Rebooted unable to access GUI

[codenamezero]

So I've had my NAS running for 2 years, been too lazy to upgrade to the latest version, decided to do it sometimes this month. So yesterday i decided to go backup the settings, and went to the Web GUI, but I can't really load any tabs... I can click on it, but nothing shows up. I'm like, ok, let me reboot it..

Rebooted and I can't even hit the web GUI anymore. At first I thought my whole NAS died or something, but this morning I saw that I could still see the content of my NAS from my desktop.

Now my question is, if I don't backup the settings, what will happen when I upgrade it to the latest version? Would it still be able to detect the old settings? I am going from ~8.0.0 to 9.2.1.

Is there anything else I need to be aware of if i am going to do it through the CD upgrade method?

Or had anyone experienced something similar before and how did you fix the Web GUI issue? I'd like to upgrade it form the web GUI as it would be much simpler.

 

[gpsguy]

Assuming that you have 8.0.0 [0.7 is not known as NAS4Free and supported on their forum], you probably can't go straight from your version to the latest. I'd do a fresh install of 8.3.2 on a new flash drive (auto import the pools) - get that up and functioning and then consider upgrading to 9.x.

Without the configuration file, your data will be there, but you'd need to reconfigure it. The configuration file is stored on the 4th partition in a file named freenas-v1.db. You can try to read it with another utility [disk is formatted UFS], or from the console, copy it from /data/freenas-v1.db over to a place on your volume, where you can get it from your desktop. Armed with it, you could restore it from the webGUI on the new install.

Before you do anything else, try a different browser, like Firefox or Chrome.

 

[codenamezero]

I tried different browser even before rebooting it. This behavior actually happened a while back, but i never bothered with it because the NAS just ran fine, so I haven't accessed the Web GUI in the past 6+ months. And now after a reboot, it won't even hit the web server... as if the httpd is dead or something.

Really thank you for your input, I will try to get it up as you suggested.

BTW, I can still access the NAS itself through my Window mount and can read and put files on it. Is it possible for me to use ssh and trigger FreeNAS to read the upgrade image through command line?

 

[gpsguy]

Do you have an error messages on the console? If you see "Welcome to nginx!", one could issue three commands and possibly fix the webGUI issue, until the next reboot. Otherwise, there's probably some corruption on the flash drive.

I wouldn't attempt the upgrade. Just use a new 4Gb flash drive and do a fresh install of 8.3.2. And, as I said, either from the console or SSH, copy the /data/freenas-v1.db file to /mnt/volumename and grab the file from Windows. After doing the fresh install, use the webGUI to load your configuration file.

 

[codenamezero]

Sooooo... long story short, I couldn't upgrade to 8.3.2, because my CF card is only 1GB, however, I reinstalled the old version, and i could access my Web GUI... I tried to upgrade it to 8.0.4, but it doesn't look like the 8.0 Web GUI could flash the firmware? Tomorrow I will try to buy the cheapest CF card, and hopefully I could proceed and install the newer version.