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    Cloudgenix ION 3000: can't make i350 NICs work

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    • N
      NC1
      last edited by

      So I installed pfSense 2.7.2 on Cloudgenix ION 3000, which is a rebranded Lanner FW-7573. A great device, except BIOS is locked (typical Cloudgenix shenanigans). Standard install procedure wouldn't work (SSD is not detected when booting from a USB stick), so I took out the SSD, put it into another router, and installed pfSense onto it while it was in that other router. (IMPORTANT: do not install ZFS file system, choose UFS instead; otherwise, the SSD won't be detected at boot.) Put the SSD back in, and everything Just Works™. Except one thing.

      The device has 14 Ethernet ports. Four i354 (igb10-igb13) and two i210 (igb0-igb1) are on the motherboard. They are working normally. There are also eight i350 ports (igb2-igb9) on an expansion board, which are problematic. They are detected by pfSense, I was able to assign OPT interfaces to them (by typing in their names, not by autodetection), they are listed in the pciconf output, but I can't get them to do anything. I already mentioned they are not autodetected when assigning interfaces, nor do they light up when a live Ethernet cable is connected. I can do an IP address assignment on any of them, and it shows in the console menu, but there's still no reaction to an Ethernet connection.

      Lanner's Web site says that those NICs are actually Intel i350AM-4. I don't know if this is different from i350-t4 I am used to. Do they need a different driver?

      I am beginning to suspect that these NICs are somehow locked in BIOS, to which I have no access, but it anyone has better ideas, I am all ears. If you need some diagnostic output posted, please let me know.

      Thank you!

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        Are they using by-pass relays on those cards? They probably default to not connected to the NICs internally if so.

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          @NC1 said in Cloudgenix ION 3000: can't make i350 NICs work:

          Cloudgenix ION 3000

          Yeah looks like it's exactly that. The WAN and LAN ports are bridged by the bypass hardware by default.

          If you're lucky there may be jumpers to set them on the card.

          N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • N
            NC1 @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10

            I've done some more reading, and it appears that the add-on NIC has a Gen 3 bypass, which is controlled only programmatically. (BIOS can control only Gen 2 bypasses.) Lanner has code samples for bypasses, but they appear to be for onboard NIC bypasses rather than those on the add-on card. It's possible that the code can be tweaked to work with the bypasses on the add-on card, but I lack the knowledge needed to determine that...

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            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Well clearly it can be done. Just a Simple Matter of Code/ 😉

              But, yeah, non-trivial if there are no hardware mods available.

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              • N
                NC1 @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10

                There seems to be a complete bypass management utility in the Lanner samples (in the source code form, no binaries). So I am tempted to compile it on Debian, then boot the device with Linux from a live USB stick, and see if I can, by hook or by crook, feel my way around the system to turning off the bypasses on the add-on NIC (looks like there are command-line options for that)... When I can find time, that is... 🤔

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  Yup good option. Would confirm the hardware can be reached and where.

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