NC9C-550-LF
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Hello Guys,
i have a short question.
if somebody has this board (NC9C-550-LF) running?Thank you.
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I just got an NC9C to replace my NF76. Results have not been positive yet.
Onboard USB header is a 44-pin IDE (2.5" notebook drives) instead of the typical 40-pin IDE (3.5" drives). However, even with an adapter, the NC9C couldn't properly detect the CF reader in my M200 case, so I was forced to use an old notebook drive.
The 2 onboard Realtek NICs are not working with pfSense 1.2.3. I saw pfSense detected them as re0 & re1 during bootup, but they return "6" IIRC. Haven't troubleshot yet. The 3 Gb NICs on both the Realtek and Intel daughterboards work fine.
I tried pfSense 2.0 beta 5, both i386 and x64. Boots but both hang while mounting the USB CD drive–same drive worked fine with 1.2.3. I'll try a SATA CD next. However, if it doesn't go smoothly, then I probably can't work on it again until March. And by March I should have my Atheros Mini PCIe wireless NIC (shipping from Hong Kong, 3-4 weeks). In theory, that should work, but I've never setup wireless inside pfSense.
I'll keep you posted.
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Onboard USB header is a 44-pin IDE (2.5" notebook drives) instead of the typical 40-pin IDE (3.5" drives).
I presume you meant IDE header rather than USB header. (Just checking.)
The 2 onboard Realtek NICs are not working with pfSense 1.2.3. I saw pfSense detected them as re0 & re1 during bootup, but they return "6" IIRC.
The dmesg output would probably provide a bit more information about the problem.
I tried pfSense 2.0 beta 5, both i386 and x64. Boots but both hang while mounting the USB CD drive–same drive worked fine with 1.2.3.
You could do an upgrade from 1.2.3 which wouldn't require the CD. But good to log the behaviour. Others in this forum have reported that a "bootdelay" seems to help with boot problems on some devices. There should be at least one topic in this forum giving the details. It would be good to know if that fixes your problem.
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Oops…yeah that should have read IDE header. 44-pin USB would one hell of a USB. :D
I worked on this before I saw the response. Hooked up a SATA CD drive and got pfSense 2.0 B5 installed. I probably won't troubleshoot the NIC problems on 1.2.3 due to lack of time.
Couple of issues with this board, not all related to pfSense.
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No BIOS "power on" after power loss, no "wake on ring, et al.", not even a "wake at hh:mm". Lack of power-on features negates this board as a firewall option because there is no way in hell I'm using a board that makes me drive to a remote site after every power outage just to press a power button. I don't know what Jetway was thinking–I haven't seen a motherboard all lacking these basic power features since the 1990's.
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Can't get pfSense to pat the BIOS watchdog. Never had luck on other MBs, but never really tried that hard. I'll look into this more.
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Onboard Realtek NICs and Realtek and Intel daughterboard NICs are all working under pfSense 2.0. However, the Realteks have the same problem as the Realtek NICs on all my other PCs–they take a long time to connect to my 3Com switch, and then manage only 100Mb. Known Realtek issue that apparently they are never going to fix. (I hate Realtek NICs. I don't know why every manufacturer insists on using them.)
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Couldn't get SMART to work. Not a big deal, but would have been nice while trying a bunch of old notebook drives.
That's where I'm at now. Missing power features is a deal breaker for me. Shame, because I was really looking forward to 5 NICs + wireless in a single, low-power box.
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- No BIOS "power on" after power loss, no "wake on ring, et al.", not even a "wake at hh:mm". Lack of power-on features negates this board as a firewall option because there is no way in hell I'm using a board that makes me drive to a remote site after every power outage just to press a power button. I don't know what Jetway was thinking–I haven't seen a motherboard all lacking these basic power features since the 1990's.
I found the "wake on ring/USB/etc." and "wake at…" They show up when ERP is disabled (new European low power setting). However, there is STILL NO "POWER ON" AFTER POWER LOSS SETTING. Dang.
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Upgraded to latest BIOS, A04. Still no power on. Words just can't express how fing PO'd I am at the lack of the standard BIOS power-on feature. As long as my firewall comes up after a power failure, I can control the rest of my network remotely. But this stupid board stays off, so I have to drive all the way to a remote site just to press the fing power button.
I hoped wake on KB might work with a phantom keystroker, but those are all USB and BIOS wake is PS/2 only. Can't find any USB devices that wake it. Tried wake on Ring using a few simple circuits to bring serial RI high, but no luck. Haven't tried an actual serial modem yet because I don't have a spare external modem. Might have an unused one at a client's. I'll find out next week.
I also looked into the watchdog. I am hugely disappointed by dearth of information online regarding hardware watchdogs. No discussions. No lists of supported chips. The only watchdog leads I found are code snippets for patching Linux. I did find a patch specifically for the NC9C-550-LF on Michael A's Troll Blog…for Linux, of course. According to the article, the NC9C watchdog is on the Fintek F71869 SuperIO chip. Assuming FreeBSD supports other Fintek chips, it seems like an easy patch, but, again, I can't find a list of what chips FreeBSD supports. Even then I don't know enough about FreeBSD to find the watchdog code and patch it, nor am I motivated to spend the time learning for an optional nicety (although I'll probably wish I had if I ever have to drive to a remote site just to press the reset button). ;)
That's about all the time I have to spend on this until March. If anything further develops, I'll let you know. But just to conclude until then, for the Jetway NC9C-550-LF:
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pfSense 1.2.3 installs but the onboard Realtek NICs do not work (more troubleshooting needed). Daughterboard NICs do work.
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pfSense 2.0 Beta 5 installs (once you get around the USB CD problem) with all NICs functional.
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Watchdog is not supported.
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No BIOS power-on after power failure.
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Found the BIOS Power On!
Maybe this was added in the latest BIOS or maybe I missed it earlier because of the asinine configuration, but here's how to enable power on:
1. BIOS Main Menu > Power Management Setup > Disable ERP Function.
2. BIOS Main Menu > Integrated Peripherals > PWR Status after PWR Failure (visible only if ERP disabled).NOTE TO JETWAY ENGINEERS: Whoever decided to misplace this basic power feature under the Integrated Peripherals page and control its visibility by a setting back on the Power Management page, you are an idiot.
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Hello,
I have a few questions.
1 - Is it possible to put more than 2 GB, I need to 4GB.
2 - Where i can buy this card with the box, 1.5 Dual Core processor and 4 GB of memory, the Daughter board Expansion for more lan, i'm live in switzerland.
3 - All features of pfSense 2.x works.
4 - Is it possible to use the PCie card and daughter card set (card + wifi lan card) simultaneously.
5 - Which Wifi b/g/n Pcie card works with PFSense 2.xSorry for my English .
THX for your reply
Regards
JNL
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1. I suggest you look up the manufacturer's web site: http://www.jetway.com.tw IPC boards. The board description doesn't make clear if 2GB is max total memory OR max per slot. Unless the CPU is capable of operating in 64bit mode you are unlikely to be able to use much more than 3GB even if you can put 4GB on the board.
2. http://www.linitx.com (UK based) have a number of Jetway ITX boards for sale and ship outside the UK.
3. See previous discussion in this topic for some features that could be considered "pfSense features" that don't work.
4. Jetway site says this board has a PCI slot not PCIe
5. Irrelevant if board doesn't have a PCIe slot?FreeBSD (and hence pfSense) doesn't yet have very effective support for 802.11n but some supported chipsets capable of 802.11n work in 802.11g mode.
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@Jeannoel:
1 - Is it possible to put more than 2 GB, I need to 4GB.
I'm using a single 2GB SODIMM, so it should support 4GB total. <<< CORRECTION: 2GB TOTAL!
@Jeannoel:
2 - Where i can buy this card with the box, 1.5 Dual Core processor and 4 GB of memory, the Daughter board Expansion for more lan, i'm live in switzerland.
Here's where I look, most of which are U.S.-based (I don't know their shipping policies for Switzerland):
http://www.logicsupply.com/
http://www.mini-box.com/
http://www.mitxpc.com/
http://www.linitx.com/@Jeannoel:
3 - All features of pfSense 2.x works.
Looks like 2.0 Beta 5 works, but I haven't tested everything. If there's something specific you want me to check, let me know. Regarding hardware, all the network ports work (both built-in and daughterboards), so does the mini-PCIe. The built-in watchdog does NOT work–Fintek F71869 SuperIO chip, which isn't supported in FreeBSD. I might try to develop a driver for the watchdog, but considering I've never done any FreeBSD programming, don't buy this if you need watchdog support. :)
@Jeannoel:
4 - Is it possible to use the PCie card and daughter card set (card + wifi lan card) simultaneously.
Yes, I have both a daughterboard and the Mini-PCIe installed and detected.
@Jeannoel:
5 - Which Wifi b/g/n Pcie card works with PFSense 2.x
Atheros chips are the best supported. Unfortunately, the only mini-PCIe I have is an Intel 4695agn, which is problematic in FreeBSD. I ordered an Atheros AR5BXB72 AR5008 from eBay that should arrive within the next 2 weeks. It's an 802.11n card. N is not currently supported in FreeBSD, but from what I've read, people have gotten the AR5008 chips to work as G. I'll let you know if it works.
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Hi,
THX for your replies
JNL
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Hi,
This board support only 2 gb of memories but NF96FL-525-LF board support up to 4gb. Ok not ddr3 only ddr2.
Any people has some experience with this JetWay board NF96FL-525-LF
Regards
jnl
PS:I create a new topic
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@Jeannoel:
1 - Is it possible to put more than 2 GB, I need to 4GB.
I'm using a single 2GB SODIMM, so it should support 4GB total.
This has been nagging at me, so I did some research and found http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=50154&code=n550. Apparently the Atom N550 is limited to 2GB. :(
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Found the BIOS Power On!
Maybe this was added in the latest BIOS or maybe I missed it earlier because of the asinine configuration, but here's how to enable power on:
1. BIOS Main Menu > Power Management Setup > Disable ERP Function.
2. BIOS Main Menu > Integrated Peripherals > PWR Status after PWR Failure (visible only if ERP disabled).1st and probably only post to this forum, but it was worth it, just to say "NICE ONE!" I'd pretty much given up hope of getting it to boot when power is restored. :) :) :) Really, thanks for this!
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Thinking about grabbing this board to upgrade my aging VIA C7-D one.
My current board just about copes with my current connection (50mbit down/5mbit up), but my ISP will be rolling out 100mbit/10mbit connections in my area in the forseeable future, and I plan on upgrading.
How well do you think this board will cope with that?
I also plan on using PPTP VPN and IPSEC tunnels with it. Should it cope with 10mbit/s VPN?
(This is using the Realtek nics hopefully; I only use two nics in my current setup)
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Couple of issues with this board, not all related to pfSense.
- No BIOS "power on" after power loss, no "wake on ring, et al.", not even a "wake at hh:mm". Lack of power-on features negates this board as a firewall option because there is no way in hell I'm using a board that makes me drive to a remote site after every power outage just to press a power button. I don't know what Jetway was thinking–I haven't seen a motherboard all lacking these basic power features since the 1990's.
…
That's where I'm at now. Missing power features is a deal breaker for me. Shame, because I was really looking forward to 5 NICs + wireless in a single, low-power box.
It actually does have power control, you need to turn off the "EUP" function to expose it. Here's what Jetway told me when I asked about it:
Dear sir :
The NC9C mainboard can support power lose funciton (or Power failure function) .
Please go to BIOS setup –> Power management setup , disable the "EUP function" first .
then go to BIOS setup --> Integrated peripherals ,
set the "PWR status after PWR Failure" function to "Alway On" .This "EUP" function and "PWR Status after PWR Failure" funciton is synchronic ,
When you disable the EUP function ,
you just can see the "PWR Status after PWR Failure" funciton appear .Best regards
From JETWAY FAE support teamHope that helps…
-Eric
