Installation

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hi there,
I'm running m0n0 in a heavy-load-environment for years now. until today the machine run on 1.235 and now I wanted to update the recent version 1.32. following the update note on the website, I first loaded 1.3b7 via the webGUI. after the first try it appeared that still version 1.235 was on, but after the 2nd try 1.3b7 was running fine.
BUT: as I updated to 1.32 off that 1.3b7 via the webGUI, the browser (firefox 3 on linux) uploaded the generic-pc-1.32.img-file, but then showed me a dialog whether I want to save the file "system_firmware.php" or open it with another application. why: the file seemed to be empty. at this point, the m0n0-webserver obviously was dead. it didnt reply to any request. even when I turned to the keyboard of the m0n0 and tried to reboot it (by typing 5 and ENTER), this just ended up in the message "Killed" and the refresh of the menu. so I had to reboot the machine by a hardware reset.

after reboot: still version 1.3b7.

since this is a rather old beta, I'd really appreciate to install a stable 1.3-version. the update failed with the same result when I used the 1.31-image.

the box is a pentium-pc, memory usage is normally at 71% with the 1.235 and the 1.3b7 fw.

is this a bug of the 1.3b7? did I miss something?
is there another solution except burning the CD version and installing it to the HD and reloading the config?

Sounds like you may not have enough space.  the console message 'Killed' is because php can't execute, you would see

 'kernel: pid xxxx (php) , uid 0, was killed: out of swap space'

if you could get a conole, or via syslog.

In this state, the httpd server is in a strange state where requests for pages may not been processed as a cgi properly, which is why you see the prompt to download.


The real question is why you may not have enough space, usually doing an upgrade straight after a reboot ensures there is maximum space, before logs start to fill up etc.

Assuming that it's still failing, can you got to /exec.php before doing an upgrade and execute 'df' , which will show how much space there is ?

after a fresh reboot:

$ df -h
Filesystem    Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/md0       13M     12M    1.0M    92%    /
devfs         1.0K    1.0K      0B   100%    /dev
/dev/ad0a     9.6M    8.0M    1.6M    84%    /cf

are those values ok? they are not differing very much from the numbers before the reboot.

memory-relevant output of sysctl:

hw.physmem: 41381888
hw.usermem: 28487680
hw.realmem: 67100672
Virtual Memory:      (Total: 525K, Active 18940K)
Real Memory:      (Total: 26756K Active 14076K)
Shared Virtual Memory:   (Total: 2980K Active: 1844K)
Shared Real Memory:   (Total: 2640K Active: 1688K)
Free Memory Pages:   11900K

does m0n0 not recognize all available memory?

so, does nobody has an idea? the cdrom-reinstall is not really an option since the box has no cdrom drive any more.

Sorry, been really busy in work.

Can you try going to a later beta first  ? 

http://m0n0wall.jpcompserv.net/generic-pc-1.3b15.img  for example , these are a little smaller than 1.32

Do you have the option to backup the config and revert to defaults before upgrade ?

thanks for answering.
today i had the chance to try your suggestions. but only 50% success.
here's what i tried:
- loading 1.3b15: m0n0's webserver hangs completely, hard reboot necessary.
- backing config up and resetting to defaults, then loading 1.3b15: webserver tries to serve me some empty php file to download, syslog says: killed php because out of swap space
-  now the magic: stubbornly clicked on firmware again and tried to upload 1.32 (without reboot in between): the correct "firmware uploaded. system will reboot" message appeared! BUT. after reboot it becomes clear: I have now firmware 1.3b15 on my m0n0... at least.
- tried to redo the magic: firmware>upload 1.32: empty php/out of swap > the same procedure again: successful "firmware uploaded. system will reboot" message appeared. but after reboot I'm still stuck with 1.3b15
1.3b15 is 8.2M, 1.32 is 8.4M - does this small difference should be the problem? and again my question: does m0n0 recognize my physical memory correctly? or is it not enough memory? is there any possibility to manually enlarge swap?
what elso can I do?
thanks again for your help!

ok. one (probably) last question on this matter:
is it possible that I just don't have enough RAM on this machine? install prerequisites say 64MB needed and I don't really know what the realmem and physmem values from sysctl tell me. but dmesg says:

real memory  = 67100672 (63 MB)
avail memory = 39395328 (37 MB)

so, may I assume that I "just" have to install more RAM to get 1.3 installed?
(and: why is there such a big difference between real and available memory?)

thanks again for any answers.

Can you try to reinstall 1.32 using physical disk write?
before that have an XML configuration backup.
this should work and you will find out you need more ram. i don't think 64 is enough.
i have been using the 1.235 on Dell 233MHZ with 64 ram, and i had to upgrade the Box with IBM 1000 MHZ 128 RAM. to use 1.3, i had around 25 costumers. though 64 was enough for 1.235. and so is the 233 MHZ CPU.
regards.
Mohammed.

thanks momo!you made the point!
just returned from inserting another 64MB bar into the box - the upgrade to 1.32 run flawlessly.
problem solved!

BTW: this machine serves normally 700~1000 connections at the same time from about 100 clients on a 6 Mbps-line. and the 266MHz-PII seems to manage that load quite decently (CPU load around 25%). but as it looks like the lack of memory definitely was the weak point of the box. since I doubled it to 128MB the traffic increased as well as the number of connections...

i think the size of the Captive Portal contents is a load for P233MHz 64 Ram.
m0n0wall serving 5 HotSpots.
when the client open his browser the CPU jump around 60%. If more than 10 clients requesting the portal page. the CPU stays at 100% for a while. untill they are all authintecated.
my CP files was arround 150Kb. and it was v1.3