Upgrading to Intel EM 6.6.6 Kernel - Custom Kernel or …?

jewps

I spent many days on the same problem as well only to realize the 6.6.6 provided by Intel doesn't work with the stock 6.x kernel.

On the other hand I noticed in the 6_3 branch, this em version is already commited so I stole the em drives from there. Even then, some of the #ifdef's in 6_3 won't compile even if you use FreeBSD 6.3 so some modification was required there.

Its really really stupid the way that Intel provides this driver. For one thing, the kern.patch they provided doesn't even patch the /conf/files correctly. Not to mention the Makefile in /modules/em/ doesn't even include one of the C files. Hence I took the em source from the already fixed FreeBSD branch.

If you like, I can diff up my source with the pfSense development source so you can apply it to the next release. The base system used was actually a 1.2 Beta bootstrapped to 6.2.

cmb

It would be great if you could provide a source diff so we can build it. I don't think we want to put it in the default kernel, but having it available for those who need it would be great.

jewps

Here you go.

http://ying.apdir.com/pfsense/em_patch.zip

Hope it helps somebody.

Ying

sullrich

Thanks for sharing. I also agree about Intels driver. It could be handled a bit better but all in all I am just happy that Jack works on FreeBSD.

jewps

Yeah ditto.

I guess I've always expected Intel to be a little better with their driver support. They're great with Windows NIC drivers as well as Linux. This is after all, my first time using their drivers for FreeBSD.

Thanks for such a great product. It's the least I can do for this project.

hertig

The site http://ying.apdir.com seems to be down for quite a while now. Is there another location where I can download this custom kernel?
Is it working with the final 1.2 release?

Abacabb

I'm looking for the same files as hertig.

jewps

Hey Guys,

I apologize, the company I worked for migrated over some web servers and my own site there isn't a priority so I haven't had time to restore it yet.

I can put it back up but the down side is I no longer have the em diff patch I sent to sullrich, but I do have a kernel compatiable with 1.2 release of pfSense, which I just tested today. I'll Upload that again and edit this post with a link.

http://ying.apdir.com/pfsense/
http://ying.apdir.com/pfsense/em_patch.diff.tar.bz2 <– Diff
http://ying.apdir.com/pfsense/pfsense-custom-em-boot.tar.bz2 <-- Full Compiled Kernel

I found the VMWare image I used to create them so I can put that up as well. Please just don't ask me to do this again because I completely forgot how to compile a BSD kernel heh...

Good Luck.

Rich

I'm trying to get an Intel Pro/1000 GT Quad working with 1.2. Would this be the fix I'm looking for? If it is, I would really apppreciate some "I'm stupid, so hold my hand" instructions on how to implement this. I'm just not very good with FreeBSD.

Thanks

sullrich

Try testing a 1.2 / FreeBSD 6.3 image: http://cvs.pfsense.org/~sullrich/testing_images/6/FreeBSD_RELENG_6_3/pfSense_RELENG_1_2/

However, this is not really supported ATM.

Rich

Thank you very much for the link. I downloaded it, but I'm not quite sure how to use it. It's not an ISO or IMG like I'm used to downloading. Sorry to be so ignorant on this.

Perry

download pfSense.iso.gz and unpack it ( i use 7-zip)

Rich

Thanks for the help. I got the image to work by renaming it to ISO instead of extracting it. Boots fine, but unfortunately it still doesn't detect the Intel Pro/1000 GT quad card. It is still only detecting the 4 Intel GB NICs on the motherboard. I can use it like that for now, as 4 ports are all I really need, but it would be nice to get the extra 4 ports working for expansion. I really don't plan on needing to touch this pfSense box for at least a year once it's running based off previous experiences with pfSense. If anyone has some more ideas, I'd love to hear them, otherwise I'll find another use for the quad gig card.