Using panelEvery page

Changes that wait to be kept

A change that is correct can still cut you off: a firewall rule that closes the port you are using, a new address for the port you came in on, a Wi-Fi password changed from a laptop on that Wi-Fi. So panel does not keep such a change straight away. It tries it, and puts the old one back unless you say to keep it.

What waits

  • The firewall's rules and port forwards.
  • DNS and DHCP's settings.
  • The network ports' addresses.
  • The VPN's tunnel.
  • The Wi-Fi's settings.
  • Switching the router on and off.
  • An update of panel itself, and a restore from a backup.

The band

While a change waits, a band at the top of every page counts down, with Keep, a way to give it more time, and a way to undo it now. Press Keep once you can see everything still works.

Keep has to reach the machine over a new connection. If the change cut you off, no Keep can arrive, and when the time runs out the machine puts the old settings back by itself. Nobody has to drive to it.

If the machine restarts meanwhile

The waiting change is on disk, not in memory:

  • The time ran out while it was off: the old settings come back as it starts.
  • There is time left: the change stays and the countdown goes on where it was.

So a change that cut the machine off can also be undone by switching it off for longer than the countdown.

An update of panel

An update installs beside the running version, the panel restarts into it, and it waits to be kept like any other change:

  • If the machine starts a second time without the update being kept, the previous version comes back. A version that cannot start is undone by switching the machine off and on.
  • An update nobody keeps is also undone at a start more than ten minutes after it first ran.
  • Updates and rollbacks refuse to start on a disk that has become read-only — usually a failing SD card — rather than stop halfway.

From a console, panelctl upgrade status, confirm and revert work with the panel stopped. See panelctl(1).

A restore

A restore shows what it would change before it changes anything, keeps a copy of how things are, and asks for a restart. It waits to be kept until somebody keeps it or undoes it, on the Maintenance page. A second start without it being kept undoes it.