I am unable to locate the issue, but if this is a time shift of the VM due to the host system sync mechanism it could be that the local host communication is rejected based on state problems since the installer communicates with its backend in TCP.


Thanks a lot,
Franco

My 18.7 system had been originally installed from the 18.1 iso, so I downloaded the latest 18.7 iso and created a new VM. It hung at the guided install. I interrupted that with CTRL-C, logged back in as installer and the installation completed without any further issue. After that, I went into the shell and tried your test. This time, it also hung at the guided install. I interrupted that with CTRL-C and it exited to the shell prompt. I exited from that and the installer resumed. Let me know if you would like me to try anything else.