@beerguzzle said in SG-2100 factory reset does not remove packages:
and had to do a factory reset
With help of this : Factory Reset Procedure
You saw :
If this procedure fails, connect to the console and perform a factory reset there.
IMHO, a factory reset will not actually remove package files files, but just the package related settings in the one and only /conf/config.xml.
Better : your current /conf/config.xml will be overwritten by a default (kept somewhere in a safe place) new bare bone config.xml file.
Because in that file there are no package settings what so ever, there can't be any package config files created, and thus packages can 'start' (or do something).
But you saw them still listed in the GUI menus. And you were thinking they would be removed from there also. I get it, and even somewhat agree with you, but this is not the case.
To really clean out the system : use the "get a fresh copy of pfSense, burn a key, and boot and install from usb key" method.
This will do a low level system disk rebuild, this will clean up things for sure.
Btw : bare in mind : I'm looking at the "manual" here, I never actually used the 'factory reset' procedure myself.