PfSense with Gigabyte GA-J1900N-D3V

chrisrs

Hey Everyone, this is my first post so I say hello!

I bought this board as soon as I figured out I wanted to build a pfsense box, without looking into all the troubles it had. I experienced so many problems trying to get it installed, I just left it alone for a week because I had lost all patience.

I tried 32 and 64 bit versions of the live usb, then live dvd, always to encounter either intermittent usb failure during install, complete lack of usb function at all, kernel panics, would get to install on hard drive, then when booted there were geometry errors. I tried many times to install windows 8.1 so I could update to bios version F2 but always failed miserably. So still on Bios F1.

I downloaded version 2.1.3 , then went into bios and set my cpu to 1 core. loaded the dvd and BOOM, it decided that it would boot and then properly install for me, much to my disbelief. I then rebooted and switched back to all 4 cpu cores and It has now been running stable for 3 days with an openvpn tunnel and zero errors!

I hope this helps some of you with all the problems you are having with this board!

Where in the bios do you see the option to disable the cores? I'm on the F2 bios so not sure if that makes a difference. I am having no luck getting this board to boot 2.1.3.

pete.s.

I just wanted to add that I'm running the GA-C1037UN-EU board earlier mentioned in this thread.

I'm running it with an additional NIC in the PCI port, so have three NICs all in all. I also use vlans and everything is working great.

I run it of an SSD and everything is very low temperature. I have a slow running 120mm case fan but I think it is not needed.

It's been running it 24/7 since last year, so about 6-7 months now. Highly recommended. ;D ;D ;D

The only drawback is that it's PCI and not PCIe if you want to add a dual or quad network card. A regular pci slot can handle one gigabit without trouble. But perhaps it's academic anyway since there are usually data bottlenecks elsewhere in the chipset and the cpu.

Hellzakk

First post, so… hello :D
This mb work well with the last release of pfsense? And what about the realtek lan?
Thanks for the help

nikkon

Does it work better with Bios F3 version?

stephenw10

Looks like it should be:
@http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=585025&sid=956a29819e12154d85832fd26f45d365#p585025:

I have to say that the F3C BIOS seems quite stable, it provides a lot of previously missing options (working PXE legacy boot, USB support, advanced options)

Steve

cheshire_cat

did pfsense support the onboard nic.
gigabyte website did not state the model of the nic chip. (i think it may be 8111G??? not sure :'()

Wolly

@pete.s.:

I just wanted to add that I'm running the GA-C1037UN-EU board earlier mentioned in this thread.

I'm running it with an additional NIC in the PCI port, so have three NICs all in all. I also use vlans and everything is working great.

I run it of an SSD and everything is very low temperature. I have a slow running 120mm case fan but I think it is not needed.

It's been running it 24/7 since last year, so about 6-7 months now. Highly recommended. ;D ;D ;D

The only drawback is that it's PCI and not PCIe if you want to add a dual or quad network card. A regular pci slot can handle one gigabit without trouble. But perhaps it's academic anyway since there are usually data bottlenecks elsewhere in the chipset and the cpu.

I've bought the GA-C1037UN-EU under the impression that it would be no problem, but now the NIC's don't get an IP from the DHCP server. Do I have to copy the if_re.ko from topics in this forum (see https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=65355.30) ?

uname0u gives FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p16

How did you install this c1037un board?

stephenw10

If you've assigned the interface as type DHCP then it is appearing correctly, the driver is not the problem.
What have you done so far?

Steve

Wolly

@stephenw10:

If you've assigned the interface as type DHCP then it is appearing correctly, the driver is not the problem.
What have you done so far?

Steve

I've installed pfSense, assigned the re0 to the WAN interface (DHCP) an plugged in the cable modem (after properly powercycling it). Alas…no IP. Then I've connected the WAN to my old pfSense LAN and I can see in the old pfSense log that it is indeed giving out a DHCP ip, but all the c1037un does is sending more requests for an IP.

Then I've changed the etc.conf with the following :synchronous_dhclient="YES". Still no IP...

Then I've loaded the if_re.ko from various posts in this forum (https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=65355.45) to /boot/kernel and /boot/modules. Also added if_re_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf.local.

Still no IP :-X

From what I gather Realtek changes it hardware sometimes without changing the model number, thus it might work for one person but not for the next >:(

I'm at a loss now, with the Ubuntu live CD the nics work flawlessly and get an IP. Maybe I have to virtualize pfSense just to get it working?

stephenw10

Hmm, well that's odd behaviour. You could well be right, Realtek do like to change hardware.
What does pciconf list the NIC as? The PCI revision usually indicates what the NIC type is.

Steve

Wolly

@stephenw10:

Hmm, well that's odd behaviour. You could well be right, Realtek do like to change hardware.
What does pciconf list the NIC as? The PCI revision usually indicates what the NIC type is.

Steve

Due to the problems with the nic on bare-metal pfSense I've decided to use esxi and run pfSense on top of that. As it turns out this is something I should've done right from the beginning, it works perfect.

w00t

Any new information regarding this board? Does the NIC's works out of the box?

stephenw10

Which board? There are two being discussed here.

Steve

w00t

@stephenw10:

Which board? There are two being discussed here.

Steve

Oh, the topic board, GA-J1900N-D3V. But GA-C1037UN-EU as well then.

@pete.s.:

I just wanted to add that I'm running the GA-C1037UN-EU board earlier mentioned in this thread.

I'm running it with an additional NIC in the PCI port, so have three NICs all in all. I also use vlans and everything is working great.

@Wolly:

Due to the problems with the nic on bare-metal pfSense I've decided to use esxi and run pfSense on top of that. As it turns out this is something I should've done right from the beginning, it works perfect.

So I'm kinda torn here if it's working or not. At the moment these two motherboard are the only ones I can get my hands on in my area that have 2x onboard NIC's :/

stephenw10

It's hard to know. It appears from the comments here that Gigabyte may have changed the chip on the board or Realtek updated it somehow on the GA-C1037UN.
The GA-J1900N-D3V doesn't have any reported issues with the NIC if you can get pfSense installed in the first place. ::)

Steve

w00t

@stephenw10:

It's hard to know. It appears from the comments here that Gigabyte may have changed the chip on the board or Realtek updated it somehow on the GA-C1037UN.
The GA-J1900N-D3V doesn't have any reported issues with the NIC if you can get pfSense installed in the first place. ::)

Steve

Heh, I see. I will then order the GA-J1900N-D3V and report back in a few days ;)

stephenw10

Have you read this whole thread?
There are people who have failed to make pfSense boot at all on that board.

Steve

w00t

@stephenw10:

Have you read this whole thread?
There are people who have failed to make pfSense boot at all on that board.

Steve

Yes! I know there is a lot of problems. I'll try and follow this guy. Also there is a new F3 BIOS that I would like to try.

@dwaler:

I bought this board (only found out about this thread afterwards) last Monday, together with 2 x 4GB Crucial Ballistix @ 1.35V and a 60GB Kingston (SSDNow). After having upgraded to F2 (which was indeed a bit of a pain) I got 2.2-ALPHA running without further issues. I followed the guides elsewhere on the forum and enabled CSM as well as disabling C-State. I've also enabled TRIM support by rebooting into single-user mode and running 'tunefs -t enable /'.

As mentioned, running smooth now and not seeing any issues (yet). Will keep it running for another night before replacing my old firewall though (m0n0wall on an ancient Nokia IP110), just to be sure :)

Just thought I'd share some positive news, hope this helps somebody!

w00t

@stephenw10:

Have you read this whole thread?
There are people who have failed to make pfSense boot at all on that board.

Steve

Successfully booted pfSense on GA-J1900N-D3V. Will update this post later with tutorial and BIOS settings. EDIT2: After you are on F3 BIOS, pfSense alpha 2.2 seems to boot with no issues.

EDIT: Alright got everything working, almost..

First of all, you need to update the BIOS to F3 since the motherboard probably will ship with F1.

Update BIOS

Power on the MB and reset the BIOS to defaults.
Create a bootable USB of Windows 8/8.1 and install on a spare harddrive (do it on the motherboard itself, not another computer), F1 will kinda only boot to Win8-USB's.
When successfully booted to Win8, visit http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4918#utility and change to your installed OS, download and install Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (probably not necessary, the install will thell you) and then APP Center.
Start APP Center from C:\Program\Gigabyte or such, and wait for the shitty program to start. When loaded, update the damn thing.
Use the APP Center program to download @BIOS.
When installed, use @BIOS from the APP Center to download and flash F3, choose "Install from server" or similar, follow the steps and you will be on F3 in a moment.
Reboot and enter BIOS to check that you are on F3, if thats the case, once again do reset BIOS to defaults.
Power off and remove harddrive and Win8 USB.

Create bootable pfSense

Download the memstick or nanobsd-vga version (your choice if you want to install full version to another USB-stick or run the embedded version) from pfSense download-page. I have been using nanobsd-vga for this test.
Flash the .img to you USB-stick, win32 image writer works like a charm.

BIOS settings

Attach the pfSense USB and boot to BIOS.
Reset to default, and ONLY change the following:

Advanced -> CSM Configuration

CSM Support - Enabled
Boot Option filter - Legacy Only
Network - Do not launch
Storage - Legacy Only
Video - UEFI First
Other PCI devices - Legacy Only

Advanced -> USB Configuration

Legacy USB support - Enabled
USB3.0 support - Enabled
XHCI hand-off - Disabled
EHCI hand-off - Disabled
USB Mass storage device support - Enabled

Under USB configuration you should see your USB-stick listed.

Chipset -> South Bridge (I think? If I remembered correctly.)

Restore after AC power loss - Power On

Under boot, change harddrive BBS priority and set you USB-stick to #1, then change first boot option to your USB-stick and disable #2 boot option.

Thats it, now reboot and hopefully your pfSense-stick will boot. As I said, got everything working, almost. It seems like the first boot, you will always get an acpi panic error. I havn't been able to pinpoint what's causing it, but it seems to NOT be related to speedstep/power technology(Energi efficient)/cpu c-states. When you get the prompt within pfSense with the panic error, just type "reboot" and everything will boot just fine (or hit the physical reset switch). A reboot within pfSense (from the WebUI or promt) will work with no panic error. When you halt the machine and boot it up again, you will stuck on acpi panic error and need to reboot from the prompt (or hit the physical reset switch).

Also, pfSense will not get WAN IP from DHCP after the initial setup, when the initial wizard is done, just reboot and you will get IP from DHCP. What I have seen, this problem only occured right after the initial wizard.

If anyone got any input regarding the strange acpi panic error at first boot, please comment.

Sidenote: When doin a speedtest on my home connection (250/100Mbit) the CPU-usage is around 15-18%. Great board for home usage! (not so great for producation as long as we got the strange first boot problem) :)

FarmerB3d

Hi,

I bought this board on Friday and had no luck with it.
I was on F2 and it worked but unstable. After upgrading to F3 I get a Bogus Interrupt panic on boot. Trying your reboot and bios settings did not help me. :(

I don't want to give up on it though…