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---
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title: 'pfSense: restore broken config'
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aliases:
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- /posts/2022-07-04-pfsense-restore-broken-config
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- /posts/2022-07-04-pfsense-restore-broken-config-file
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summary: >
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Restoring a configuration file for pfSense when it actually stays in a
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boot-loop
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date: 2022-07-04T18:14:13+02:00
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categories: [computerstuff]
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tags: [pfSense,networking]
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---
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My pfSense firewall at home got a pretty heavy misconfiguration by myself and
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that resulted in an annoying boot-loop. This took me quite a while to research,
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but I finally got it working again. Thank god pfSense makes backups of its
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configuration so this recovery process works quite well.
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## Follow these steps
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1. Boot into **single user mode**
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Connect to your firewall (with a serial console) and choose option
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`5) Reboot system` and confirm with the letter `S` (capital s).
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2. **ZFS version only**
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1. Remount root slice as read-write:
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~~~console
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$ /sbin/mount -u /
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~~~
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2. Mount all ZFS filesystems, datasets etc.
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~~~console
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$ /sbin/zfs mount -a
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~~~
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3. Working within the mounted filesystems
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1. Enter **/cf/conf**
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~~~console
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$ cd /cf/conf
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~~~
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2. Copy the newest backup file back
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~~~console
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$ cp backup/config-1648889613.xml config.xml
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~~~
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3. Clear the config cache
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~~~console
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$ rm /tmp/config.cache
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~~~
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4. Reload system and it's services
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~~~console
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$ /etc/rc.reload_all start
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~~~
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This may take a while. At this point we are done, we can now remove
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the single user mode boot configuration and reboot the firewall.
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4. Clear the single user mode boot configuration
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~~~console
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$ /sbin/nextboot -D
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~~~
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ZFS does not clear the single user mode boot configuration by itself,
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that's why we have to delete it after we are done with our work.
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5. Reboot the system
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~~~console
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$ /sbin/reboot
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~~~
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You could also use exit, but that would only continue booting into
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multi user mode without rebooting the system first. I personally think
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that we would benefit from a full reboot.
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Okay, that's it all for now. Please note that I do not use the UFS filesystem
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any more, so I won't add this to my little instruction set.
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{{< alert circle-info >}}
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This post was actually older, I've saved the instructions in a textfile until I
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found the time to format it and publish it on my website.
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{{< /alert >}}
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## Sources
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- <https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/troubleshooting/single-user-mode.html#ufs-systems>
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- <https://www.agix.com.au/restore-pfsense-from-backup-using-the-cli-command-line/>
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