SFP+ DAC "media: Ethernet Unknown <full-duplex,rxpause,txpause>"

stephenw10

Does it recognise other DACs? Or other SFP modules?

You might try a different setting for hw.cxgbe.autoneg.

Steve

kklouzal

I only have a handfull of these specific DACs. I was thinking my next step would be to purchase a pair that Ubiquiti sells in their store https://store.ui.com/collections/accessories/products/unifi-direct-attach-copper-cable-10-gbps-1-meter

Originally I meant to purchase a set of Chelsio DACs https://www.chelsio.com/wp-content/uploads/resources/tapcable-1m-pb.pdf and I thought that's what I did but on closer inspection I don't believe these are actually what I acquired.

I'll go ahead and set hw.cxgbe.autoneg="1" in loader.conf and loader.conf.local after I get home from work in the morning and see if that makes a difference.

On a side note, whenever I try to query a hw.cxgbe.* sysctl from the command line I always get the output sysctl: unknown oid. Is there something extra I need to do to query their values? I would like to check that they were set properly after rebooting.

stephenw10

I see output there even on a device that doesn't have a Chelsio card:

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][admin@apu.stevew.lan]/root: sysctl hw.cxgbe
hw.cxgbe.lazy_tx_credit_flush: 1
hw.cxgbe.starve_fl: 0
hw.cxgbe.nm_holdoff_tmr_idx: 2
hw.cxgbe.nm_rx_nframes: 64
hw.cxgbe.nm_rx_ndesc: 256
hw.cxgbe.nm_black_hole: 0

You won't see those values there are they are loader tunables:
https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=cxl&apropos=0&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+11-current&format=html

Steve

kklouzal

After setting hw.cxgbe.autoneg="1" and rebooting the firewall we are still unable to identify the DAC. I'm thinking this cable is unsupported. Might there be anything else to try?

stephenw10

That seems likely. There is no config option to allow SFP modules I can see for cxgbe. They do have a lot of options though. Updating the card firmware for example might be an option.
Using a different DAC cable is probably a better option though.

Steve

kklouzal

dev.t4nex.0.firmware_version: 1.19.1.0 I'm not sure if this is the latest available but I have hw.cxgbe.fw_install="2" so it should force install whatever firmware is present in the driver being used, that being said it is most likely the latest available for the Chelsio driver provided by FreeBSD 11.2-RELEASE-p10.

I'll go ahead and order two of the Ubiquiti DACs and see what happens.

Thank you for all your help I really appreciate it.

hydrian

@kklouzal said in SFP+ DAC "media: Ethernet Unknown <full-duplex,rxpause,txpause>":

hw.cxgbe.autoneg="1"

What ever became of this? I'm hitting the same situation with a Chelsio 422-CR. I have the Ubiquiti UDC-3 (3 meter) and USW-16-150 switch.

stephenw10

So 1G uplink ports and you need to force the cxl ports to match?

That can be an problem with DAC cables.

Try running ifconfig -vvvvvm cxl and see what it offers.

Steve

hydrian

@stephenw10 ,

I forced that switch to 1Gb/Full-duplex. This is what I got from the ifconfig -vvvvm cxgbe1

stephenw10

Hmm, what NIC is that? Is it not 10G?

Seems like it's autoselect only which is quite common with a DAC attached. In which case I would expect it to only link with the switch also set to auto-negotiate. I assume you tried that first though?

hydrian

@stephenw10 ,
I'm connecting the ports with a Ubiquiti UDC-3 DAC. It is a passive DAC that is certified to run both 1Gb and 10Gb with Ubiquiti equipment. I figured that was my best chance of getting a working DAC. I'm using the SPF+ ports on the T422-CR to the SPF ports of the USW-16-150.

I tried getting it to connect with hw.cxgbe.autoneg = 1, 0, and -1. None of them worked. I've also force the USW-16-150 sfp ports to 1000Gb/Full. So there should be no autoneg needed.

stephenw10

With that DAC cable there is no option to set a fixed speed in the Chelsio NIC. It can only be autoselect.
That is quite common and in those situations it will often only link at 10G.

Using fibre modules instead of DAC will probably allow it if you can test that.

Steve