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    New Alix board for 2013

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
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    • M
      MaxPF
      last edited by

      Just when I decided to go with the 2GB model instead of waiting for the 4GB, it sold out.

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      • D
        dolomite792
        last edited by

        So is this board worth buying yet?  Will the recommended wifi card work properly?  Or should I say would I have to wrestle with it for hours via command line getting it to work with band aid fixes? (I read that pfsense doesn't work with N mode wifi signal or freebsd I should say)  Are there any alternatives for it also?  Also does that heat sink that I saw in some other photos come with the motherboard kit and thermal paste when you purchase it?  I saw that there is a sata port on the board also, does anyone know where you could plug in a sata power cable on the board and what type of connector you would need to buy say if you wanted to use a large 2.5 inch hard drive?

        I am really excited to get started with pfsense for home use (and maybe more) and I would like to use snort and squid squid guard etc.  It looks like this board would be a great low/hassle low power solution to achieving this that is unless anyone believes there to be many obstacles with it yet.

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        • M
          MaxPF
          last edited by

          @dolomite792:

          So is this board worth buying yet?  Will the recommended wifi card work properly?  Or should I say would I have to wrestle with it for hours via command line getting it to work with band aid fixes? (I read that pfsense doesn't work with N mode wifi signal or freebsd I should say)  Are there any alternatives for it also?  Also does that heat sink that I saw in some other photos come with the motherboard kit and thermal paste when you purchase it?  I saw that there is a sata port on the board also, does anyone know where you could plug in a sata power cable on the board and what type of connector you would need to buy say if you wanted to use a large 2.5 inch hard drive?

          I am really excited to get started with pfsense for home use (and maybe more) and I would like to use snort and squid squid guard etc.  It looks like this board would be a great low/hassle low power solution to achieving this that is unless anyone believes there to be many obstacles with it yet.

          As far as I know the wifi card is currently not supported in 2.1 and 2.1.1, but it should work in 2.2. The heat spreader is included with the board. The website says "1 SATA + power connector" so I assume that one of the headers on the board can be used for that.

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          • T
            tmueko
            last edited by

            I just testet the new APU-Board from PC-Engines and I am very disappointed:

            Network performance is very poor, below 15MB/sec scp from host to /dev/null

            aes-128 is about 2% of Alix as Hardware-Crypto ist missing!

            using: "openssl speed -evp aes-128-cbc -mr"

            |

            | | 16 bytes | 64 bytes | 256 bytes | 1024 bytes | 8192 bytes |
            | apu(i386) | 17647920.62 | 19119871.30 | 19119871.30 | 19856786.89 | 19884175.64 |
            | apu(amd64) | 31838188.68 | 33707485.47 | 35294343.25 | 36019144.06 | 36141132.37 |
            | alix(glxb) | 9330604.35 | 51383196.64 | 228813355.80 | 571595559.02 | 21593993900.75 |
            | hifn799(miniPCI) | 29525399.38 | 88806702.25 | 455857889.95 | 1052874486.91 | 20549906447.53 |

            So, for <= 100MBit, use Alix; for >= 100Mbit, use other Hardware (Intel-Chipset) and Hardware-Encrytion.

            Just my 5 ct. |

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            • forbiddenlakeF
              forbiddenlake
              last edited by

              @MaxPF:

              Just when I decided to go with the 2GB model instead of waiting for the 4GB, it sold out.

              what country are you in?  Check their other distributors.  I just ordered an APU1C from mini-box.com (free US shipping!).

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                @tmueko:

                Network performance is very poor, below 15MB/sec scp from host to /dev/null

                Why use SCP? That's testing crypto and network in combination. Hardly a fair test unless you're running that specifically.

                Steve

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                • W
                  watercooled
                  last edited by

                  Add -elapsed to that openssl command to measure elapsed time, rather than CPU time. As the code doesn't run on the CPU with the hardware test, you get massively inaccurate results. Just think about the results for a second - ~20GB/s throughput?

                  This is more the sort of result you should be getting with -elapsed: http://www.feyrer.de/NetBSD/bx/blosxom.cgi/index.front?-tags=geode

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                  • T
                    tmueko
                    last edited by

                    I aslo tried to just use the APU as Gbit-Gateway with the ame bad results.

                    Using the "-elapsed" Option gives complete different results!

                    APU
                    type            16 bytes    64 bytes    256 bytes  1024 bytes  8192 bytes
                    aes-256-cbc      25906.20k    27743.31k    28145.80k    28552.07k    28663.62k
                    aes-128-cbc      31903.42k    34736.06k    35349.14k    35994.51k    36190.80k

                    ALIX
                    aes-128-cbc        439.80k    1711.46k    5388.38k    15939.21k    28228.88k
                    aes-256-cbc      3880.35k    4004.79k    4381.44k    4132.74k    4014.75k

                    NA820(hifn)
                    aes-128-cbc        617.01k    2462.52k    7257.86k    13492.76k    21152.43k
                    aes-256-cbc        616.61k    2412.38k    7626.04k    15504.02k    23657.20k

                    I think I'll try to find a bottleneck … maybe a brocken cable...

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                    • W
                      watercooled
                      last edited by

                      Do you have a way of measuring idle/load power consumption?

                      Also, what's the thermal solution like? Retailers I've checked say it comes with an aluminium heat spreader, but don't go into much detail about how the system works.

                      For example, does the heat spreader come bonded to the processor die somehow and contact the enclosure via some thermal paste?

                      Edit: NVM, I've just found this page, linked by a retailer: http://www.pcengines.ch/apucool.htm

                      Edit2: connorxxl beat me to it. :P

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                      • C
                        connorxxl
                        last edited by

                        See http://www.pcengines.ch/apucool.htm.

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                        • A
                          Anaximelis
                          last edited by

                          Power consumption on apu1c with ssd + wifi card is 9.5 watt Idee / 13 watt load

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                          • ?
                            Guest
                            last edited by

                            @olivier:

                            Here is a network performance bench of the APU1c (2Go of RAM) under FreeBSD 11-current.

                            It's going to be a while before we run 11 under pfSense.

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                            • ?
                              Guest
                              last edited by

                              @Clown:

                              Would be nice to have for the new APU board:

                              • LED Support

                              working
                              @Clown:

                              • Thermal sensors

                              working, but won't be enabled by default.  Can be enabled via 'Advanced' menu.
                              @Clown:

                              • as mentioned in an other thread (GPU prozessors as crypto device)

                              not even going to bother, (as mentioned in other thread)

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • R
                                router_wang
                                last edited by

                                Gonzo, what is the current and roadmap for Wifi cards that I can use with this board?

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • C
                                  connorxxl
                                  last edited by

                                  Gonzo, any hints about how to enable thermal sensors? I tried the advanced settings (AMD K8, K10, etc.), but no temperature… At least not in the Thermal Sensors Dashboard...

                                  Thanks for your help.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • nesenseN
                                    nesense
                                    last edited by

                                    @gonzopancho:

                                    @Clown:

                                    Would be nice to have for the new APU board:

                                    • LED Support

                                    working
                                    @Clown:

                                    • Thermal sensors

                                    working, but won't be enabled by default.  Can be enabled via 'Advanced' menu.
                                    @Clown:

                                    • as mentioned in an other thread (GPU prozessors as crypto device)

                                    not even going to bother, (as mentioned in other thread)

                                    BlinkLED does not work with the APU board:

                                    "Mar 22 01:06:49 php: /pkg_edit.php: The command '/usr/local/bin/blinkled -i 're2' -l '/dev/led/led2'' returned exit code '2', the output was '/usr/local/bin/blinkled: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected'
                                    Mar 22 01:06:49 php: /pkg_edit.php: The command '/usr/local/bin/blinkled -i 're1' -l '/dev/led/led3'' returned exit code '2', the output was '/usr/local/bin/blinkled: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected'"

                                    Same for thermal Sensors, ACPI  or amdtemp both do not show temperatures.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      Clearly that's not going to be for 2.1 since the board has only recently become available. At the very least it would be a 2.1.1 build but more likely he is referencing a 2.2 build.

                                      Steve

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                                      • T
                                        tmueko
                                        last edited by

                                        Can somebody measure throughput on his APU?

                                        I startet a "nc -l 8888 > /dev/null" on a device on WAN Interface.
                                        then I startet "cat <big file="">| nc <ip_from_device>8888"

                                        I dont get more then 10 MByte/s.

                                        What am I doing wrong?</ip_from_device></big>

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                                        • T
                                          tirsojrp
                                          last edited by

                                          Testing with a 100Mbps equipment?

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • T
                                            tohil
                                            last edited by

                                            hi

                                            i tried to install the embedded version on a 4GB Kingston SD Card. but it doesn't fit, so i used the 2GB nanobsd edition.
                                            but when i try to boot, i got errors about mounting the root parition, wrong geometry aborting startup

                                            can i fix this by this
                                            https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Soekris_6501_USB_Flash_installation#Root_Mount_error

                                            or the USB Boot Problem article?

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