[SOLVED] PFSense keeps crashing randomly

Software & Operating Systems
1

Hello, all. My recent experiences with PFSense has been a rollercoaster of frustration. To make a long and fatiguing story short, I had a boot drive die, and had to reinstall. Ever since then, I have had constant crashing every 9 or so hours. I don’t think it’s a boot drive issue, because the one I replaced the dead one with is brand new. Yes, it’s a USB drive. No, I don’t like it either. I would like to switch it to a SATA drive, but that’s a different story for another time.

I have tried searching for each of the three fatal traps, without finding anything that solved my issue. I also tried to post on the netgate forum, but I couldn’t figure out how to make a new topic. There are three fatal traps in the crash report: 1, 9, and 12. I’ll post the crash report below. If anyone has any suggestions, I would be very appreciative.

Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode
cpuid = 0; apic id = 00
fault virtual address	= 0xffffffffc7ff0000
fault code		= supervisor read data, page not present
instruction pointer	= 0x20:0xffffffff8136f723
stack pointer	        = 0x0:0xffffffff83d15970
frame pointer	        = 0x0:0xffffffff83d15a40
code segment		= base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
			= DPL 0, pres 1, long 1, def32 0, gran 1
processor eflags	= interrupt enabled, resume, IOPL = 0
current process		= 76414 (ps)
trap number		= 12
panic: page fault
cpuid = 0
time = 1650946419
KDB: enter: panic

Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode
cpuid = 1; apic id = 01
fault virtual address	= 0x3000010
fault code		= supervisor read data, page not present
instruction pointer	= 0x20:0xffffffff810844cb
stack pointer	        = 0x28:0xfffffe00004cbc60
frame pointer	        = 0x28:0xfffffe00004cbc80
code segment		= base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
			= DPL 0, pres 1, long 1, def32 0, gran 1
processor eflags	= interrupt enabled, resume, IOPL = 0
current process		= 19 (pf purge)
trap number		= 12
panic: page fault
cpuid = 1
time = 1650950273
KDB: enter: panic

Fatal trap 1: privileged instruction fault while in kernel mode
cpuid = 1; apic id = 01
instruction pointer	= 0x20:0xffffffff811bef7e
stack pointer	        = 0x28:0xfffffe0000510a08
frame pointer	        = 0x28:0x510a20
code segment		= base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
			= DPL 0, pres 1, long 1, def32 0, gran 1
processor eflags	= interrupt enabled, resume, IOPL = 0
current process		= 24 (syncer)
trap number		= 1
panic: privileged instruction fault
cpuid = 1
time = 1650974660
KDB: enter: panic

Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode
cpuid = 1; apic id = 01
fault virtual address	= 0x0
fault code		= supervisor write data, page not present
instruction pointer	= 0x20:0xffffffff80e913c1
stack pointer	        = 0x28:0xfffffe000053dab0
frame pointer	        = 0x28:0xfffffe000053daf0
code segment		= base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
			= DPL 0, pres 1, long 1, def32 0, gran 1
processor eflags	= interrupt enabled, resume, IOPL = 0
current process		= 10693 (filterlog)
trap number		= 12
panic: page fault
cpuid = 1
time = 1650988951
KDB: enter: panic

Fatal trap 9: general protection fault while in kernel mode
cpuid = 0; apic id = 00
instruction pointer	= 0x20:0xffffffff80d6f3f7
stack pointer	        = 0x28:0xfffffe00004cbc00
frame pointer	        = 0x28:0xfffffe00004cbc80
code segment		= base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
			= DPL 0, pres 1, long 1, def32 0, gran 1
processor eflags	= interrupt enabled, resume, IOPL = 0
current process		= 19 (pf purge)
trap number		= 9
panic: general protection fault
cpuid = 0
time = 1651017376
KDB: enter: panic
2

Are you running the latest version of pfSense? You don’t mention the hardware you’re using. If you have Hyper-Threading or SMT enabled, try disabling it.

1 Like
3

Sorry about that. I am running the latest, 2.6.0. I am running a core 2 duo E6300, 4GB DDR2, and a proprietary dell motherboard. As I was writing this, it just crashed again. The crash report is exactly the same.

4

As a separate troubleshooting step, I’ve disabled some of the onboard hardware and am waiting for it to crash again. Maybe I can catch it on the monitor. I also enabled SpeedStep and virtualization. I’m not expecting the last two to make a difference, but I’ll try it anyways.

I also finally saw someone else having a similar issue as me, and their solution was to replace their VGA cable. While it was not the same crash reports, I’m trying with a new VGA cable as well.

5

Can you move from the USB stick to a sata SSD using an USB to sata converter?
Since it’s always panicking on different places, I would say memory is having issues but it is a very long shot

2 Likes
6

Could be a heat issue? DDR2 can run quite toasty. You could try reseating the memory and stick a fan near or on top to blow air on the sticks.

7

Is the CPU a J1900 by chance?

8

I’d do some hardware tests - core2 duo and ddr2 is pretty ancient at this point.

pfsense on solid hardware is solid.

it may also be worth googling for freebsd problems with your hardware; as pfsense is based on freebsd, but by now the hardware bugs vs. kernel should be worked out on hardware that old, which imho points more towards flaky hardware. I’d be looking most closely at your memory.

maybe pull 1 stick out, see if it still crashes. if it does, swap the other stick and see if it crashes.

single channel vs. dual channel for a pfsense box (well, definitely for a home user one on consumer speed internet) is essentially worthless (so if you do find a dodgy stick, just don’t bother replacing it and run 2GB of RAM), the memory bandwidth isn’t critical.

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9

Oh also goes without saying… if you’re overclocked or XMP profile on anything… go back to stock.

You don’t need to push a machine running pfsense for performance, even a raspberry pi is way beyond what most home users need for their internet routing. :slight_smile:

back in the day used to have a pentium-166 doing routing for a 400 user ISP…

10

Thanks for all of your suggestions.

@MadMatt, I’m not exactly sure what you’re talking about. If you’re asking if I can use a USB to SATA adapter with the same USB drive, I would rather not. I would rather use an actual SATA SSD, but I can only get rufus to flash the disk image to the usb drive, and rufus has no way, to my knowledge, to flash to a sata disk. I could try different things, though. I have tried with dd, but it never is able to boot.

@Razor_Blade No, I don’t think it’s a heat issue. The sticks I’m using run around 30-ish degrees celsius normally, measured using an infrared thermometer. My ddr2 is only 800 MHz, and it doesn’t get very hot.

@Token, it is not. I am running an E6300, and it’s at stock speed.

@thro, I tried doing some tests, and everything seems to pass. Before now, I had never had any problems before now.

For now, I replaced the VGA cable, and am waiting for it to crash again. It hasn’t for 17 Hours, so I’m hopeful. The VGA cable I had was ANCIENT, and I wasn’t so sure about it after I had read something about someone else fixing their issue by replacing a VGA cable.

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11

Burn the pfsense installer to a usb drive, buy one of these

hook it up to a real sata ssd and install pfsense there …

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12

Sorry, I see what you meant now. Having a SATA SSD is not the problem. Unless I do a custom partition layout, I am unable to select disks in the installer for whatever reason. The PFSense installer is pretty bad, anyways.

For what it’s worth, though, I haven’t had any crashing since changing the VGA cable. Thanks for all your help.

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