pfSense

I think there's a similar issue here in pfSense-dhclient-script that can delete the default route incorrectly.

I've discontinued my Starlink service so I may not be able to help the with debugging of a fix for this issue in the future, but I thought I'd mention that this simple-minded patch seems to have helped:

--- /usr/local/sbin/pfSense-dhclient-script.orig    2021-05-28 07:35:21.000000000 -0400
+++ /usr/local/sbin/pfSense-dhclient-script    2022-03-15 08:50:19.904170000 -0400
@@ -163,10 +163,14 @@
         fill_classless_routes "$old_classless_routes" 
         set $classless_routes
         while [ $# -gt 1 ]; do
-            route delete "$1" "$2" 
+            if [ "default" = "$1" ]; then
+                old_routers="$2" 
+            else
+                route delete "$1" "$2" 
+            fi
             shift; shift
         done
-        return 0;
+        old_static_routes="" 
     fi

     # Only allow the default route to be overridden if it's on our own interface
@@ -209,14 +213,16 @@
         $LOGGER "New Classless Static Routes ($interface): $classless_routes" 
         set $classless_routes
         while [ $# -gt 1 ]; do
-            if [ "0.0.0.0" = "$2" ]; then
+            if [ "default" = "$1" ]; then
+                new_routers="$2" 
+            elif [ "0.0.0.0" = "$2" ]; then
                 route add "$1" -iface "$interface" 
             else
                 route add "$1" "$2" 
             fi
             shift; shift
         done
-        return
+        new_static_routes="" 
     fi

     ADDED_ROUTE=no

The issue still exists in 2.7.2, the patch from David works.

Oleksii Tucha wrote in #note-4:

The issue still exists in 2.7.2, the patch from David works.

It is March 2025, this issue still exists in 24.11-RELEASE (amd64) with
System_Patches 2.2.20_4 and all patches applied. Support ticket with
Netgate has been opened, we are just waiting for resolution.

As a note, it also showed up once Starlink was connected to the 3rd WAN port.

Customer in ticket has also run into this issue.

This issue still exists in 25.11.1-RELEASE and the patch from David above resolves the issue.

The above patch does not apply using the patch utility. It's possible that the base code is no longer close enough for the patch utility to recognize the code it needs to change.

I have not dug into the code to see if this hypothesis is true.

However, as the others have said, it would be beneficial to get this patch made official. Since 90% of the coding work is done, it seems like it should be a pretty easy win to get it polished, tested, and QAed.

Four years is a long time to get a patch for a large and growing service like Starlink done.

The customer reported that the issue still exists on 26.03 and that the patch does not resolve the problem. (HS#41535590541)

Here's the (untested) patch from #note-3 regenerated for 26.03: ShowHide

diff --git a/src/usr/local/sbin/pfSense-dhclient-script b/src/usr/local/sbin/pfSense-dhclient-script
index 89ad0c83f8..d50e1da554 100755
--- a/src/usr/local/sbin/pfSense-dhclient-script
+++ b/src/usr/local/sbin/pfSense-dhclient-script
@@ -175,10 +175,14 @@ delete_old_routes() {
         fill_classless_routes "$old_classless_routes" 
         set $classless_routes
         while [ $# -gt 1 ]; do
-            $ROUTE delete "$1" "$2" 
+            if [ "default" = "$1" ]; then
+                old_routers="$2" 
+            else
+                $ROUTE delete "$1" "$2" 
+            fi
             shift; shift
         done
-        return 0;
+        old_static_routes="" 
     fi

     # Only allow the default route to be overridden if it's on our own interface
@@ -225,14 +229,16 @@ add_new_routes() {
         _logger "LOG_NOTICE" "New Classless Static Routes (${interface}): ${classless_routes}" 
         set $classless_routes
         while [ $# -gt 1 ]; do
-            if [ "0.0.0.0" = "$2" ]; then
+            if [ "default" = "$1" ]; then
+                new_routers="$2" 
+            elif [ "0.0.0.0" = "$2" ]; then
                 $ROUTE add "$1" -iface "$interface" 
             else
                 $ROUTE add "$1" "$2" 
             fi
             shift; shift
         done
-        return
+        new_static_routes="" 
     fi

     ADDED_ROUTE=no