pfSense Boot Loop

I just spun up a new pfSense install with the SG-4860 High availability bundle. Shortly after configuring the devices and rebooting the primary, I ended up with a pfSense boot loop. I was able to look at the pfSense boot loop messages by using my console cable and connect via PuTTY. Side note, while stuck in a boot loop, Windows 7 thought the USB connection was a Microsoft Ball Point Pen. I had to power off the pfSense, plug in the USB, then power back on.

While the pfSense boot loop was occurring, I capture the following error via PuTTY logging

Error Message

Error was: savecore: reboot after panic: ufs_dirbad: /: bad dir ino 5698176 at offset 512: mangled entry

This error may mean that I have a bad drive or controller, so I’ll want to keep an eye on that. To get the system started and stop the pfSense boot loop, I performed the following

Boot into safe mode Power cycle the pfSense box while you have your USB connected and PuTTY open When you see the pfSense boot screen press 2 at the prompt Hit enter at the shell prompt Run FSCK

/sbin/fsck -p

Then ran a file system check

/sbin/fsck -y

Followed by a reboot

/sbin/reboot

if you still have a pfSense boot loop, then you may have a bad hard disk or controller.