Intel X550-T2 worked at 2.5Gb running 2.6 but I just upgraded to 2.7 and it is 1Gb only

[rwinkdopey]

I decided to clean install 2.6 again to see if the X550-T2 card would work like it did before.

With 2.6 installed again, the status page under interfaces once again shows "Unknown" for the X550-T2 card but I am once again able to get 1.5Gb+ downloads without an issue.

There must have been something changed in the 2.7 version that treats the Intel X550-T2 card differently or incorrectly limits it to 1000baseT.

The Intel X550-T2 card that I am using was purchased with a Lenovo Computer/Server.
I used the Lenovo firmware to update the card to support the 1Gb, 2.5Gb, 5Gb, and 10Gb speeds.

Let me know if I am doing something wrong or if I need to change something in the pfSense 2.7 version to correctly support the Lenovo Intel X550-T2 card.

[stephenw10]

Does it show any N-BASE speeds available as manually selectable?

Did you update the firmware before upgrading to 2.7 or as part of the troubleshooting there?

Steve

[rwinkdopey]

@stephenw10
The firmware on the card needs to be updated once, there should not be a need to re-apply the same firmware to the X550-T2 card.
Once the card firmware has been updated it will continue running that updated firmware version.

pfSense 2.6 options for the card are as follows:

Default (no preference, typically autoselect
autoselect
100baseTX
1000baseT
10Gbase-T

Yet when the "Default" option is selected the card does in fact display "Unknown" on the status Dashboard and speeds passing through the interface do exceed 1.5 Gb/s.

I left pfSense 2.7 installed on another boot drive for the firewall so I can boot from that drive into the 2.7 version and update the post for what I find.

[rwinkdopey]

@stephenw10
I did two things tonight that you should never do when you troubleshoot issues.
I normally troubleshoot and do one step at a time.
I was just going to plug in the pfSense 2.7 drive and validate the network settings but I decided to review the firmware version of the X550-T2 card while the router was down.

I found and downloaded the 3.6 version of the firmware package from Intel's website for the X550-T2 card.
When I reviewed my download folder for the card I found that the download I had was the 3.5 version.

I went ahead and used the 3.6 firmware version to update the card:

After the card was updated to firmware version 3.6 I booted off of the pfSense 2.7 hard drive to find that the status page once again showed "1000baseT".

pfSense 2.7 options for the card are as follows:

Default (no preference, typically autoselect
autoselect
5000Base-T
2500Base-T
100baseTX
1000baseT
10Gbase-T

If set to "Default" or "autoselect" the status page will show "1000baseT" and the download speed maxes out at around 950Mbps
If manually set to "2500Base-T" the download speed maxes out at around 1500+Mbps

I do not understand why the card must now be manually set but it appears to be working.

[rwinkdopey]

@stephenw10
During the router outage, I went ahead and booted into pfSense 2.6 to see, now that the X550-T2 firmware has been updated to version 3.6 if it would make any difference, it did not.
All of the settings in the 2.6 version are still the same:
Default (no preference, typically autoselect
autoselect
100baseTX
1000baseT
10Gbase-T

Still, pfSense 2.6 when the card is set to "Default" or "autoselect" it correctly achieves download speeds around 1500+Mbps but on the status page it shows "Unknown".

For now, I am going to go ahead and switch back over to the pfSense 2.7 hard drive with the manual setting of "2500Base-T" and see how stable the system runs.

[stephenw10]

Yeah the driver in 2.6 has no concept of 2.5 or 5Gbps so it can only show unknown.

I would expect autoselect to choose the highest available option but it may not if the connected device isn't advertising that,

Steve

[rwinkdopey]

@stephenw10

I just do not understand why 2.6 "Default" or "autoselect" works fine yet version 2.7 "Default" or "autoselect" ends up at 1000baseT every time.

The connected device must be advertising the correct message because the 2.6 version shows "Unknown" and the download speeds reflect that it is working at 2.5Gbps.

I expected the pfSense 2.7 version with the newer intel drivers to also work fine using "Default" or "autoselect" but that is not my experience.
Using pfSense 2.7 I have to manually select "2500Base-T" to get the higher speed because "Default" or "autoselect" connects at "1000baseT" every time.

[stephenw10]

Yes, I would also have expected that. For some reason the newer driver, that is aware of the NICs 2.5 and 5G capability, is negotiating 1G.

You can usually set the available speeds it will advertise using a sysctl. Maybe it's not advertising those by default.
Try:

sysctl dev.ix.0.advertise_speed
sysctl -d dev.ix.0.advertise_speed

Steve

[Unoptanio]

@stephenw10
@RWINKDOPEY

excuse me, I'm also interested in purchasing this Intel X550-T2 or X710-DA2 card.

Do you have any updates on the speed negotiation issue in pfsense 2.7.0?

From what you say I understand that it is not possible to reach speeds higher than 1.5G.
Will we never get to 2.5G?

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/88209/intel-ethernet-converged-network-adapter-x550t2/specifications.html?wapkw=x550-t2
Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X550-T2
Networking Specifications
Port ConfigurationDual
Data Rate Per Port10GbE/5GbE/2.5GbE/1GbE/100Mb
Intel Virtualization Technology for Connectivity (VT-c)Yes
Speed & Slot Width8.0 GT/s, x 4 Lane
ControllerIntel Ethernet Controller X550

Intel New Firmware:
3.2 August 15, 2023 Updates include the following:
• General updates in support of Software Release 28.2 and NVM 3.60.X

https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/335253

[stephenw10]

The 1.5Gbps restriction here is not the NIC. If the advertisement values are set it will link at 2.5 or 5G and pass that if the system is capable. There are several other threads reporting success:
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/146913/nbase-t-support-for-intel-x550/