pfSense Digest

We have begun drafting the pfSense release schedule.

Please take a look and leave your comments

There was a nasty bug in .79 that partially reverted the config file
version. This left a config file that had newer syntax and an older
version number. Upgrading past .79 w/out taking some corrective
measure will break your system. Again, if you installed or upgraded
to .79 and plan on using anything newer, please read.

Two issues in particular affect those that are on .79 and plan to
upgrade. During boot, we check to see if the config file version is
older than what we claim is current. If it is, we upgrade it.

One of the upgrade steps encrypts the (already encrypted) password in
the xml file leaving you with a system you couldn’t access (there are
a couple workarounds that I’ll mention shortly). The other somewhat
damaging item I’ve had mixed reports on are irreversible issues with
the DHCP config; if you don’t use the dhcp server you will be fine.
Disabling the server and re-enabling it is not enough to fix it if you
are using DHCP.

This issue _only_ affects people that upgraded/installed .79 and then
upgraded to
anything above it (.79.2 is currently the only thing above it). There
was about a three hour window where .79 was the most recent version,
so I expect very few people actually got affected.

Workarounds:
This is for those that upgraded to .79. We now version every change
that happens on your pfSense box. They are available via the
Diagnostics menu, choose Backup/Restore then click Remote. You’ll see
a list of all the times your configuration changed and at a minimum
where in the firewall the change was made (still working on exact
change details).
You should the “Current” entry showing as ” Upgraded config version
level from 1.9 to 1.1″ or similar. Clicking on the “+” (plus) symbol
on the line below will restore the previous configuration file. Then
upgrade to .79.2 w/out rebooting. .79.2 will correctly upgrade your
configuration file to version 2.0 w/out destroying anything.

For those that installed .79 and wish to upgrade. If you aren’t using
the DHCP server, the only item that should affect you is the password.
Upgrade to .79.2 and use menu option number 3 from the shell (Reset
webGUI password).

If you are using the DHCP server, be thankful this is a new install.
Hopefully you’ve installed before and have an old config laying
around. If not, you’ll be reconfiguring from scratch, there’s not
much we can do. You can try disabling/reenabling the DHCP server
after upgrading to .79.2. I’ve had one report of “that works” and one
of “that didn’t work” – if it doesn’t work, reinstall.

–Bill

PS. For those wondering… 1.10 == 1.1 I apparently failed floating point 101!

We just deactivated a number of mirrors that are not syncing correctly.

If you’re mirror is no longer listed please contact coreteam@pfsense.com for information on how to correcttly sync and delete the mirror content.

The hackathon was a huge success!

We accomplished almost all our goals with exception to auto upgrade. I would like to thank everyone who donated time, money, etc.

Over the next couple of days we have a lot of testing and bugs to squash. Please be patient as we get the critters out and prepare for a first beta.

Hackathon is in progress, and the web cam is up and rolling with updates about once a minute.

http://pfsense.org/~colin/webcam.jpg

I’m (usually) back in the corner under the rack of equipment on the wall, Scott is behind me, Bill is to the left of me, and Colin is right under the web cam where you can’t see him much at all.

Thanks to those of you who donated to help make this possible! More later, back to work!

Update: Question of the day here – “Is there another rogue DHCP server up?” Hah! We have at least a dozen firewalls running in here with who knows what plugged into what.

If you missed Scott’s post earlier, the lists are closed for the weekend because we’re at bluegrass.net for the hackathon and are focusing on testing and development. If you have problems, they can wait until Monday.

I didn’t actually shut them down, but please don’t bother posting. So much will change by Monday that you’ll probably have a whole new set of problems come then.

Thanks!