Upgrade to 26.1.3 - my first nightmare with OPNSense

[fakemoth]

Hi, as you can see from my "activity" I didn't have a lot of problems with OPNSense. Except now when upgrading to 26.1.3, the installation had an error but it seemed to continue. After reboot, got a boot loop with text just scrolling fast on the screen. I tried loading a new kernel = nothing. I tried restoring a snapshot = nothing only another error running on the screen. That was an ugly surprise, I am used to snapshots restoring stuff in ZFS.

So I reinstalled figuring "hey should be easy to restore 'cause you have backups". But no, had to do a full install, juggling 3 cables in 4 nics (because nothing is displayed when connecting something, to see what interface becomes damn active), got on the default IP, restored. Again - no, you dont't have all the cables properly plugged - so I plugged them - oh no, you lost connectivity, so on. The circus around a restore is quite maddening.

After several reboots, I restored... something and everything seemed in place. Yes! But again - no: I don't have the plugins. So I went to System > Firmware > Plugins, and they were in red all right. Tried to install, but:

***GOT REQUEST TO AUDIT HEALTH***
Currently running OPNsense 26.1.2_5 (amd64) at Sun Mar  8 12:42:28 EET 2026
>>> Root file system: zroot/ROOT/default
>>> Check installed kernel version
Version 26.1.1 is correct.
>>> Check for missing or altered kernel files
No problems detected.
>>> Check installed base version
Version 26.1.1 is correct.
>>> Check for missing or altered base files
No problems detected.
>>> Check installed repositories
OPNsense (Priority: 11)
>>> Check installed plugins
No plugins found.
>>> Check locked packages
No locks found.
>>> Check for missing package dependencies
Checking all packages: .......... done
>>> Check for missing or altered package files
Checking all packages: .......... done
>>> Check for core packages consistency
Core package "opnsense" at 26.1.2_5 has 67 dependencies to check.
Checking packages: .......
dnsmasq-2.92,1 version mismatch, expected 2.92_2,1
Checking packages: ................
opnsense-26.1.2_5 version mismatch, expected 26.1.3
Checking packages: .
opnsense-installer-25.1_1 version mismatch, expected 25.1_2
Checking packages: ..
opnsense-update-26.1.1_1 version mismatch, expected 26.1.3
Checking packages: ......................
py311-Jinja2-3.1.6 has no upstream equivalent
Checking packages: .
py311-dnspython-2.8.0_1,1 has no upstream equivalent
Checking packages: .
py311-duckdb-1.4.4 has no upstream equivalent
Checking packages: .
py311-jq-1.11.0 has no upstream equivalent
Checking packages: .
py311-ldap3-2.9.1_1 has no upstream equivalent
Checking packages: .
py311-numpy-1.26.4_12,1 has no upstream equivalent
Checking packages: .
py311-pandas-2.3.3,1 has no upstream equivalent
Checking packages: .
py311-requests-2.32.5 has no upstream equivalent
Checking packages: .
py311-sqlite3-3.11.14_11 has no upstream equivalent
Checking packages: .
py311-ujson-5.11.0 has no upstream equivalent
Checking packages: .
py311-vici-6.0.3 has no upstream equivalent
Checking packages: .......... done
***DONE***

So now I am supposed to get to 26.1.3 to have plugins?

Sorry to sound bitter, but I am not a networking expert so it took me a long time to have 13 VLANS, NGINX proxy, adblockers, blacklists, dual wans, policies and lots of firewall rules.

I restored a bunch of other OSes, switches, VMs, NASes, and even pfsense that I was using before, quite a lot of stuff. Never before I was more perplexed at restoring something, without internet of course - so if you guys could something to improve on that, to streamline it and so on - it would be great.

Now, what can I do about messages like these, when trying to install NGINX, without having to again bork the system with a 26.1.3 upgrade?

***GOT REQUEST TO INSTALL***
Currently running OPNsense 26.1.2_5 (amd64) at Sun Mar  8 13:03:44 EET 2026
Installation out of date. The update to opnsense-26.1.3 is required.
***DONE***

Thank you, and please allow us to vent a bit here - this became a very ugly week-end, for quite a few people it seems.

[fakemoth]

PS: I did look for a 26.1.3 image, but it doesn't seem to exist, so no fresh install there. And the complete list of missing plugins is:

os-acme-client (missing)   4.14   814KiB   3   OPNsense   ACME Client   
os-dmidecode (missing)   1.2   6.71KiB   3   OPNsense   Display hardware information on the dashboard   
os-isc-dhcp (missing)   1.0_4   280KiB   2   OPNsense   ISC DHCPv4/v6 server   
os-netdata (missing)   1.2_1   17.2KiB   3   OPNsense   Real-time performance monitoring   
os-nginx (missing)   1.36   964KiB   3   OPNsense   Nginx HTTP server and reverse proxy   
os-nut (missing)   1.9_1   55.4KiB   3   OPNsense   Network UPS Tools   
os-sftp-backup (missing)   1.1_2   13.6KiB   2   OPNsense   Backup configurations using SFTP   
os-smart (missing)   2.4   22.9KiB   3   OPNsense   SMART tools   
os-udpbroadcastrelay (missing)   1.0_6   43.9KiB   3   OPNsense   Control udpbroadcastrelay processes   
os-wol (missing)   2.5_3   22.5KiB   3   OPNsense   Wake on LAN Service   

[TheSHAD0W]

You're probably going to need a reinstall. If there's no direct 26.1.3 image, an upgrade from the latest version available should hopefully not go the same way.

Stupid question, did you try re-running the update process?

[fakemoth]

But I did reinstall, and restore the xml, as stated - I am on the image that is available for download 26.1.2_5

Strange enough the 26.1.3 is still available as an upgrade in the interface. I didn't try it again after the reinstall+restore, because of the problems - seemed silly to repeat them.

As it is proposed as an update only, and given the problems (not as an image for download), figured I should wait, maybe is in the process of being dropped because of the widespread issue or something? Better be, I already f... hate it :)

So: initially I was on the 26.1.1_something carried after years of upgrades, and then I tried to upgrade to 26.1.3 - that's when things have gone berserk. After it was clear that the system will not boot, I reinstalled with 26.1.2_5 and restored settings from a 26.1.1 backup. And I was left with no plugins.

[DiskWizard001]

Tell me , friends, did you got Segmantation Fault red popup ?

[fakemoth]

Yes

[DiskWizard001]

Yes

franco, now is your turn.

[newsense]

Yes

franco, now is your turn.

Random #Me2 statements are not helping anyone.

[newsense]

>>>>> So now I am supposed to get to 26.1.3 to have plugins



In not so many words, Yes.


Simply check for updates, from CLI or GUI, wait for the system to reboot. When back up do another check just in case. If unsure you can post here the full output.


Your "nightmare" situation is not unique to 26.1.3, can happen on any upgrade when on ZFS and running out of space. It is an ugly scenario that you can easily reproduce in a vm: fresh install, take snapshots, fill the disk, start an upgrade.

[fakemoth]

@newsense please do not take lightly the hurdles of the community. We are not ganging here to jump the team or something, nor we are all devs or network professionals, quite clear from the lack of info and the impossibility to even boot, to offer you more info. So there is no Me2s statements, only confirmations of the number of occurrences.

And when someone puts down their story in so many words, explaining what have they done and how it went wrong, and how it is still "wrong", your answer starts with "simply..."?

Didn't I just tried the "simply" or what? Does it make any difference that for me happened from from 26.1.1 and now it is supposed to simply work from 26.1.2? When pretty much all the other users reporting this were on 26.1.2?

If you don't intend to be helpful and give us some insights, for example why snapshots can't do stuff, wait for a release, we are investigating, try this or that, please refrain from shaming your users as I am too old for this old open source story.

"Nightmare" – are you for real? You realize this problem results in no network&internet access. Or at least stuck with no other services as explained.

[fakemoth]

Here, are some screenshots of the errors I took right after upgrade and the 1st reboot. These were the messages continuously spammed on the screen. Maybe they will help, though I don't think they will.

https://pasteboard.co/JV4GDUgU2rMK.png
https://pasteboard.co/iGs1f8BACGzt.png
https://pasteboard.co/xIFvnHri5lin.png

[newsense]

I gave you all the steps on how to fix your new install and how to reproduce the "nightmare"

>>>>>  why snapshots can't do stuff


ZFS has no provisions for snarky users when running out of space. When that happens *everything* is lost.

The only apparent issue with 26.1.3 based on your initial description is your refusal to use the proper steps to fully upgrade your new installation.

[fakemoth]

I am sorry - you don't make any... sense. How did you come up with the conclusion that there wasn't any space left on the device, when it was installed on a 250GB drive with only a fraction used? And the like 3 snapshots were around 1, max 2GB each?

So let's leave it like that, maybe someone else will solve it, have a release or an advice for us, I will simply ignore your posts.

[newsense]

I am sorry - you don't make any... sense. How did you come up with the conclusion that there wasn't any space left on the device, when it was installed on a 250GB drive with only a fraction used? And the like 3 snapshots were around 1, max 2GB each?

So let's leave it like that, maybe someone else will solve it, have a release or an advice for us, I will simply ignore your posts.

I've been through your exact nightmare scenario twice since December. One was a physical FW where there were lots of snapshots, the other a vm with plenty of space available but the underlying storage partition.

For all the good things ZFS does the one thing it wasn't designed for is to deal with space running out.


There _is_ a slight chance your ssd might be partially broken, which is usually the hardest to diagnose because all seems to work until it doesn't, however the fact you've been able to reinstall makes me think you're not there.


Take a snapshot, start upgrading, post here any updates or things that appear to be happening and you're not sure what to do about. This is the only constructive thing you can do right now. There are no magical fixes coming.


P.S I'm just a community member in case you're wondering. I've been running what is now 26.1.3 a week before it was released on multiple firewalls across the globe. An issue resulting in total loss of data would have been reported long before it was published.

On top of that, none of the kernel patches touched ZFS. And assuming the software packages would have resulted in a system stalling on boot somewhere any and all your snapshots would have been available for you to use.

[DiskWizard001]

Does it mean it's random in your eyes ?