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    PC Engines apu2 experiences

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    • L
      logan5247 @Qinn
      last edited by

      @Qinn, check out this Github page.

      https://github.com/pcengines/apu2-documentation/blob/master/docs/firmware_flashing.md#corebootrom-flashing

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • fireodoF
        fireodo @Qinn
        last edited by fireodo

        @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

        Hardeware: APU2C4 16gb mSATA SSD - Bios: Coreboot Mainline Version 4.10.0.0 - Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense (amd64)

        May I ask you if you use the apuled.ko kernel module to drive the 3 Front-LEDs and if so is this still working after update to the mainline coreboot bios?

        Thank you,
        fireodo

        QinnQ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • L
          logan5247 @Qinn
          last edited by

          @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

          @psp said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

          Thanks @soder, your report is really appreciated. I've still have some of these APU2 running in HA for over 700 days in a datacenter without any issues. These devices are quite good cheap solutions for datalines up to 100 Mbps.

          What kinda hardware would you recommend for higher speeds, than 100Mbps?

          Supposedly the APU2 is pretty decent out-of-box up to 600Mbps, but can be tweaked to run at 1Gbps.
          https://teklager.se/en/knowledge-base/apu2-1-gigabit-throughput-pfsense/

          S S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            Stewart @logan5247
            last edited by

            @logan5247
            So it's just adding

            hw.igb.rx_process_limit="-1"
            hw.igb.tx_process_limit="-1"
            

            that does the trick? I wonder what those actually do. Don't limit what? Isn't it a cpu cap anyway? I'll have to try those out and see what I get. I usually tell people they are good for 500Mbps and most of the time they can with Suricata, Squid, and pfBlocker on. Not a lot of wiggle room, though. Not sure if these would help boost that number or not but it sure would be nice to be able to hit 1Gbps speeds with these boxes. I wonder if there is development on a more powerful model based on a Ryzen CPU but I don't know of any with a low enough TDP. These Geode's are only 6W TDP. The lowest Ryzen I've seen is 12W.

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

              @fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

              @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

              Hardeware: APU2C4 16gb mSATA SSD - Bios: Coreboot Mainline Version 4.10.0.0 - Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense (amd64)

              May I ask you if you use the apuled.ko kernel module to drive the 3 Front-LEDs and if so is this still working after update to the mainline coreboot bios?

              Thank you,
              fireodo

              Sorry I can't tell, as I do not use it, if you test it would be nice when you report back.

              Cheers Qinn

              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

              S fireodoF 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • S
                soder @Qinn
                last edited by soder

                @Qinn Sure, its here:
                https://pcengines.github.io/ --> Documentation -->Cold reset - document describing reset types for the platform.

                leads you here: https://github.com/pcengines/apu2-documentation/blob/master/docs/cold_reset.md

                After flashing new firmware it is highly recommended (sometimes even necessary) to perform a cold boot. It is not always an option for remote devices, so tests were made to find another way of forcing cold boot path in firmware. Note that this cannot guarantee that when any device on board entered an unexpected state it can be brought back to defined state without full power cycle.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • fireodoF
                  fireodo @Qinn
                  last edited by fireodo

                  @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                  @fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                  @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                  Hardeware: APU2C4 16gb mSATA SSD - Bios: Coreboot Mainline Version 4.10.0.0 - Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense (amd64)

                  May I ask you if you use the apuled.ko kernel module to drive the 3 Front-LEDs and if so is this still working after update to the mainline coreboot bios?

                  Thank you,
                  fireodo

                  Sorry I can't tell, as I do not use it, if you test it would be nice when you report back.

                  I made a test on a spare Apu2 and the apuled.ko is loading but has no effect :-( ( in /dev/led/ are only the igb0 and igb1)
                  Flashing back the bios 4.0.27 and everything is fine. I guess in Bios v4.10.0.0 its the "enable basic ACPI support for GPIOs" that kills the apuled function ...

                  Cheers,
                  fireodo

                  VeldkornetV 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • S
                    soder @logan5247
                    last edited by

                    @logan5247 if the WAN setup is set to PPPoE, you cant tweak it any further than 400-600 Mbit. I tried it in the past 1 year. Couldnt manage to overcome it. Many people tried to prove the opposite, still there was no single list of parameters under *sense that magically removed the builtin hidden slowdown component.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • VeldkornetV
                      Veldkornet @fireodo
                      last edited by

                      @fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                      @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                      @fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                      @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                      Hardeware: APU2C4 16gb mSATA SSD - Bios: Coreboot Mainline Version 4.10.0.0 - Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense (amd64)

                      May I ask you if you use the apuled.ko kernel module to drive the 3 Front-LEDs and if so is this still working after update to the mainline coreboot bios?

                      Thank you,
                      fireodo

                      Sorry I can't tell, as I do not use it, if you test it would be nice when you report back.

                      I made a test on a spare Apu2 and the apuled.ko is loading but has no effect :-( ( in /dev/led/ are only the igb0 and igb1)
                      Flashing back the bios 4.0.27 and everything is fine. I guess in Bios v4.10.0.0 its the "enable basic ACPI support for GPIOs" that kills the apuled function ...

                      Cheers,
                      fireodo

                      Probably best to log it as an issue

                      fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • fireodoF
                        fireodo @Veldkornet
                        last edited by

                        @Veldkornet said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                        Probably best to log it as an issue

                        ... Done ;-)

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

                          @fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                          @Veldkornet said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                          Probably best to log it as an issue

                          ... Done ;-)

                          I got an answer from Michał Żygowski: temporary solution for now: https://github.com/pcengines/apu2-documentation/blob/master/docs/gpios.md#known-issue
                          for all user that uses the apuled driver.

                          QinnQ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                          • fireodoF
                            fireodo
                            last edited by fireodo

                            This post is deleted!
                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • QinnQ
                              Qinn @fireodo
                              last edited by

                              New update 4.10.0.1 and the led's not working is mentioned in known issues https://pcengines.github.io/#mr-26

                              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

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

                                @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                New update 4.10.0.1 and the led's not working is mentioned in known issues https://pcengines.github.io/#mr-26

                                Yes, i know! Thanks anyway!

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

                                  Recently I encountered a few people that pull the power plug on the APU to revoke a "cold boot"

                                  So just to be on the safe side:

                                  As it is best to have "cold boot" after a bios update, the elegant way to shutdown an APU (as it has no power button) is:

                                  Diagnostics -> Halt System
                                  

                                  and then wait until the APU is powered down, so all led's, including the network led's, have gone down.

                                  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

                                  QinnQ S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • QinnQ
                                    Qinn @Qinn
                                    last edited by Qinn

                                    I experienced something strange, after an update to bios 4.10.0.1 my internal network speeds were halved, so I went back to 4.10.0.0 and they were restored! Can anyone confirm this, as I cannot test it at the moment?

                                    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

                                    K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • K
                                      kevindd992002 @Qinn
                                      last edited by

                                      @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                      I experienced something strange, after an update to bios 4.10.0.1 my internal network speeds were halved, so I went back to 4.10.0.0 and they were restored! Can anyone confirm this, as I cannot test it at the moment?

                                      So can anybody confirm this? I don't want to upgrade to the latest firmware if this is true.

                                      VeldkornetV QinnQ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • VeldkornetV
                                        Veldkornet @kevindd992002
                                        last edited by

                                        @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                        @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                        I experienced something strange, after an update to bios 4.10.0.1 my internal network speeds were halved, so I went back to 4.10.0.0 and they were restored! Can anyone confirm this, as I cannot test it at the moment?

                                        So can anybody confirm this? I don't want to upgrade to the latest firmware if this is true.

                                        I’m not having any problems with it.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • S
                                          soder @Qinn
                                          last edited by

                                          @Qinn Yes, it is proper to issue the Halt system / Shutdown command, and the APU will turn itself off entirely (all LEDs go blank). But after that, how do you turn on the system again? As there is no power button to press, as you already clearly explained. So you will still need to unplug the power adapter, and re-connect after a couple of seconds.

                                          fireodoF QinnQ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • fireodoF
                                            fireodo @soder
                                            last edited by

                                            @soder said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                            @Qinn As there is no power button to press, as you already clearly explained. So you will still need to unplug the power adapter, and re-connect after a couple of seconds.

                                            Indeed, you have to unplug/plug the Power-Jack - there is no other way! :-)

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