pfSense » pfSense Plus

I have noticed on several occasions this year if I log into a 2100 to update it, the System Update page shows the message:

Another instance of pfSense-upgrade is running. Please try again in a few moments.

...until pkg updates per the system log 8+ minutes later:

Sep 17 15:51:51 php-fpm 93201 /index.php: Successful login for user 'admin' from: _______ (Local Database)
Sep 17 15:59:32 pkg-static 69005 pkg upgraded: 1.21.3_4 -> 1.21.3_5

I have seen several posts online about the check taking a long time, because it is of course frustrating to log in to run an update in your expected update window and be unable to update.

This seems relatively new, as in the last year or so, as I personally have one of the earlier 2100s from a few years ago. We manage several across our client base, so have installed quite a few updates over the years. IIRC they all had the delay when upgrading to 24.11 this spring. It is still present on 25.07.1.

On other architectures/routers it only takes a minute or so for the check and pkg upgrade to complete. For instance on a 4200 it updated in 1m 14s:

Sep 16 16:39:40 php-fpm 85817 /index.php: Successful login for user 'admin' from _______ (Local Database)
Sep 16 16:40:54 pkg-static 93293 pkg upgraded: 1.21.3_5 -> 2.2.2_2
(the version that pulled for a while on 9/16/25)

Note after pkg is upgraded there is no further delay when refreshing the System Update page. And I have not noticed any intense CPU usage. So this issue may only be apparent to the user if someone logs in after a pkg update is released, and they visit the System Update page within ~8 minutes. A rarely-logged-into router being updated would fit that criteria.

One such forum post (which started as a semi-unrelated issue): https://forum.netgate.com/topic/198803/pkg-broken-in-25.07.1/10