Settings reverting and files disappearing on reboot

[littlecharva]

Hi,

I'm new to FreeNAS 8, but ran a 0.69 FreeNAS box for a while before upgrading.

I'm also a bit of a Linux/FreeBSD newb too, but I feel I'm starting to get my head around the whole thing.

Ultimately I'm trying to install MPD5 in order to setup a PPTP server, but the problems I'm encountering seem to be with FreeNAS.

I ssh into FreeNAS from my Windows machine, and then I use su to work as the root account.

I then use nano /etc/rc.conf and make a few changes to that file. Using Ctrl-X to exit, then saying Yes to write out changes tells me that it wrote 48 lines.

I then nano in again to check the file and my changes are still there.

Finally, I reboot and when I check the file again, the changes I've made are gone.

Also, the files and folders setup by the MPD5 installation (/usr/local/etc/mpd5) have vanished.

What am I doing wrong?

Anthony

[ProtoSD]

FreeNAS settings are stored in a database which rebuilds a lot of the system files every time you boot. Also those partitions are likely in RAMdisk and get wiped everytime you reboot. There are some discussions here about this, but you'll have to search to find them.

[littlecharva]

Hi Protosd,

Thanks for the response, but I can't seem to find any posts on this at all. I've tried searching for settings database, ram disk and ram partition, but none of the results contain anything relevant.

Can you suggest any other keywords I could try?

I have previously managed to add some Transmission entries in the rc.conf file following a tutorial for installing Transmission, but I'm unable to identify which steps lead to that working.

Anthony

[pauldonovan]

mount -uw /
ee /etc/rc.conf
mount -ur /

Searching the forums for those mount commands will help, as will just performing them :-)

Paul

[ohnename]

make your changes in /conf/base/etc (only after a mount -uw /) because thats whats read on boot, it is also automatically changed in /etc after a reboot.

[Durkatlon]

make your changes in /conf/base/etc (only after a mount -uw /) because thats whats read on boot, it is also automatically changed in /etc after a reboot.

Is that true? I'm comparing /etc and /conf/base/etc and the directories are nothing alike. The file I'm interested in modifying (snnmpd.config) is much larger in the conf/base and in fact has the options I would like to have loaded from the version in /etc.

EDIT: I guess some files (like rc.conf) are taken directly from /conf/base/etc, while others that exist in /conf/base/etc (like snmpd.config) are not used at all, but instead built from scratch each time by other scripts. In the case of snmpd.config the script is /etc/rc.d/ix-bsnmpd, so to make permanent changes you have to modify /conf/base/etc/rc.d/ix-bsnmpd.

I was expecting FreeNAS being that it is based on nanobsd to follow the convention that permanent configuration is stored in the partition that is temporarily mounted to /cfg during boot-up, but when I mounted /cfg it appears this partition is completely empty? I guess IxSystems changed that completely from the baseline.

[king3382]

mount -uw /
ee /etc/rc.conf
mount -ur /

Searching the forums for those mount commands will help, as will just performing them :-)

Paul

after run mount -ur /, it prompted me "mount: /dev/ufs/FreeNASs1a : Device busy"

anyone who can figure out detailedly how to install NRPE2 into freenas 8, or install any software permanently. i noticed that a lot of users has same problem with read only file system, were unable to install software.

thanks!

[ProtoSD]

i noticed that a lot of users has same problem with read only file system, were unable to install software.

This is by design! If you try to install apps by making / read-write, you will suffer the consequences...

This is what the plugin system in 8.2 is intended for. It's a little behind schedule, but we should have an RC release in the beginning of June.

[king3382]

This is by design! If you try to install apps by making / read-write, you will suffer the consequences...

This is what the plugin system in 8.2 is intended for. It's a little behind schedule, but we should have an RC release in the beginning of June.

thank you so much.

your answer is very clear. hope like this information should be included in doc.