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    Atheros/Attansic L2 FastEthernet support

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    • F
      ftcsm
      last edited by

      Nice to know. I'll keep an eye on it.

      By the way, 2 computers had Atheros L2 onboard LAN and 1 really got NICs recognized, even in Linux, as sundance. They are Encore EN832-TX, which normally includes RTL8139 chips.

      Thanks everyone for your good work and patience.

      Flavio

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      • F
        ftcsm
        last edited by

        Did not work with Feb 18 snapshot, still can't identify the onboard atheros.

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        • W
          wallabybob
          last edited by

          @ftcsm:

          Did not work with Feb 18 snapshot, still can't identify the onboard atheros.

          Please post the output of the command pciconf -l -v (You can use the web GUI Diagnostics -> Command option)

          This output will help determine if the ale or ae driver is intended to recognise your Atheros NIC. I had a quick look through the ae driver sources and the comments suggest it should support the Atheros L2 but that driver is not in FreeBSD 7.1 (used in pfSense 1.2.3). The ae driver should be in FreeBSD 8.0

          cmb in an earlier reply didn't make clear whether he talking about the addition of the ale driver or the ae driver.

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          • C
            cmb
            last edited by

            ale(4) is the one that was added.

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            • F
              ftcsm
              last edited by

              I gave up on using P5GC-MX with pfSense. I'll try other motherboards.

              Thank you all for your help.

              Flavio

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              • B
                brfreenet
                last edited by

                @ftcsm:

                I gave up on using P5GC-MX with pfSense. I'll try other motherboards.

                Thank you all for your help.

                Flavio

                Hello to all! Recently I came across the same problem … The solution is simple. First, download the driver http://www.springdaemons.com/stas/if_ae-1214569185.tar.bz2 unzip into a Freebsd box 7.0 and compile. Copy the module if_ae.ko to your pfsense box 1.2.2 /boot/modules and insert the following line to /boot/loader.conf: if_ae_LOAD = "YES". Ready, module loaded and ready for use.

                Sorry for my bad English.

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                • F
                  ftcsm
                  last edited by

                  Your english is really not worse than mine :D

                  Really thanks for your help, I had already give up on that mission.

                  Does it works on FreeBSD 7.1 (for pfSense 1.2.3 or greater)? If yes, on a VM install with FreeBSD 7.1, which option should I select during install to speed up the preparation process?

                  Hoping not to look an ingrate, can you put some instructions on the process (like a mini-howto or just the basic steps)? I assume my little knowledge of compiling kernel related things in FreeBSD and I have to test it really fast.

                  I'll try it anyway, even with no instructions. Maybe I can do it myself without much problems  ;)

                  Flavio

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                  • B
                    brfreenet
                    last edited by

                    Flávio, you does not need to compile kernel. Unzip the archive of link in a folder and follows these steps:

                    1- cd "/folder_of _file" make
                    2- cp if_ae.ko /boot/modules
                    3- vi /boot/loader.conf  "if_ae_load=" YES"
                    4- It restarts the machine.

                    I did not test with version 1.2.3 of the Pfsense, but it must function since that you compile with Freebsd 7.1.

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                    • B
                      brfreenet
                      last edited by

                      Any thing, sends me an email chaper_ibest.com.br

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                      • M
                        mc_leuz
                        last edited by

                        @cmb:

                        ale(4) is the one that was added.

                        Why not ae(4)?

                        I read:

                        "In FreeBSD 7.1-stable, I can see the following related to atheros:

                        root@kg-vm# apropos atheros
                        ae(4) - Attansic/Atheros L2 FastEthernet controller driver
                        age(4) - Attansic/Atheros L1 Gigabit Ethernet driver
                        ale(4) - Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit/Fast Ethernet driver
                        ath(4) - Atheros IEEE 802.11 wireless network driver
                        ath_hal(4) - Atheros Hardware Access Layer (HAL)"

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                        • M
                          mc_leuz
                          last edited by

                          @cmb:

                          This has been added, though it'll be a couple days til new snapshots are available as we're moving the last repo to git.

                          Is it possible to add ae(4) too ?

                          In

                          http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.1R/errata.html

                          I read:

                          [20090105] The Release Notes for 7.1-RELEASE should have mentioned changes that the ae(4) driver has been added to provide support for the Attansic/Atheros L2 FastEthernet controllers. This driver is not enabled in GENERIC kernels for this release.

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                          • lalex86L
                            lalex86
                            last edited by

                            Yes, adding ae(4) would be very useful for me too.
                            Is it possible for pfsense devs to enable it?

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                            • M
                              mc_leuz
                              last edited by

                              I think they already enabled it (ae(4)) because since yesterday, when I installed last 1.2.3 (from 1.2.2),  I see a  new card (ae0) :)
                              Thanks staff :)

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                              • C
                                cmb
                                last edited by

                                Yes, ae(4) was also added at some point in the past couple months.

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