Intel® PRO/1000 Quad Port Bypass Server Adapters EXPI9014PTBLK Driver

Saphoroth

Intel PRO/1000 Quad Port Bypass Server Adapters EXPI9014PTBLK Driver

Ok, first off this is almost a laughing matter.

So, I bought this card and I figured it would come with drivers for FreeBSD or if it didn't I figured I could download them.
Well, it finally came in and I was in awe because I didn't realize how big this card is. I thought it was the same size as our
high performance video cards, but its longer (like 14 - 14.5 inches) and a lot more impressive.

Now, after I finished being impressed, I thought "Oh shit, I wonder if I can even get drivers for this?"

Well, after doing a bit of googling around I found out that Intel only offers Open Source Reference Drivers for Linux and FreeBSD.
I have no idea what "exactly" a "reference driver" is? Now, please forgive me, I know decent bit about what to do and how to
research and figure things out, but I ain't no expert and too bad, because right now… I wish I was.

So, I come here and post and hope that I will be able to mount this in my case and utilize it.

Here is the question: Does anyone have or know how I can get these drivers for FreeBSD and how to integrate them into pfSense?
Secondly, If there is no drivers compiled or wrote, is there anyone that can write these drivers?
Thirdly, Are there any drivers for this card for windows 2003/2008 so I can virualize pfSense, because
I wish to try pfSense with VMware.

It would be amazing if anyone can help me with this situation because I'm at a holding point and
it would be great if I didn't have to mount this on the wall. ;D

Thanks,
Saphoroth

Perry

You should test with pfSense 1.2.1 snapshot cause it's based on FreeBSD 7 http://blog.pfsense.org/?p=207

The em(4) driver has been updated to version 6.7.3 from Intel. Among other changes, it now supports 80003, 82571, 82571EB, 82572 and 82575 based adapters, as well as onboard-NICs on ICH8-based motherboards. [MERGED]

David_W

It's an 82571GB chipset based board if my information is right.

Plug it in - is it recognised? If not, try a pfSense build based on FreeBSD 7.0 - 1.2.1-BETA would be my choice. FreeBSD 7.0 has an upgraded em(4) driver as Perry noted.

Saphoroth

I tried LiveCD Versions 1.2, 1.2.1 and 1.3 today, but none of them recognized the card.

From reading the technical brochure I believe that the FreeBSD drivers is not typically part of the
FreeBSD base package. It seem to either be driver code or complete base drivers to allow for the
operation of the card under Linux and FreeBSD.

Now, is it possible to find the drivers and personally intergrate them into pfSense? If I can, all I
would need is the drivers and after that I'd need to learn how to plug them or install them onto
FreeBSD/pfSense.

Also and just the continue my request, If any of you how where to get these drivers for FreeBSD,
please post it here. Also, if you know how to get Win32/64 drivers, please post it here.

I'm, also, looking for a really good driver/networking forum, beside pfSense, to try get more information
about the NIC. If I could find a place, I'd re-post here any decent and relevant information I find.

Please continue posting ya'll thoughts.

Thanks,
Saph

David_W

The FreeBSD committer that maintains the em(4) driver is a member of Intel staff - essentially Intel contribute their drivers to FreeBSD.

If this board isn't showing up, the output of dmesg and pciconf -lv will help tremendously in tracking down what is wrong. You can run these commands using the 'Command prompt' option in pfSense.

The freebsd-net mailing list (see the FreeBSD web site for details) is probably the right place to ask questions - though it would be interesting to see the output of the two commands above, as that may help people advise you further..

yogi

First a question for the OP: Where did you buy your card?

We got ours at techforless.com and they are not cooperating. Neither is Intel.

Here is what I know:

You can get the basic ethernet to work by adding the PCI ID's to the e1000e-0.4.1.7 driver that you can download from intel. A little hacking in e1000e_hw.h and netdev.c but it works.

Second, you can get some bypass functions sorta working using the drivers from silicom.co.il for their 83571EB based cards. I would recommend getting someone else card, silicom or interfacemasters.com. Intel certainly doesn't want to support this product.