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    pfSense Newbie Needing Solarflare Card Help

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    • M
      MacWarrior @stephenw10
      last edited by

      @stephenw10 - I believe that was the fix. It is now showing up in my interfaces. I am going to do a few tests over the next couple of days and will let you know for sure.

      2 other things I noticed problems with are: the Dashboard under Version always says "Unable to check for updates" and when I log in or select an item from the menu bar through the GUI it takes a very long time for it to log in and/or go to the selection from the menu bar. Sometimes as long as 45-60+ seconds. When I watch it through the terminal, it shows right away that I have logged in though. It happens with all 3 of my web browsers. Chrome, Firefox, Safari.

      Thank you,
      MacWarrior

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        Both those things usually indicate some lack of connectivity from pfSense itself.
        Make sure it can ping from Diag > Ping but both IP and FQDN.

        Steve

        M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • M
          MacWarrior @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10 Hi Steve, I can ping internally but when I ping outside the network, I get "Host "apple.com" did not respond or could not be resolved." Which doesn't make sense to me when I can search and get onto websites.

          MW

          stephenw10S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @MacWarrior
            last edited by

            @macwarrior said in pfSense Newbie Needing Solarflare Card Help:

            I can search and get onto websites.

            That's from a client behind pfSense not pfSense itself though.

            Go to Diag > DNS Lookup and make sure all the configured DNS servers are responding.

            Steve

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            • M
              MacWarrior
              last edited by

              @stephenw10 Hi Steve, 1st - in reference to adding "kldload sfxge" as a loader variable so it loads at every boot, how do I add that? I searched in the forums and docs and couldn't find how to accomplish that without screwing up my computer.

              2nd - here is the strange part to me about the DNS Lookup. I used a 2nd computer I had and loaded it with pfSense with a Spectrum connection directly to the WAN and the 4 DNS Lookups work great. However, when I try it with my main 1st computer with pfSense unit hooked up to a MetroNet connection directly to my WAN, it says "No Response" to all 4 DNS Lookups. The reason I'm scratching my head is I checked every setting from my 2nd computer and compared it to the 1st computer, and it is identical to each other but I get the "No Response" on the 1st computer. Not sure what I am missing here. Thx.

              MW

              stephenw10S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @MacWarrior
                last edited by

                To load it at boot create the file /boot/loader.conf.local then add to it the line:

                if_sfxge_load=YES
                

                Try a lookup from the command line directly. First make sure it can ping out:

                22.05-DEVELOPMENT][admin@apu.stevew.lan]/root: ping -c 2 8.8.8.8
                PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8): 56 data bytes
                64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=0 ttl=116 time=7.352 ms
                64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=116 time=7.288 ms
                
                --- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
                2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
                round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 7.288/7.320/7.352/0.032 ms
                

                Then try to query it:

                [22.05-DEVELOPMENT][admin@apu.stevew.lan]/root: dig @8.8.8.8 google.com
                
                ; <<>> DiG 9.16.23 <<>> @8.8.8.8 google.com
                ; (1 server found)
                ;; global options: +cmd
                ;; Got answer:
                ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 36555
                ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1
                
                ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
                ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
                ;; QUESTION SECTION:
                ;google.com.			IN	A
                
                ;; ANSWER SECTION:
                google.com.		67	IN	A	172.217.16.238
                
                ;; Query time: 7 msec
                ;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
                ;; WHEN: Tue Feb 15 13:01:47 GMT 2022
                ;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 55
                

                If that works what errors do you see trying to query the configured servers?

                Steve

                M 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • M
                  MacWarrior @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10 HI Steve, results:

                  [2.5.2-RELEASE][admin@Birds-of-Prey.macwarriors.lan]/root: ping -c 2 8.8.8.8
                  PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8): 56 data bytes
                  64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=0 ttl=61 time=13.298 ms
                  64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=61 time=14.437 ms

                  --- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
                  2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
                  round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 13.298/13.867/14.437/0.569 ms
                  [2.5.2-RELEASE][admin@Birds-of-Prey.macwarriors.lan]/root: dig @8.8.8.8 google.com

                  ; <<>> DiG 9.16.16 <<>> @8.8.8.8 google.com
                  ; (1 server found)
                  ;; global options: +cmd
                  ;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

                  [2.5.2-RELEASE][admin@Birds-of-Prey.macwarriors.lan]/root: ping -c 2 1.1.1.1
                  PING 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1): 56 data bytes
                  64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=60 time=34.296 ms
                  64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=60 time=32.973 ms

                  --- 1.1.1.1 ping statistics ---
                  2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
                  round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 32.973/33.634/34.296/0.662 ms
                  [2.5.2-RELEASE][admin@Birds-of-Prey.macwarriors.lan]/root: dig @1.1.1.1 cloudflare.com

                  ; <<>> DiG 9.16.16 <<>> @1.1.1.1 cloudflare.com
                  ; (1 server found)
                  ;; global options: +cmd
                  ;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

                  MW

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                  • M
                    MacWarrior @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 said in pfSense Newbie Needing Solarflare Card Help:

                    To load it at boot create the file /boot/loader.conf.local then add to it the line:

                    Hi again Steve,
                    I followed your directions above but they still don't load.

                    MW

                    stephenw10S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @MacWarrior
                      last edited by

                      @macwarrior

                      Ah, I'm sorry it's not shown as an interface type for some reason. Change that line to:

                      sfxge_load=YES
                      

                      Hmm, so you can ping but not connect with UDP. What firewall rules do you have on that interfaces? Can we see a screenshot?

                      Steve

                      M 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • M
                        MacWarrior @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10 Hi Steve, I hope you are monitoring right now. After changing the boot/loader file, it has stopped booting up. I have done a fresh install of 2.6 and created the boot/loader file again with the new parameter you gave me and it does the same thing by not booting up. Hmmm.
                        ???

                        MW

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                        • M
                          MacWarrior @stephenw10
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10 I am currently at the Manual Config window after a clean install of 2.6 asking if I want to make any final manual mods.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Urgh, I'm sorry. Did it throw some error when it tried to boot?

                            You can override the loader.conf variables at the loader prompt if something is causing a problem. So you might do:

                            set sfxge_load=NO
                            boot
                            

                            That should then boot as before allow you to change the loader file.

                            The loader.conf.local file is not stored in the config so you should be able to go ahead and complete the install and restore your config.

                            Steve

                            M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • M
                              MacWarrior @stephenw10
                              last edited by

                              @stephenw10

                              Hi Steve,
                              I was able to get the fresh install of 2.6 running early this AM but when I went in to try to write to boot/loader it says I have permissions off. I spent 2-3 hours looking and trying different solutions for permissions in the Shell but nothing worked. I checked tons of websites and YouTube but nothing fit what I was trying to do. (I wanted to try to figure this part out on my own but I failed. Still trying to learn the in's and out's of Terminal and different Shells) It is showing commands after "chmod" ([-fhv] [-R [-H etc...]] mode file ...) that I understand what they do but can't get to work.

                              I do have Good News though! My DNS and DDNS issues are fixed and the update is showing up working on the Dashboard. WooHoo!! Anyway, I just need some help now with the SFP+ NIC issue and turning permissions on for Shell. Thank you!

                              MacWarrior

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                Hmm, if you're logged in as admin or root you should not see any permissions errors.

                                Create the file: /boot/loader.conf.local
                                Add lines to it.

                                I usually do that from the gui unless I already have a CLI open.

                                If it fails to boot again you can override those values at the loader prompt. You will also see errors just after that when it tries to load the modules at the console.
                                For example I tried to load a bad igb module a short time ago:

                                Loading configured modules...                                                   
                                don't know how to load module '/boot/modules/if_igb.ko'
                                /boot/kernel/sg5100.ko size 0x1d00 at 0x40a0000
                                loading required module 'superio'                                               
                                /boot/kernel/superio.ko size 0x5d98 at 0x3cfe000 
                                /boot/kernel/zfs.ko size 0x39ae70 at 0x3d05000
                                

                                Steve

                                M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • M
                                  MacWarrior @stephenw10
                                  last edited by

                                  @stephenw10

                                  Hi Steve,
                                  I assume you're talking about the "Command Prompt"? If so, [I think I know the steps, but to make sure I am doing it right] can you give me the steps to do it? I Greatly Appreciate it!

                                  MacWarrior

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                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    The console, where you will see the module loading, is what you see when you physically attach to the firewall. So either VGA and keyboard or a serial terminal.
                                    https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/hardware/connect-to-console.html

                                    The loader prompt is what you reach if you interrupt boot at the console when the boot loader menu appears. It allows you enter options before the kernel is loaded.

                                    For example:
                                    https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/troubleshooting/boot-issues.html#booting-with-an-alternate-console

                                    Steve

                                    M 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • M
                                      MacWarrior @stephenw10
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10
                                      Hi Steve,

                                      I just wanted to clarify that I meant "Command Prompt" from the GUI as you suggested. (My bad). I thought you were reading my mind when I typed back to you (LOL).

                                      MW

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • M
                                        MacWarrior @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10
                                        The other thing is when I interrupt the boot like you referred to is where I get the “write permission is off” issue. That’s why I tried to use the Command Prompt from the GUI but I don’t quit understand it to build the boot/loader file.

                                        MW

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          To create the loader.conf.local file you can just use Diag > Edit File

                                          Or you can do it from the command line using something like:

                                          echo 'sfxge_load=YES' >> /boot/loader.conf.local
                                          

                                          I'm not really sure why you would see that permissions error unless maybe you were doing it from the installer?
                                          However it shouldn't matter, you don't need to write anything there. Settings you make at the loader prompt apply for that boot only. You have to make a more permanent change once it boots.

                                          Steve

                                          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • M
                                            MacWarrior @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10
                                            Hi Steve,

                                            Here is where I stand. I removed the SFP card from my newly built machine and put it into a much older computer. The /boot/loader is working and it loads the driver every time. I connected the SFP from Solarflare to my D-Link SP-1012-10P SFP port but, I can't get it to connect. Should I try to drop the speed of the Solarflare and if so, how do I do that? Or, should I just switch to Chelsio SFP NIC cards to make it easier and more compatible? Would like your thoughts.

                                            I also have 2 x D-Link SP-1012-28P which I want to separate all 3 switches on their own networks [using the Quad Solarflare NIC], but the same subnet so I can still connect to them with the same computers to make any changes or updates. I want to make separate networks with the Quad SFP NIC card, Port 1 - WAN, Port - 2 for the main computers and other devices, Port - 3 for the VoIP network, port 4 - for the Security Camera Network. Currently, I have my network set to 10.12.25.1/12. When I assign IPs to the SFP ports, it says that I am overlapping them.

                                            Could use come config help.

                                            Thank you,

                                            MW

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