I can not boot the pfSense.
I have went through the "Boot issues" documentation and tried to find a solution with my friend Google. However, I'm stuck in booting.
The pfSense version 2.1.5 is the last version which works and boots fine. When installing newer version, the boot fails.

I have tried to disable the DMA, cachec etc. which was decripted in "Boot issues" documentation. However, none of these helped me solve the problem.
This is really frustrating, since I know the hardware works fine, the hardware is quite powerfull, but can only be used as a firewall.

Is there any workaround? Any way to alter the booting mechanism?

I also have two IDE slots, but the connector looks weird. I don't know where to find suitable disk or disk tray for this.

I would be so glad to get some solution for this!

Yes. I've started another thread related to 2.2.6, which I am in the process of installing on the FB.

@patrtech:

I also have the DS57U and wanted to install pfsense as a virtual machine in ESXI. Have any of you guys tried this yet?  The main problem I'm having is that  ESXI 6 only shows the i218 adapter as being available. The i211 adapter is no where to be seen.  I see it available as a passthrough device.  I can't figure out why it won't appear as a 2nd physical nic?

VMware compatibility guide show both have drivers available in esxi 6, why won't the i211 not appear as a available adapter?:

I211 compatibility:

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=37601&deviceCategory=io&details=1&releases=273&keyword=i211&deviceTypes=6&VID=8086&DID=1539&page=1&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

I218-LM compatibility:

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=37653&deviceCategory=io&details=1&keyword=i21&page=1&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

Any ideas?

I installed ESXi 6.0 on my DS57U3. I had to create a customized ESXi-ISO with http://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer-ps.html and installed the net-igb and sata-xahci driver package. See http://www.v-front.de/2015/08/a-fix-for-intel-i211-and-i350-adapters.html and http://www.v-front.de/2013/11/how-to-make-your-unsupported-sata-ahci.html

Besides I passed through the Realtek WLAN-card to a Debian 8 VM with a 4.2 Kernel and set this machine up as a WLAN-AP with hostapd - http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/debian-ubuntu-linux-setting-wireless-access-point/

This also should work for a Shuttle DH170 imho.

Just quick follow-up for anyone else who finds this thread because of the same issue: I installed yesterday's daily build of the 2.3 beta (FreeBSD 10.3 pre-release) and it brought up all interfaces.

For reference, the specific build I'm using:
pfSense-memstick-2.3-BETA-amd64-20160205-0028

with Hi Adaptive the speed was most of the time at highest value.

PowerD minimum = drives the CPU even on the minimum CPU frequency
PowerD maximum = drives the CPU even on the maximum CPU frequency
PowerD adaptive = drives the CPU from the minimum to the maximum CPU frequency with a dedicated view on
power saving alone
PowerD hi adaptive = drives the CPU from the minimum to the maximum CPU frequency with a dedicated view on
power saving but more for being powerful acting

With adaptive ist is more in the lower range

This mostly and also pending on what kind of packets you installed such as Snort or HAVP or the
usage of DPI. On high adaptive but using snort you will then get a lower throughput and saving
electric power, with hi adaptive you save power as usual, but for Snort or any other task that needs
much more horse power it will be sorted with them. If you only use pfSense more likes a normal firewall
then a UTM device or together with many packets it will be ok.

@Pawandev:

interrupt storm detected on "irq259:"; throttling interrupt source

I experienced a teardrop attack in my internal network which caused my machine to act this way. Found it with softflowd and PRTG. Fixed the offending server ability to tko the firewall by removing the server's  default gateway.

The i3-2100 has 2 cores and neither AES-NI nor Quick Assist Technology which are pFSense optimized features.

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i3/Intel-Core%20i3-2100%20CM8062301061600.html

I know free is good perhaps considering a different CPU would be a better option. Just a suggestion.

99 times out of 100, that means your disk is dead. Replace the disk, reinstall pfSense, restore your config, etc.

The other 1 time, the disk is actually full for some reason (usually squid or sarg)

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried it in another machine on Windows 10, and it had the same problem there as well, which suggested it was a hardware problem. Fortunately, the seller on ebay was extremely helpful and shipped me a new card which works fine.

Chris - I appreciate it, but that's a bit too heavy of scratch from my pocket.  I decided to give up and go another route, of which when I have it done I will post what I did (testing it first). It should be a barn burner for under $500.

bump

@jardoin:

So… there is no CF in it at all. I'm assuming this may be an issue.

Indeed that would be the case.

You'll need to track down a CF, 4GB or larger, and write out the NanoBSD image to it. Plenty of docs on the wiki for that.

using this setup with a windows hyper v setup with pfsense. no issues

I am trying to determine if this model will meet our needs. We are looking at the HA Pair.

Would be really powerfull as I see it right, the only thing is that actual at the moment the PPPoE Internet
connection is only running on one CPU core and so far I don´t think that 1 GBit/s at the WAN port will be
able to reach. But if you are connecting over a static public IP address all CPU core will be in usage and the
1 GBit/s is able to reach easy.

Public facing website, with 2 providers each with 1G link. Normal traffic is around 100mbit/sec.

100 MBit/s would be not the problem!!!

When we remove Cloudflare from the mix we push upwards of 600mbit/sec. We average around
150k states on the firewall.

The 600 MBit/s would be also not the real problem as I see it right. The 150k states will be also reachable
but this is more or less also pointed or related to the circumstance what on top is installed and activated
on this units! Likes Squid & SquidGuard, Snort, pfBlocker-NG, HAVP & ClamAV or massively DPI tasks.

Also have a site to site VPN that consumes about 25mbit/sec on average with peaks to 100mbit.

If you use IPSec together with AES-GCM it will be using and benefiting from the AES-NI instruction set of the
CPU SoC and later if Intel QuickAssist is also running or activated in pfSense the OpenVPN will be also profiting
from this SoC.

We are looking at moving to BGP for our two links.

No problems here. OpenBGPD or Quagga will do the job likes you want.

Currently running a single VM.  Sitting at 30mbit right now and here is the performance of the CPU:
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2670 0 @ 2.60GHz
Current: 324 MHz, Max: 2593 MHz
4 CPUs: 2 package(s) x 2 core(s)
Load average 
0.30, 0.27, 0.21
CPU 5%

For sure a CPU core is not like the other and a high end Intel E5 Xeon CPU is not comparable to the
Intel Atom C2x58 series. But for the named above things powerful enough as I see it right.

I haven't been able to find much in regards to real performance on this hardware, any help would be appreciated.

pfSense store SG-8860 1U HA system

You can also easily call them directly or mail them a pre-sales question if you like it.
US Phone: 1.512.900.2546
Email: sales@pfsense.org

@Sander88:

Thanks for your reply.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing after reading some more on the internet…

I have applied a fix (https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tuning_and_Troubleshooting_Network_Cards#mbuf_.2F_nmbclusters) a few days ago. The NIC crashed 4 times in the past week, in one of these cases the mbuf graph show a full buffer (100% utilized). I have had no crashes since I applied this fix... so let's hope my PFSense box stays up and running ;-)

Do you have the LCDproc dev package running ?

Grtz
DeLorean

Thank you for the reply,
but i have bought a Cisco Console Cable from Ebay,
and now it's working fine.
pfSense 2.2.6 is installed en running on my XTM 510 ;-)

Grtz
DeLorean

i have the one with 4 onboard ports.
here is how pfsense sees them

skc0: <marvell gigabit="" ethernet="">port 0xd000-0xd0ff mem 0xec02c000-0xec02ffff irq 12 at device 0.0 on pci1 skc0: Marvell Yukon Lite Gigabit Ethernet rev. (0x9) sk0: <marvell semiconductor,="" inc.="" yukon="">on skc0 sk0: Ethernet address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx miibus0: <mii bus="">on sk0 e1000phy0: <marvell 88e1011="" gigabit="" phy="">PHY 0 on miibus0 e1000phy0:  none, 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-master, 1000baseT-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX-master, auto skc1: <marvell gigabit="" ethernet="">port 0xd400-0xd4ff mem 0xec020000-0xec023fff irq 10 at device 1.0 on pci1 skc1: Marvell Yukon Lite Gigabit Ethernet rev. (0x9) sk1: <marvell semiconductor,="" inc.="" yukon="">on skc1 sk1: Ethernet address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx miibus1: <mii bus="">on sk1 e1000phy1: <marvell 88e1011="" gigabit="" phy="">PHY 0 on miibus1 e1000phy1:  none, 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-master, 1000baseT-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX-master, auto skc2: <marvell gigabit="" ethernet="">port 0xd800-0xd8ff mem 0xec024000-0xec027fff irq 11 at device 2.0 on pci1 skc2: Marvell Yukon Lite Gigabit Ethernet rev. (0x9) sk2: <marvell semiconductor,="" inc.="" yukon="">on skc2 sk2: Ethernet address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx miibus2: <mii bus="">on sk2 e1000phy2: <marvell 88e1011="" gigabit="" phy="">PHY 0 on miibus2 e1000phy2:  none, 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-master, 1000baseT-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX-master, auto skc3: <marvell gigabit="" ethernet="">port 0xdc00-0xdcff mem 0xec028000-0xec02bfff irq 5 at device 3.0 on pci1 skc3: Marvell Yukon Lite Gigabit Ethernet rev. (0x9) sk3: <marvell semiconductor,="" inc.="" yukon="">on skc3 sk3: Ethernet address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx miibus3: <mii bus="">on sk3 e1000phy3: <marvell 88e1011="" gigabit="" phy="">PHY 0 on miibus3 e1000phy3:  none, 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-master, 1000baseT-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX-master, auto</marvell></mii></marvell></marvell></marvell></mii></marvell></marvell></marvell></mii></marvell></marvell></marvell></mii></marvell></marvell>

@oguruma:

I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean that if I upgrade to the G3220 I will get 40% better power consumption and 2x performance or…..?

That Pentium is faster than your current CPU and the whole system power consumption would go down ~40%