Atheros/Attansic L2 FastEthernet support

wallabybob

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.

cmb

ale(4) is the one that was added.

ftcsm

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

Thank you all for your help.

Flavio

brfreenet

@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.

ftcsm

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

brfreenet

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.

brfreenet

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

mc_leuz

@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)"

mc_leuz

@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.

lalex86

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

mc_leuz

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 :)

cmb

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