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Date:      Mon, 14 Feb 2022 21:56:28 -0800
From:      Mark Millard <marklmi@yahoo.com>
To:        bob prohaska <fbsd@www.zefox.net>
Cc:        Free BSD <freebsd-arm@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Pi3 answers ssh only if outbound ping is running on -current
Message-ID:  <506CD1A7-3D34-4E1B-AEAA-A1A819C6CC73@yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <8F9A6C9A-69BF-4D42-9886-A3F08BCB2EA0@yahoo.com>
References:  <20220212185618.GA37391@www.zefox.net> <34F5C092-7C35-4CBB-9CC3-99E373D1F785@yahoo.com> <F5FC2E50-C1E8-4E84-B4D4-DC7BFC3C9C14@yahoo.com> <20220215034924.GA46139@www.zefox.net> <8F9A6C9A-69BF-4D42-9886-A3F08BCB2EA0@yahoo.com>

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On 2022-Feb-14, at 21:21, Mark Millard <marklmi@yahoo.com> wrote:

> On 2022-Feb-14, at 19:49, bob prohaska <fbsd@www.zefox.net> wrote:
>=20
>> On Sat, Feb 12, 2022 at 04:50:21PM -0800, Mark Millard wrote:
>>>=20
>>> Recommended experiment . . .
>>>=20
>>> Since I have a context working based on the kernel in:
>>>=20
>>> =
https://artifact.ci.freebsd.org/snapshot/stable-13/371633ece3ae88e3b3d7a02=
8c372d4ac4f72b503/arm64/aarch64/kernel.txz
>>>=20
>>> I recommend that you try that exact same kernel in your
>>> stable/13 context. I recommend renaming the existing
>>> /boot/kernel before expanding the kernel.txz into / and
>>> so causing a new /boot/kernel/ to be filled in.
>>>=20
>>> If that makes things work after rebooting, then your
>>> kernel can be blamed. (More investigation to know more
>>> about what is going on in your kernel build.)
>>>=20
>>=20
>> Replacing first the kernel  and then the dtb directory
>> didn't change the machine's response to incoming pings.=20
>=20
> Intersting.
>=20
>> The stable/13 machine does answer ping sporadically during
>> boot, but falls silent once it's up to multi-user. Starting
>> an outbound ping seems to allow incoming pings to be answered,
>> but only very briefly. With inbound pings coming at 1 per=20
>> second  and outbound pings at 1 per ten seconds less than
>> ten percent of incoming pings get an answer.=20
>>=20
>> There's a superficially similar situation described in=20
>> https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/strange-tunnel-behavior.27804/
>> except that I'm not (knowingly) using any sort of tunnel, and in
>> my case single pings do occasionally get answered on their own.
>>=20
>> The misbehavior in that case is attributed to packet filtering.
>> Near as I can tell it isn't present on my machine, with one=20
>> hesitation: By default, FreeBSD supports DHCP, which I believe
>> once used bpf. I've never explicitly turned DHCP off, merely
>> commented out the ifconfig line in /etc/rc.conf and added an
>> ifconfig line to bring up a static address.
>=20
> Static addressing. Hmm. Could you configure an independent
> network with no router for a test, such as just an EtherNet
> cable between the 2 RPi*'s, no use of your normal network?
> (I've no clue what all this involves, if it is even possible.
> It would be good to know how to set up such a minimal-context
> test.)
>=20
> The point is to side step as much equipment as possible
> in order to see if something outside the RPi*'s is
> contributing. There may be a more reasonable approximation
> than the specifics I've suggested.
>=20
>> Is it possible there's a packet filter running in the background?
>> Perhaps under another, newer name?
>=20
> Besides the RPi*'s, what devices are processing the
> network packets?
>=20
>> There's no /dev/pf, but there
>> is a /dev/pfil, described as a packet filter interface. The man
>> page notes "In FreeBSD 13.0 the interface was significantly =
rewritten."
>> The man page is dated January 28, 2019, so it's old news.
>>=20
>> /etc/defaults/rc.conf contains ipfilter_enable=3D"NO", so it's
>> unclear why there's a /dev/pfil present at all. Perhaps via
>> some other service? Making sure packet filtering is turned
>> off seems like a good thing to try. Can't find a way to do
>> that via looking in /etc/defaults/rc.conf=20
>=20
> Long ago I technically had an externally-static address
> but I still just used DHCP locally: The router had the
> static address but I'd set up to not expose the network.
>=20
> I'm not going to be any help with the things that you
> are referencing.
>=20
>>> But if the above does not make things work, that points
>>> to investigating alternate worlds from:
>>>=20
>>> https://artifact.ci.freebsd.org/snapshot/stable-13/. . .
>>>=20
>>> That is a messier context. I only do that with media that
>>=20
>> Indeed, I'm not sure I'm up to that level of messing......
>> It looks clear that mine is a local problem, doubtless self-
>> inflicted, most probably from using removable flash media as
>> swap. It'd be comforting to know for sure, of course.
>=20
> Part of the point of using a separate microsd card is
> to have an environment where blasting away the content
> and starting over is okay.
>=20
> I've been lucky for most of my testing: I could boot a
> fresh install and test without any significant configuration:
> defaults from installation were nearnly sufficient. But I've
> no clue if you could have that kind of test.
>=20
> Testing with defaults, instead of your normal configuration
> is also part of the point, sort of like avoiding other
> networking devices being involved.
>=20
>>> I can delete everything on, such as an independent microsd
>>> card: chflags -R noschg /mnt/ ; rm -fr /mnt/ ; various
>>> tar -xpf ???.txz -C /mnt/ commands --while not booted from
>>> the microsd card. Repeat for each snapshot tried.
>>=20
>> At this point it's tempting to try the oldest stable/13
>> kernel available on artifact.ci.freebsd.org,
>=20
> Well that would be when 13-CURRENT was first branched to
> make stable/13 and 14-CURRENT, before releng/13.0 existed.
> ( stable/13 predates releng/13.0 .) I'd not try a modern
> world going back that far: I'd also use an old world.

I got that wrong: the artifacts history does not go back that
far. Looking just now, I found:

author	Konstantin Belousov <kib@FreeBSD.org>	2021-10-19 21:25:19 =
+0000
committer	Konstantin Belousov <kib@FreeBSD.org>	2021-10-26 =
02:26:27 +0000
commit	485cc5549c3b383c6158bf47ac40c8002e276666 (patch)
tree	162311b2a8e477f078823137491e30110671bd90
parent	59447a02f1a9083f37d8e1e0d75bbb76ccb669d6 (diff)
download	src-485cc5549c3b383c6158bf47ac40c8002e276666.tar.gz
src-485cc5549c3b383c6158bf47ac40c8002e276666.zip

=
https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/commit/?h=3Dstable/13&id=3D485cc5549c3b383c61=
58bf47ac40c8002e276666

but it might not last long as old is dropped (when new
is added?). It looks to go back somewhat over a year.


> Again, I suggest an independent media, such as a microsd
> card that is then separately booted and used for the
> testing. Well, 2 microsd cards so both systems are using
> defaults.
>=20
>> if that makes
>> no difference it's time to start with a fresh install image.
>=20
> I'd test such on separate media first. If it still
> has the problem, why destroy the original context
> and deal with the extra associated activity?





=3D=3D=3D
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com




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