PFSense OpenVPN with Hifn 8204 chip (Exar DX1845 Card)

AlienX

Hi all,
I've been searching the internet for what feels like hours and hours.

TL;DR:
I want to get my Exar DX1845 (which uses a Hifn 8204 chip) working on PFSense to offload the VPNs AES-128-CBC from the CPU to the card.

According to datasheets, this card can do upwards of 2GB/s on AES-128-CBC, which is perfect for me, however pfsense just doesnt see it.

What I have tried to do:
I've enabled the BSD Module in advanced, and i can see that the module is loaded, but running 'openssl engine -c -t' does not show AES as a viable hardware option.

I also noticed in dmesg, the card shows that no driver has been loaded for it, I thought i read in multiple places that PFSense supports hifn chips?

Card Information:

none0@pci0:4:0:0:       class=0x108000 card=0x003613a3 chip=0x003713a3 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Hifn Inc.'
    device     = '8204 Acceleration Processor'
    class      = encrypt/decrypt
    bar   [10] = type Memory, range 64, base 0xf7700000, size 4096, enabled
    cap 01[40] = powerspec 3  supports D0 D1 D3  current D0
    cap 05[50] = MSI supports 1 message, 64 bit
    cap 10[70] = PCI-Express 2 endpoint max data 256(512) NS
                 link x4(x4) speed 2.5(2.5) ASPM disabled(L0s/L1)
    ecap 0001[100] = AER 1 0 fatal 0 non-fatal 1 corrected
    ecap 0002[140] = VC 1 max VC0

dmesg output that's relevant:

pci4: <encrypt/decrypt> at device 0.0 (no driver attached)
pcib5: <PCI-PCI bridge> irq 18 at device 6.0 on pci2
pci5: <PCI bus> on pcib5
pci5: <encrypt/decrypt> at device 0.0 (no driver attached)
pcib6: <PCI-PCI bridge> irq 16 at device 8.0 on pci2
pci6: <PCI bus> on pcib6
pci6: <encrypt/decrypt> at device 0.0 (no driver attached)
pcib7: <PCI-PCI bridge> irq 17 at device 9.0 on pci2
pci7: <PCI bus> on pcib7
pci7: <encrypt/decrypt> at device 0.0 (no driver attached)

Any help would be great.

dotdash

Per the man page, that chipset is not supported in the driver-
The hifn driver supports various cards containing the Hifn 7751, 7951,
7811, 7955, and 7956 chipsets.

AlienX

Hi DotDash,
Thanks for your speedy reply.
This is a shame, i must have missed that part during the googling sessions.

I guess I'll look into getting a higher clocked speed AES-NI Intel Chip instead :)

Cheers,
AlienX