Cannot install qemu-guest-agent on TrueNAS CORE 13.0-U6.8 (Proxmox VM) - Repo / Middleware issues

General Discussion
1

Hi everyone,

I’m running TrueNAS CORE as a VM on Proxmox and I’m trying to install the QEMU Guest Agent so Proxmox can see the VM’s IP address and issue graceful shutdowns. I am running into a wall with the FreeBSD repositories and the TrueNAS middleware.

My Setup:

  • Hypervisor: Proxmox VE (Guest Agent enabled in VM Options)

  • OS: TrueNAS CORE 13.0-U6.8 (FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p9)

The Problem: I am trying to use the popular community installation script (gushmazuko/truenas-qemu-guest-agent), but it is failing to install the actual package.

Here is what I have tried and the exact errors I’m getting:

  1. Standard Script Install: The script successfully extracts virtio_console.ko, but fails on the package install because it’s looking for older hardcoded versions (8.1.3 or 9.1.0), which result in a Not Found error on the FreeBSD mirror.

  2. Changing Repo to “latest”: I tried manually editing /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf to change quarterly to latest. The pkg update -f command completes successfully, but seconds later, the TrueNAS middleware forcefully overwrites the config file back to its default state, causing the script to fail again.

  3. Bypassing Middleware with Isolated Repo: I tried creating a sandbox repo in /tmp and running env REPOS_DIR=/tmp/myrepo IGNORE_OSVERSION=yes pkg install -y qemu-guest-agent. It bypasses the middleware, but still outputs: pkg: No package(s) matching qemu-guest-agent.

  4. Direct Download/Install: I tried directly downloading the .pkg file via curl and running pkg add ./agent.pkg. This fails with: archive_read_open_filename: Unrecognized archive format.

My Question: Has anyone successfully installed the qemu-guest-agent on TrueNAS CORE 13.0-U6.8 recently? Is there an updated method, a working package mirror for this specific version, or a foolproof way to bypass the middleware repo reset so pkg install actually finds the software?

Any guidance would be hugely appreciated!