pfSense

I had a configuration that used 2 wireless cards (urtw) and had interfaces assigned. One of the urtw interfaces was configured, while the other was assigned but not enabled in pfSense.

When I removed one of the urtw devices (a USB wireless adapter), pfSense demanded the interfaces all be reassigned manually from the console as if I was setting up the machine rather than simply removing the offending interface in question.

This caused an immense problem as I have 11 interfaces configured (12 with the 2nd urtw), of which 3 include gigabit LAN (1x msk and 2x em), 1x wifi (urtw), and 7x OpenVPN interfaces. When I yanked the urtw, pfSense refused to assign the remaining interfaces according to the configuration, locking me out from remotely managing the box to fix the issue.

Like most firewalls, I operate this unit as a headless unit, so this caused me immense frustration to put a monitor and keyboard to it to fix the issue, and because this happened with a USB device that can easily just fall out of a machine, I think pfSense ought to be able to handle it.

As such, if an interface disappears, can you simply unassign the interface rather than resetting the ENTIRE interface configuration!

I'm using the Sun May 15 20:43:07 2011 snap.