All interfaces are down

misurex

Hello all,

I just installed the latest pfsense version 2.3.2 on a computer:

Mobo: ASRock E3C224 with two Intel I210 chipsets
NIC : Intel EXPI9402PT with two ports

pfSense is behind a router with the subnet 192.168.1.x

All the four interfaces are down, I cannot assign the WAN and LAN connexions, the server do not give them any IP.

What can I do to bring them up? Thank you.

misurex

Here's a screenshot of my problem. I cannot select any of those interfaces.

Please help.

pfsense.jpg_thumb

heper

down means that there are no cable plugged into them (that are connected to something else)

misurex

Unfortunately, and that is why I posted the question here, I have two cables connected one to the router (192.168.1.x), and the other to a laptop with DHCP.

I verified the cables, by connecting them to other devices, all is good, I thought that is something that I'm missing, in that case I will look in detail on the router side, maybe is the wan that block the lan also …

misurex

I plug the cable to the laptop, it's working (192.168.1.2), then I switch it for pfsense, nothing …

misurex

pfsense always sees the interfaces as down.

I have also an Endian firewall, that I wish to change for pfsense, endian is working without a problem (same 192.168.1.2). Actually I'm using his cable to connect from the router to pfsense.

misurex

Ok, I made some progress, but I'm not happy at all, the two onboard ports are useless ?
When I changed the cables to the NIC's ports, the ports are showned UP. But that was the reason to buy a server mobo, to be able to use the two ports already there. Hmm, at least now I can connect to the pfsense GUI.

moikerz

You bought a server board, but you bought ASrock? That's like saying "I've got a Lamborghini but it's got a Honda badge on it". ::) ASrock are not a known, nor used, server-board manufacturer; They're known for "being cheaper than everyone else".

Perhaps it's just an incompatiblity with FreeBSD and these new i210 chipsets?

phil.davis

The i210 NICs should be supported on FreeBSD since around FreeBSD 9(.1?). So they should work with pfSense 2.2.* and 2.3.* based on FreeBSD 10.*.

The way to really find out is to install FreeBSD 10.3 (and then try FreeBSD 11 BETA or upcoming RC1) and see what happens. If the i210 NICs are not recognized by any of that, then there is some special issue with the ASRock board.

misurex

Hello,

As a response to moikerz: For my NAS and Server I use Supermicro, but for a firewall, instead of paying 600$, and seeing the reviews for this mobo, I thought that it will be ok to buy this product.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135343

To Phil - for now I translate the configuration from Endian to Pfsense, for the GREEN network, but when I will pass to the ORANGE one, then I will do some dig ups, I cannot return the mobo, so I'll see what steps to do at that point (tomorrow probably).

Thank you.

misurex

Ok, I'm out of ideas, I removed the NIC card, reinstalled pfsense, the two ports onboard, I210 are now UP, I recreate the interfaces IPs, then … I installed the NIC card, and now its ports are down.

Apparently, is one (the onboard lans) or the other (the two from the card), but not the four simultaneously.

Any ideas ? Thank you.

heper

have you tried putting the nic card in different slots ? might be an odd IRQ issue when sharing the same …. welcome to the 1980's ;)
you could also try a bios update or a firmware-update of the nic itself

misurex

@heper

Changing the slots was the first thing I did, but no luck. The bios has the last version, updating the driver, I don't know how to do it. I read some posts, but I didn't find a good answer, compiling within the kernel, I'm afraid to do it.