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    PC Engines apu2 experiences

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    • QinnQ Offline
      Qinn
      last edited by

      Thanks

      Hardeware: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4125 CPU @ 2.00GHz 102 GB mSATA SSD (ZFS)
      Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense CE (amd64)
      Packages: pfBlockerNG devel-beta (beta tester) - Avahi - Notes - Ntopng - PIMD/udpbroadcastrelay - Service Watchdog - System Patches

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      • VeldkornetV Offline
        Veldkornet
        last edited by Veldkornet

        Does anyone else use the gwled package for the other 2 lights on the front?

        I noticed that it’s using massive amounts of CPU, pushing the load average well above 20. Even disabling doesn’t fix it, only removing the package helps. Below is only a snippet of "px auxw", there are still many more processes of the same.

        USER      PID  %CPU %MEM    VSZ    RSS TT  STAT STARTED        TIME COMMAND
        root       11 156.5  0.0      0     64  -  RNL  Wed17   16794:28.46 [idle]
        root    55074   4.6  0.9  96292  35144  -  R    12:28       0:00.59 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    57431   4.5  0.9  96292  35144  -  R    12:28       0:00.60 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    58665   4.5  0.9  96292  35144  -  R    12:28       0:00.58 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    56863   4.4  0.8  96420  34636  -  R    12:28       0:00.56 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    58037   4.4  0.9  96292  35144  -  R    12:28       0:00.59 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    51369   4.3  0.9  96304  35948  -  R    12:28       0:00.65 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    52694   4.3  0.9  96292  35144  -  R    12:28       0:00.60 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    53220   4.3  0.9  96292  35144  -  R    12:28       0:00.59 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    56211   4.3  0.9  96292  35144  -  R    12:28       0:00.58 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    57826   4.3  0.9  98468  35212  -  R    12:28       0:00.56 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    58322   4.3  0.9  96292  35144  -  R    12:28       0:00.58 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    58337   4.3  0.9  98468  35212  -  R    12:28       0:00.56 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    51633   4.1  0.8  96420  34584  -  R    12:28       0:00.56 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    52119   4.1  0.9  96420  35268  -  R    12:28       0:00.57 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    55153   4.1  0.9  98468  35212  -  R    12:28       0:00.55 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    56521   4.1  0.8  98468  35036  -  R    12:28       0:00.54 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    58153   4.1  0.9  98468  35212  -  R    12:28       0:00.54 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    39184   4.0  7.5 339404 308808  -  Ss   22:56      48:49.73 /usr/local/bin/suricata -i igb1 -D -c /usr/local/etc/suricata/s
        root    51525   4.0  0.9  96292  35160  -  R    12:28       0:00.58 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        root    57568   4.0  0.9  98468  35200  -  R    12:28       0:00.54 /usr/local/bin/php-cgi -q /usr/local/bin/gwled.php
        

        See here the difference in CPU after removing the package:
        0_1552823095743_Capture.PNG

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        • stephenw10S Offline
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          Hmm, odd. Actual CPU time on those processes is all pretty small though. You see it generating those everytime at boot?

          Steve

          VeldkornetV 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • cwagzC Offline
            cwagz @wgentine
            last edited by

            @wgentine said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

            @qinn No. CPB is not describe in ACPI so, powerd doesn't know.

            Is it a best practice to disable powerd then?

            Netgate 6100 MAX

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            • stephenw10S Offline
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Powerd doesn't do anything on the APU anyway, there's no driver for cpufreq to use.

              Mar 17 17:48:47 	php-fpm 	92195 	/system_advanced_misc.php: The command '/usr/sbin/powerd -b 'hadp' -a 'hadp' -n 'hadp'' returned exit code '69', the output was 'powerd: no cpufreq(4) support -- aborting: No such file or directory' 
              

              Steve

              D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • VeldkornetV Offline
                Veldkornet @stephenw10
                last edited by Veldkornet

                @stephenw10 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                Hmm, odd. Actual CPU time on those processes is all pretty small though. You see it generating those everytime at boot?

                Steve

                Hmm, I’ll have to check what it is at boot. I haven’t put much time into investigating it. Looking at the SNMP though, this is the first time the CPU has dropped down (after uninstalling the package). So, I guess it starts up pretty quick after boot since I don’t even see a dent in the SNMP.

                Just watching “top”, it seems to come in bursts, like every 10 seconds for 5 seconds long for example.
                A wild guess is that that’s how often it polls the gateways.

                I just re-installed pfSense from scratch, not restoring any backups, and it still does it.

                Since there’s not much to configure, I assume anyone could reproduce it. If not, I’m really curious as to what’s so special about my system.

                You can basically choose what the last 2 lights are, which I have as:
                2 - WAN_DHCP4
                3 - VPN

                I've made a new topic for this here

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                • D Offline
                  dugeem @wgentine
                  last edited by dugeem

                  @wgentine True - although as soon as powerd sets CPU frequency to maximum GX-412TC frequency 1000MHz via ACPI then AMD CPB is available - however whether CPB it is used depends on CPU core state & thermal parameters.

                  Although the question of whether powerd is still useful for APU2 given both the CPB performance gains and power savings is interesting...

                  Edit: some excellent CPB info here https://github.com/pcengines/apu2-documentation/blob/master/docs/debug/cpu_frequency.md

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                  • D Offline
                    dugeem @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 You mean the original APU (with AMD G-T40E CPU) - not the APU2 (with AMD GX-412TC CPU) right? No issues with powerd on APU2 (although whether it makes any sense now with CPB is the issue)

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

                      @dugeem Ah, true! That was referring to the original APU, my mistake.

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                      • VeldkornetV Offline
                        Veldkornet
                        last edited by

                        Is anyone using the CoDel / FQ_CoDel Traffic Shaping on the APU2?

                        Working well? Any problems?

                        cwagzC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • cwagzC Offline
                          cwagz @Veldkornet
                          last edited by

                          @Veldkornet said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                          Is anyone using the CoDel / FQ_CoDel Traffic Shaping on the APU2?

                          Working well? Any problems?

                          I have an APU2 box at work to provide a separate network for personal devices. It is setup with the FQ_CoDel limiter / floating rules method described towards the end of the Playing with FQ-CoDel Thread. It has been rock solid and seems to provide equal bandwidth sharing for the 30 - 50 devices connected each day and 16 - 20 GB of traffic that is passed on our 150/150 FiOS link.

                          Netgate 6100 MAX

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                          • D Offline
                            daemonix @Veldkornet
                            last edited by

                            @Veldkornet said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                            @qinn SSH into it and install flashrom. No need to boot from USB etc.

                            pkg install flashrom

                            Upload the firmware to /tmp with scp and run:
                            flashrom -w /tmp/apu2_v4.9.0.2.rom -p internal:boardmismatch=force

                            Shutdown pfSense, pull the power for 10 seconds, then boot up.

                            I still run the original (legacy) bios that came with my apu2c4 almost 2 years ago?! (maybe 1 year I cant remember). I also run the latest stable pfsense.

                            Anything I need to do (regarding settings or something else) before flushing from the pfsense itself??
                            thanks

                            QinnQ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • QinnQ Offline
                              Qinn @daemonix
                              last edited by Qinn

                              @daemonix Nope, just install the flashrom like above, then download the latest Mainline from here

                              https://pcengines.github.io/
                              

                              then flash it and reboot, I have switched from Legacy to Mainline months ago and everything works still fine.

                              ...and btw you don't need the force option, this is enough

                              flashrom -w /tmp/apu2_v4.9.0.7.rom -p internal
                              

                              Hardeware: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4125 CPU @ 2.00GHz 102 GB mSATA SSD (ZFS)
                              Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense CE (amd64)
                              Packages: pfBlockerNG devel-beta (beta tester) - Avahi - Notes - Ntopng - PIMD/udpbroadcastrelay - Service Watchdog - System Patches

                              D 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • D Offline
                                daemonix @Qinn
                                last edited by

                                @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                @daemonix Nope, just install the flashrom like above, then download the latest Mainline from here

                                https://pcengines.github.io/
                                

                                then flash it and reboot, I have switched from Legacy to Mainline months ago and everything works still fine.

                                ...and btw you don't need the force option, this is enough

                                flashrom -w /tmp/apu2_v4.9.0.7.rom -p internal
                                

                                Thanks a lot for the quick replay!
                                Im do it later in the evening and hopefully Ill have internet after the reboot heheheh

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                                • D Offline
                                  daemonix @Qinn
                                  last edited by daemonix

                                  This post is deleted!
                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • D Offline
                                    daemonix @Qinn
                                    last edited by

                                    @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                    @daemonix Nope, just install the flashrom like above, then download the latest Mainline from here

                                    https://pcengines.github.io/
                                    

                                    then flash it and reboot, I have switched from Legacy to Mainline months ago and everything works still fine.

                                    ...and btw you don't need the force option, this is enough

                                    flashrom -w /tmp/apu2_v4.9.0.7.rom -p internal
                                    

                                    Done without a problem!
                                    I had a serial link to it so I did it from there so I can see the boot sequence.

                                    Now that I have time to experiment a bit.
                                    What are the recommended combination of settings that favour performance on a openvpn server nowadays ?

                                    BSD crypto ON/OFF? CBC/GBC algo? etc..
                                    I get 40mbit on the apu2 hosted server.

                                    fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • fireodoF Offline
                                      fireodo @daemonix
                                      last edited by

                                      @daemonix said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                      BSD crypto ON/OFF? CBC/GBC algo? etc..
                                      I get 40mbit on the apu2 hosted server.

                                      From my knowledge for the APU2-Board the settings should be AES-NI (in CPU).

                                      Regards,
                                      fireodo

                                      Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                                      SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                                      pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                                      Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

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                                      • QinnQ Offline
                                        Qinn
                                        last edited by Qinn

                                        I agree try AES-NI (in cpu) read this please, especially the reply from "jimp" https://forum.netgate.com/topic/114212/aes-ni-cryptodev-openvpn-help-a-n00b-understand/16

                                        The setting is in :

                                        System/Advanced/Miscellaneous
                                        

                                        try it and see how it performs.

                                        Hardeware: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4125 CPU @ 2.00GHz 102 GB mSATA SSD (ZFS)
                                        Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense CE (amd64)
                                        Packages: pfBlockerNG devel-beta (beta tester) - Avahi - Notes - Ntopng - PIMD/udpbroadcastrelay - Service Watchdog - System Patches

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                                        • D Offline
                                          daemonix
                                          last edited by

                                          fast-io
                                          sndbuf 524288
                                          rcvbuf 524288

                                          added this, changed my PIA client to GCM (my server was already GCM) and I already had just the hardware acceleration only...
                                          Gone from 45-sih mbit to 70-70mbit in both PIA and my server!!!

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                                          • K Offline
                                            kevindd992002
                                            last edited by

                                            @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                            https://pcengines.github.io/

                                            Does this mean that "AES-NI CPU-based acceleration" is better than the "AES-NI and BSD Crypto Device" option? I'm still confused what the difference between those two are.

                                            fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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