Wireguard Borking System

[0jay]

Hi, just to be clear I've zero doubt the problem is me but this is a recurring issue and I've been unable to nut it out on my own.

 

I've found (both with bullseye and bookworm) that installing Wireguard borks my system - ie I am unable to boot after install. I'm running headless and therefore am limited diagnostically (I can't say what errors are occurring when attempting to reboot)

 

I realise this'll make my problem frustrating for a lot of folks to engage with but any ideas at all'd be helpful.

 

When first using Armbian a few years back it seemed as though the issue was that the LTS kernel did not include wireguard support and I discovered installing an edge kernel allowed me to install and use Wireguard successfully. I'm now getting the issue with Bookworm though so clearly my problem was not the kernel and whatever allowed me to install Wireguard was just incidentally triggered by the process I followed to install the edge kernel.

 

I've done seven fresh installs in the last few days just to get my system bedded down and am a bit nervous about experimenting too much given cellular internet with limited data allowance. I'm hoping to swing into this with at least some idea about what the problem might be and how I might resolve it so I can minimise danger of another time consuming reinstallation.

 

System is a Libre Renegade board (Rockchip 64)

 

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Oscar

[Werner]

On 9/16/2024 at 9:55 AM, 0jay said:

I'm running headless and therefore am limited diagnostically (I can't say what errors are occurring when attempting to reboot)

Without proper logs this hard to track down. Try to grab some actual logs when you get a chance: https://debug.armbian.de

 

Wireguard is - kernel-wise at least - nowadays included in all Armbian images. However it might be necessary to install userspace tools separately (i.e. apt install --no-install-recommends wireguard-tools), especially on minimal images.

[0jay]

Hi Werner, thanks for your reply.
 

I tried again several times today, including with the latest server image and am still unable to boot following installation (though no errors are reported).

 

It occurred to me I should've tried installing headers first but I've spent another day trying to nut it out so I'll have to leave it for another day.

 

Really frustrating not knowing what I'm doing wrong.

 

apt install --no-install-recommends wireguard-tools

 

I'll give this a try next time, thanks.

 

Edited September 17 by 0jay

[Werner]

Ah yeah, now I know.

You are installing with recommends which might include wireguard and wireguard-dkms packages which have dependency on stock Debian/Ubuntu kernel which then will be installed and render your system unbootable.

[0jay]

5 minutes ago, Werner said:

might include wireguard and wireguard-dkms packages which have dependency on stock Debian/Ubuntu kernel which then will be installed and render your system unbootable.

 

Thank you!

 

Can I just apt uninstall those packages? Are there only the two that can cause this issue that I need to remove?

Edited September 17 by 0jay

[Werner]

I think so, yes. As mentioned Armbian kernel comes with wireguard module pre-installed so nothing besides the userspace tools is required IIRC.

[0jay]

4 minutes ago, Werner said:

nothing besides the userspace tools is required

 

I'll hook into this in the next few days, thanks for your time nutting it out it'll be great to finally have it sorted 

 

Best regards,

Oscar

[0jay]

On 9/17/2024 at 8:16 PM, Werner said:

You are installing with recommends which might include wireguard and wireguard-dkms packages

Unfortunately apt install --no-install-recommends wireguard doesn't help. I started by installing headers first which seemed to skip a kernel install (at least I got a – autoinstall for kernel 6.1.0-23-rt-arm64 was skipped since the kernel headers for this kernel do not seem to be installed – message) but still no boot on restart.

 

I even tried installing edge kernel and headers which worked for me last time but as soon as Wireguard's installed it refuses to boot.

[SteeMan]

38 minutes ago, 0jay said:

Unfortunately apt install --no-install-recommends wireguard

I think you are missing the point @Werner stated stated above.

 

On 9/17/2024 at 6:21 AM, Werner said:

As mentioned Armbian kernel comes with wireguard module pre-installed so nothing besides the userspace tools is required

Wireguard is preinstalled on Armbian.  So there isn't anything you should need to install other than the tools (depending on build).

 

On all my Armbian install wireguard works with no extra installation required, just configuration.

[0jay]

1 hour ago, SteeMan said:

Wireguard is preinstalled

 

Thanks SteeMan, wireguard-tools show as installed, I think the metapackage needs installation (which I'd guess is why I can actually install the package without getting a message it's already present).

 

My issue is that the OMV plugin installation results in the same unbootable state. I'm trying to save myself the time of reinstalling OMV every time and work out why a wireguard install renders Armbian unbootable. Igor (and Werner) have observed it probably has to do with dkms packages which I suppose is why wireguard installation defaults to installing a linux package which I guess installs an incompatible kernel.

 

I'd been hoping that the pre-rolled Arbian/OMV images might solve this problem but it's looking unlikely unless the OMV-Extras team can suggest a solution.

Edited September 19 by 0jay

[0jay]

I think I know how to do it.

 

Install wireguard, then goto arbian-config and install the kernel and headers, that way you overwrite the kernel from the wireguard installation.

[Werner]

I still believe a simple "apt-get install --no-install-recommends wireguard-tools" does the trick as well but I have no option to test this atm.

[0jay]

27 minutes ago, Werner said:

I still believe a simple "apt-get install --no-install-recommends wireguard-tools" does the trick

 I did try this Werner, it still installed a vanilla debian kernel

 

Tools is installed by default, it's the meta package that's the problem and the OMV plugin requires the meta package

Edited September 19 by 0jay

[Werner]

Are you sure you tried this with "wireguard-tools" package and not with plain "wireguard"?

[0jay]

the tools package is part of a default install, there's no need to install it manually

[0jay]

the OMV plugin requires the meta package, that's the reason there's a problem

[Werner]

ah. good old omv annoyance. Known to mess up the system....

[pdieguez]

On 9/19/2024 at 9:48 AM, 0jay said:

Install wireguard, then goto arbian-config and install the kernel and headers, that way you overwrite the kernel from the wireguard installation.

 

Which exact options did you choose on armbian-config after installing wireguard? I can see "Headers_install" under system. Is that it? What else?

 

Thanks,

 

[0jay]

On 10/22/2024 at 12:48 PM, pdieguez said:

Which exact options did you choose on armbian-config

 

Hey pdieguez, I've layed out the process in the OMV forum here

https://forum.openmediavault.org/index.php?thread/54000-catastrophic-wireguard-install/&postID=403856#post403856

Edited October 23 by 0jay

[pdieguez]

12 hours ago, 0jay said:

Hey pdieguez, I've layed out the process in the OMV forum here

https://forum.openmediavault.org/index.php?thread/54000-catastrophic-wireguard-install/&postID=403856#post403856

 

Thank you very much Ojay. By the way, are your kernel upgrades still frozen?

Haven't you updated any since you installed Wireguard?

 

 

[0jay]

8 hours ago, pdieguez said:

are your kernel upgrades still frozen?

Haven't you updated any since you installed Wireguard?

 

Freezing kernel upgrades just means you can stay with a stable kernel and an update command will leave your kernel as is (in this case remain on the current edge kernel while updating the rest of the system).

 

It's easy to unfreeze and update when there's a new LTS kernel available.

Edited October 24 by 0jay