GUI unavailable following 159 > 180 update

[westone (William Stone)]

Hi,

Investigating a recent intermittent internet connection issue, I logged into the ipfire GUI this morning to check for available updates. There was a notification for update 159 > 180.

Clicked the notification which took me to the pakfire page where I clicked the install button below the listed update. The browser status said something to the effect of Downloading Information, however the window where the update was listed (just above the install button) was blank and never listed any steps of the update progress as it normally does.

I walked away and left it for about 30 minutes. When I returned to check it, the GUI page was now an “Unable to connect” page. It is now not possible to connect to the GUI at the IP address on port 444.

However the ipfire server seems to be working, internet is available and remote users are connected, so the firewall is up and running with the same configuration it has had for years. I just don’t know what version it is running and I am unable to access it to view the status and maintain it when needed.

Suggestions on how to proceed from here? I don’t know any other method to access the ipfire other than the GUI.

Thanks!

[westone (William Stone)]

I was able to access the console, which I have not used before so I don’t know what I’m looking at. The attached screenshot is of the current console following the update attempt.

Looks like a couple of processes didn’t go off and that it’s hung up on “INIT: version 2.27 reloading”.

[arne_f]

The INIT: verrsion x.xx reloading messages are generated by some of the core updates if sysvinit was updated. Also some update disable the webserver for some time while the update is installed.
But core180 contain sysvinit 3.00 so it has not reached the last update yet. There are some large core updates that can take much more than 30min for one core update so maybee it is still running…

Try to login on the console and check the logs in /opt/pakfire/logs

[dazz]

Hi
I have same symptoms.
ipFire is still running, or I would not be writing this response.

Below is the end part of the log from /opt/pakfire/logs/ for 181

Blockquote
var/ipfire/backup/bin/backup.pl
…Finished.
removed ‘/etc/udev/rules.d/81-cdrom.rules’
removed ‘/etc/udev/rules.d/83-cdrom-symlinks.rules’
removed ‘/lib/libudev.so.1.6.3’
removed ‘/lib/udev/collect’
removed ‘/lib/udev/init-net-rules.sh’
removed ‘/lib/udev/rule_generator.functions’
removed ‘/lib/udev/write_cd_rules’
removed ‘/lib/udev/write_net_rules’
Searching in /usr/lib…
Searching in /lib…
[ OK ] udev daemon…
Populating /dev with device nodes…
[ OK ] udev daemon…
[ OK ] Apache daemon…
Starting Apache daemon…
[ OK ]id 2770) already running
dracut: Executing: /usr/bin/dracut --kver=6.1.61-ipfire --force
dracut: *** Including module: modsign ***
dracut: *** Including module: i18n ***
dracut: *** Including module: dm ***
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 64-device-mapper.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 60-persistent-storage-dm.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 55-dm.rules
dracut: *** Including module: kernel-modules ***
dracut: *** Including module: kernel-modules-extra ***
dracut: *** Including module: lvm ***
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 64-device-mapper.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 56-lvm.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 60-persistent-storage-lvm.rules
dracut: *** Including module: mdraid ***
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 64-md-raid.rules
dracut: *** Including module: qemu ***
dracut: *** Including module: rootfs-block ***
dracut: *** Including module: terminfo ***
dracut: *** Including module: udev-rules ***
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 40-redhat.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 50-firmware.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 50-udev.rules
dracut: Skipping program /bin/loginctl using in udev rule 71-seat.rules as it cannot be found
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 91-permissions.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 80-drivers-modprobe.rules
dracut: *** Including module: base ***
dracut: *** Including module: fs-lib ***
dracut: *** Including modules done ***
dracut: *** Installing kernel module dependencies ***
dracut: *** Installing kernel module dependencies done ***
dracut: *** Resolving executable dependencies ***
dracut: *** Resolving executable dependencies done ***
dracut: *** Hardlinking files ***
dracut: Mode: real
dracut: Method: sha256
dracut: Files: 1063
dracut: Linked: 5 files
dracut: Compared: 0 xattrs
dracut: Compared: 59 files
dracut: Saved: 1.1 MiB
dracut: Duration: 0.025916 seconds
dracut: *** Hardlinking files done ***
dracut: Could not find ‘strip’. Not stripping the initramfs.
dracut: *** Generating early-microcode cpio image ***
dracut: *** Constructing AuthenticAMD.bin ***
dracut: *** Constructing GenuineIntel.bin ***
dracut: *** Store current command line parameters ***
dracut: *** Creating image file ‘/boot/initramfs-6.1.61-ipfire.img’ ***
dracut: *** Creating initramfs image file ‘/boot/initramfs-6.1.61-ipfire.img’ done ***
Generating grub configuration file …
Found background: /boot/grub/splash.png
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.1.61-ipfire
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-6.1.61-ipfire.img
fgrep: warning: fgrep is obsolescent; using grep -F
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings …
done
[root@ipfire logs]#

So no error or warning messages. Nothing to fix. Just looks like it needs time.

[bonnietwin (Adolf Belka)]

@dazz

[ OK ] Apache daemon…
Starting Apache daemon…
[ OK ]id 2770) already running

This suggests that apache did not properly restart because it found a pid already existing.

The problem with apache not restarting properly due to a timing issue between stopping and starting again was something found in CU181.
See
https://community.ipfire.org/t/upgrade-to-181-hangs-no-webgui/10634

You can confirm this by running
/etc/rc.d/init.d/apache status

If you get
/usr/sbin/httpd is not running.
it indicates that apache did not properly restart.

Run
/etc/rc.d/init.d/apache start
which should then restart it which can be confirmed by
/etc/rc.d/init.d/apache status
which should then give something like:-
httpd is running with Process ID(s) 16120 16118 16117.
except that your PID’s will be different.

[dazz]

OK
After running:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/apache status
I get:
`[root@ipfire ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/apache status
/usr/sbin/httpd is not running.’

So following the restart instructions:
[root@ipfire ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/apache start Starting Apache daemon... [ OK ] [root@ipfire ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/apache status httpd is running with Process ID(s) 29550 29548 29547.

and the WUI returned to normal.
Thanks for your help.