Banana Pi

toomeek

Hello, sorry for very long response.
The problem was indeed in VM BIOS.
I've created VM with only available option "Other OS" instead of "FreeBSD 8.x" in creator, this caused unbootable state.
Raspbian is missing some important packages, while Lubuntu even has virt-manager available, so I was able to use it to manage my VM. Newer packages also contains more options specific for booting.
However, pfSense stuck at VGA again (changing model doesn't help), it starts only in Fail-safe mode.
When I try to access GUI on this VM all I get is: login screen and after typing password:

CSRF check failed. Either your session has expired, this page has been inactive too long, or you need to enable cookies.
Debug: sid:1bb48302acef38e0c9b4d5d97244925cbc514c18,1410555529

I was looking into different BSD projects, some of them are for ARM (NetBSD), however doesn't seem to support Allwinner CPUs.. so it doesn't seem to run pfSense on Banana PI any way :(

But to let You know how Banana Pi performs networking here is result from iperf (Banana as server, connected by crossover cable to Gigabit client). Networking setup as described before (offload engines enabled, bridged to onboard NIC, etc..)

iperf-2.0.5-2-win32>iperf -c 192.168.137.222

------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.137.222, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 192.168.137.1 port 55946 connected with 192.168.137.222 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec   429 MBytes   360 Mbits/sec

iperf-2.0.5-2-win32>iperf -c 192.168.137.222 -P 10

------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.137.222, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 12] local 192.168.137.1 port 55957 connected with 192.168.137.222 port 5001
[  9] local 192.168.137.1 port 55954 connected with 192.168.137.222 port 5001
[ 11] local 192.168.137.1 port 55956 connected with 192.168.137.222 port 5001
[  8] local 192.168.137.1 port 55953 connected with 192.168.137.222 port 5001
[ 10] local 192.168.137.1 port 55955 connected with 192.168.137.222 port 5001
[  4] local 192.168.137.1 port 55949 connected with 192.168.137.222 port 5001
[  7] local 192.168.137.1 port 55952 connected with 192.168.137.222 port 5001
[  6] local 192.168.137.1 port 55951 connected with 192.168.137.222 port 5001
[  5] local 192.168.137.1 port 55950 connected with 192.168.137.222 port 5001
[  3] local 192.168.137.1 port 55948 connected with 192.168.137.222 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  9]  0.0-10.0 sec  94.2 MBytes  79.0 Mbits/sec
[ 11]  0.0-10.0 sec   103 MBytes  86.3 Mbits/sec
[  8]  0.0-10.0 sec   115 MBytes  96.6 Mbits/sec
[  4]  0.0-10.0 sec   111 MBytes  93.0 Mbits/sec
[  6]  0.0-10.0 sec   122 MBytes   102 Mbits/sec
[  5]  0.0-10.0 sec   106 MBytes  89.1 Mbits/sec
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec   113 MBytes  94.6 Mbits/sec
[ 12]  0.0-10.0 sec   119 MBytes  99.3 Mbits/sec
[ 10]  0.0-10.0 sec  97.0 MBytes  81.1 Mbits/sec
[  7]  0.0-10.0 sec   126 MBytes   105 Mbits/sec
[SUM]  0.0-10.0 sec  1.08 GBytes   925 Mbits/sec

It just looks so promising for a low power router.. shame :(
EDIT: Banana Pi seems to better network device even than HummingBoards, if You read carefuly at:
http://www.solid-run.com/products/hummingboard/linux-sbc-specifications/

(*) Note that due to internal i.MX6 buses the 1000Mbps interface speed is limited to 470Mbps.

And if You see the screenshots there is no such network bandwidth limit on Banana Pi.

iperf-client.PNG_thumb
iperf-server.png_thumb

iperf-server-detailed.PNG_thumb

toomeek

I'm doing some progress with support pfSense on Banana Pi.
Current Lubuntu from Lemarker's image runs kernel version 3.4.90.
Latest available development version is 3.16-rc7.

Please see attached screenshots from kernel config menu.
After enabling LPAE new options in Virtualization menu are available for.. ARM arch.
One of them is: "KVM host support for ARM cpus". Sounds like what we need!

Right now my Banana is compiling kernel as .DEB package, will see if it works..

EDIT: keeping You updated.
Right now Banana Pi is running kernel 3.4.90, latest available is 3.4.93. However, KVM on ARM feature has been added at least in 3.9 branch, latest available is 3.16-rc7.
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_3.9#head-a914c539db462d70e9119fc436e97351070337d9
Since pfSense requires fully supported KVM to run optimal I have to wait until patches supporting this platform will become available.

banana-kernel.PNG_thumb

banana-kernel2.PNG_thumb

banana-kernel3.PNG_thumb

banana-kernel5.PNG_thumb

banana-kernel6.PNG_thumb

banana-kernel8.PNG_thumb

banana-kernel9.PNG_thumb

banana-kernel10.PNG_thumb

banana-kernel11.PNG_thumb

Guest

@TooMeeK:

I'm doing some progress with support pfSense on Banana Pi.

[…]

Since pfSense requires fully supported KVM to run optimal I have to wait until patches supporting this platform will become available.

you can't call the result "pfSense", since it's not.
we are interested in the ARM devices market. Netgate is about to pick-up the Beaglebone Black.

toomeek

I have no access to the sources.. if I would have then I could do cross-compilation..
but still don't know is kernel supporting Allwinner SoCs. So far it's not:
http://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/CURRENT/hardware/proc.html
but there is limited information about Allwinner A20:
https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm
Anyway, Cubieboard's kernel will not work, it probably will boot without networking support since it needs GMAC:
https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm/Cubieboard

UPDATE:
Cubieboard's 2 image starts on Banana, however stuck at kernel load, there is no error message, just 2 penquens - Linux logo.
So I belive it FreeBSD image built for Cubieboard 2 won't work too.

UPDATE2:
As I see:
2.1.4-RELEASE runs FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p16
while
2.2-ALPHA (amd64) runs FreeBSD 10.0-STABLE
I'll focus on Allwinner config supporting kernel from 10.0.

Where I can find pfSense kernel config file?
According to this:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig-config.html
it should be at /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf
but there is no such directory, also no similar config locations.

UPDATE3:
Found ARM images for Beaglebone boards:
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/arm/armv6/ISO-IMAGES/10.0

UPDATE 2014-09-02:
I have good news and bad news.
Good is FreeBSD 10.0 runs on Banana Pi (reached login prompt), so it's likely able to run bare-metal pfSense.
Bad news is that there is no support for:

SD card reader as storage for main OS, only for booting
no HDMI output
and the worst: no 1Gbit driver available (GMAC).
So in this stage it's useless for base box for pfSense.

Additionally, there is no ARM-hardware Virtualization support in current Linux kernel (3.4.x), since it's available at least from 3.9.x branch.
So current versions of Bananian, Lubuntu or Raspbian have no capabilities to provide satisfactory performance.

pbk8530

Hello,

do you see the new upcomming Banana Pi Router board?

With 5 Gbit Ethernet and Wifi + SATA support…

http://www.banana-pi.com/eacp_view.asp?id=64

It would be great to see this board with pfsense support!

KR

Guest

no price.

stephenw10

Looks interesting though, as Jim says, without a price it's hard to judge.
I can't see how the network ports are connected, via a switch IC SOHO router style?

Steve

Guest

..arround 70 bugs

http://www.golem.de/news/banana-pi-embedded-router-board-1410-109743.html

toomeek

@stephenw10:

via a switch IC SOHO router style?

I belive here is Your answer:
Diese sind über einen Broadcom BCM53125 miteinander verbunden. = These are interconnected by a Broadcom BCM53125.
http://www.broadcom.com/products/Switching/Home-and-Small-Business/BCM53125

Guest

Yes, it's a Broadcom switch, Realtek radio.

Sample price is $70 (FOB China, no case, etc.)

I'm guessing $99-ish by the time there is a case, power supply, microSD card, etc.

The question is if the community is interested at that price (or even a little more).

stephenw10

I would have thought a market exists for a device that can replace a SOHO style router directly but runs pfSense. There have to be loads of admins out there who would like to use such a device for telecommuters.
It would have to have usefully functioning wifi and something to make setting up a VPN very easy (even easier!). You might have to use some new install type though I guess there are plenty of devices that would meet the requirements for Nano these days.
I'm not sure this is it though. Do you really need an HDMI port on your router?

Steve

Guest

@stephenw10:

… Do you really need an HDMI port on your router?
Steve

Steve,

It's funny that you've mentioned that! Recently I was prospecting SoC specs for a new project and I was marvelling how far the ARM technology came. This A20 is a real powerhouse… but for video and graphics! Almost 3/4 of the die is for video bitmap, compression/decompression handling. 90% of its microcode is for h264.

Why on earth anyone would want to build a network router around A20 is beyond me. The worst part is that all design optimizations and new low level code is for video/graphics. Not a bit of new code was developed for basic, general purpose computational tasks which in the case of products like routers remain the cornerstone.

So, for all intents and purposes running pfSense on an A20 would be like running it on a Zilog Z80 of the 1970's except for the clock speed. And no, even the 8/16/32 bit aspect would be irrelevant! Algorithmics-wise they are the same generation.

How about porting pfSense on CP/M (ok for good measure let's say MP/M) and putting it back on an Intel 8008 (ok a bit more generous, how about 8085)? Any taker? (Ok, I am taking out my Sinclair ZX-80 and dusting it off ;D )

It's amazing how people do (crazy) things just because hardware is now dirt cheap... :-X

Halea

stephenw10

Ha! If you get an IP stack running running on your ZX80 let me know and I'll dust off my ZX81. Pretty sure I have the RAM expansion pack here too so it should be no problem!
Your comments are interesting though, I guess the phone/tablet market is driving a lot of IC development. There are plenty of specific 'network processors' that are presumably far more suitable. Are they more expensive though.
I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from trying to make a thing run some OS it didn't before. I've spent many happy hours failing to get OpenWRT running on various hardware and leant a lot along the way. I had to laugh at that guy who got Doom running on his printer. :)

Don't let us put you off TooMeeK. Also apologies for somewhat hijacking your thread.

Steve

Guest

@stephenw10:

I would have thought a market exists for a device that can replace a SOHO style router directly but runs pfSense. There have to be loads of admins out there who would like to use such a device for telecommuters.
It would have to have usefully functioning wifi and something to make setting up a VPN very easy (even easier!). You might have to use some new install type though I guess there are plenty of devices that would meet the requirements for Nano these days.
I'm not sure this is it though. Do you really need an HDMI port on your router?

Steve

No, you don't need (nor want) an HDMI port on your router. The issue is that most of the cost of having that port (and the audio port, and camera port) have already been paid for (all the gates are already in the SoC). The BPI router makes me grouchy because it has a 10/100 port and a 10/100/1000 port (guess which one is attached to the switch!). Even, then, I've ordered a couple.

We had the Hackathon last week, and have most of pfSense working on the Beaglebone Black. It's not a big stretch to make it work on the BPI router. There are a lot of reasons for my push onto FreeBSD 10 (pfSense 2.2 will be based on FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE), and getting to more platforms is one.

Guest

@gonzopancho:

… have most of pfSense working on the Beaglebone Black. ...

That's awesome news. I've been running RasPBX on BBB at home for a couple of months now. Prior to that it was an Raspberry Pi for more than a year (maybe two).
I would love to put my hands on a cookbook to run pfSense on BBB. Any attempts I made with a couple of colleagues to run it on BBB miserably failed although at one point we got FreeBSD to work for a while (then we messed something and we couldn't go back on our steps).
So, is there any notes you can share?
Halea

Guest

when it's ready

toomeek

Erm.. well.. long time since first post.
I see You're digging my topic :>

Anyway Beaglebone Black runs 100Mbit Ethernet, while BPi is 1Gbit which can be saturated easily,
but there is no GMAC driver for it in FreeBSD head yet.
My dream would be working tagged VLANs over GMAC driver that can handle at least 250Mbit up/down speeds on this small device..

FlashPan

I just found this:

5 port banana

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Newest-arrive-BPI-R1-Opensource-Router-Original-Banana-pi/302756_2045261784.html

Guest

I have two on my desk. 8) 8)

stephenw10

What's your opinion of them? :)

Steve