🔴 Critical   ⏱ 5–30 min  Last verified: 20 May 2026
Affected versions: FreeBSD 13

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents
  1. Symptom & Impact
  2. Environment & Reproduction
  3. Root Cause Analysis
  4. Quick Triage
  5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
  6. Solution – Primary Fix
  7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
  8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
  9. Rollback Plan
  10. Prevention & Hardening
  11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
  12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Critical daemon fails repeatedly at startup, causing availability and alert noise issues.

Environment & Reproduction

Occurs after config changes or missing dependencies after updates.

service  onestatus
service -e | grep

Root Cause Analysis

Invalid service configuration or dependency ordering causes immediate process exit.

Quick Triage

Capture last startup errors and validate service config syntax.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Trace rc script behavior and daemon stdout/stderr paths.

service  restart
tail -n 200 /var/log/messages
sh -x /usr/local/etc/rc.d/ start
Illustrative mockup for freebsd-13 — rcd_crash_loop
Service repeatedly restarting at boot — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

Solution – Primary Fix

Correct daemon config and rc.conf flags, then restart service cleanly.

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vi /usr/local/etc/.conf
service  restart
Illustrative mockup for freebsd-13 — rcd_service_stable
Service stable after rc.d fix — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Temporarily disable auto-start and run under supervision while debugging.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Service remains healthy after restart and reboot cycles.

service  status

Rollback Plan

Restore previous known-good config file and rc flags from backup.

Prevention & Hardening

Add config linting and startup health checks to deployment workflow.

service failed to start, exited with status, rc script error.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for freebsd-13.

View all freebsd-13 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

rc(8), rc.conf(5), and daemon-specific service guidance.

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