NBASE-T Support for Intel X550

[indigo88]

Hi all,

I have an Intel X550 T2 and I’m going to be upgrading the switch to one that supports NBASE-T.

According to the Intel ARK page, NBASE-T is supported on this NIC in Linux. Has anyone tried this for the X550 on pfSense or FreeBSD?

Thanks

[kiokoman]

yeah, works great, plug and play under pfSense

ix0@pci0:1:0:0: class=0x020000 card=0x00028086 chip=0x15d18086 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Ethernet Controller 10G X550T'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet

[stephenw10]

@indigo88 said in NBASE-T Support for Intel X550:

NBASE-T

I assume you mean 2.5Gbps and/or 5Gbps?
Not sure I've seen an ix card do that under FreeBSD. The only card I'm aware of that can do 2.5Gbps is a Broadcom card but that requires changing the NIC firmware settings and patching the driver.

Steve

[kiokoman]

what if i put a cat5e cable on mine to test at which speed it connect ?
do you think it can only go from 1000 to 10gb under freebsd ?

[indigo88]

@stephenw10 Yes, here’s the ARK page: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/88209/intel-ethernet-converged-network-adapter-x550-t2.html

It’s been in my system since 2017, works fine at 1G and 10G.

You can see it supports 2.5G and 5G. Just wondering if anyone has tried it with either standard.

[kiokoman]

i can't change media

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig -m ix0
ix0: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        options=8538b8<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO>
        capabilities=e53fbb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,LRO,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
        ether a0:36:9f:17:c7:06
        inet 192.168.10.254 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.10.255
        media: Ethernet autoselect (10Gbase-T <full-duplex>)
        status: active
        supported media:
                media autoselect
                media 100baseTX
                media 1000baseT
                media 10Gbase-T
        nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>

there is no 5 or 2,5 that can be selected

[stephenw10]

The only reference I see for 2.5Gbps even in the most recent ix driver is for 2500base-KX like we use for the internal link in the XG-7100, where no PHY exists:
https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/blob/fe710b3242abb89deab33c466c1911d45dbde795/sys/dev/ixgbe/if_ix.c#L1238

Steve

[w0w]

AFAIK NBASE-T for X550 is supported only for Windows and Linux OSes, moreover, on release NBASE-T was stated only for Linux by INTEL ARK.
I've been running into the same issue with speeds and same card on FreeBSD and the solution was to place the cheapest unmanaged switch with NBASE-T supported, but the other end must support NBASE-T speed switching and you should manually select the desired speed or you need the managed switch.

[WanTime]

[2.4.5-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig -m ix1
ix1: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        options=8400b8<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWTSO>
        capabilities=f507bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,LRO,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,NETMAP,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
        ether a0:36:9f:
        hwaddr a0:36:9f:
        inet6 fe80::a236:9fff:fe27:b1f6%ix1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
        inet 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
        nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
        media: Ethernet autoselect (Unknown)
        status: active
        supported media:
                media autoselect
                media 100baseTX
                media 1000baseT
                media 10Gbase-T

this is how it looks when runing at 2.5gbps. it seems to work fine was passing traffic, but has that scary unknown on ui. also still not able to select 2.5g/5g as listed under linux drivers by intel ARK for x550 specs. maybe its not been updated yet under pfsense.

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[stephenw10]

Interesting. The other end shows it linked at 2.5G though?

[w0w]

Just re-tested it also.
I can confirm that selecting on the other end speeds below 10G is now working and yes, it's "unknown" mode on pfSense side. But I do not think there is anything to do with that since Intel driver does not report any speed, not pfSense.

[WanTime]

@stephenw10 yes , i had to use a realtek 2.5g on a new board because i could not get x550 to change to 2.5g under PFsense or on the other side on windows system. it would be nice if PFsense suported 2.5 and 5g as selectable on its end if posible. idk where there is a hiccup in support, intel - bsd - pfsense. intel says under linux driver it should be setectable so idk,

thank you for keeping an eye on this issue.

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[WanTime]

under windows driver nbase t is only for auto-negotiating depending on link partner. but under Linux it should be fully supported and select-able. unless i am missing something.
https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/release-notes/ethernet-controller-x550-feature-support-matrix.pdf

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[stephenw10]

If Intel says it's Linux only then that's probably true since they write the FreeBSD drivers themselves. There is probably nothing much we can do about that but wait for an update.
If the driver shows it as selectable then pfSense should also show that, the values from the driver are just passed through.

Steve

[WanTime]

so even its not user select-able under BSD why is the driver seeing the current state as unknown. it work at 2.5/5 with auto negotiating when at link partner request under every other OS and displays it under ui and driver but its not displaying the current state under BSD. the HW support is there but the driver just does not know what is going on ?

i don't have a spare box up atm so i can just test on windows and pfsense(bsd)

here is X550 under windows driver connecting to the same realtek 2.5 board working and displaying fine. only the user selectablity to NBase-t is limited to linux. auto negotiating to nbase-t should be working on all drivers and os, should be displayed on ui.

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[stephenw10]

Pretty much, yeah. The driver in FreeBSD 11.3 / pfSense 2.4.5 cannot return a link speed of 2.5G or 5G but it seemingly can show unknown.
The most recent drivers will be in FreeBSD 12 or those Intel offers for download.

Try a pfSense 2.5 snapshot, currenntly based on 12-rel. Or a newer FreeBSD image.

Steve

[WanTime]

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig -m ix1
ix1: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        options=e538bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
        capabilities=e53fbb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,LRO,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
        ether a0:36:9f:
        inet6 fe80::a236:9fff:fe27:b1f6%ix1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
        inet6 fe80::1:1%ix1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
        inet 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
        media: Ethernet autoselect (Unknown)
        status: active
        supported media:
                media autoselect
                media 100baseTX
                media 1000baseT
                media 10Gbase-T

same in 2.5.0 :( definitely an FreeBSD/PFsense driver only issue . tested with Ubuntu bootable usb as well. as with windows it displays and auto negotiates at 2.5g just fine, i may test under newest FreeBSD tomorrow on the pfsense box it self.

[w0w]

Mine was always 2.5. Definitely FreeBSD/Intel issue, nothing to do on pfSense side. But at least it works now and this should not be a problem anyway.

[stephenw10]

Even the latest driver from Intel does not list 2.5G or 5G link speeds.
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/14688/Intel-Network-Adapters-Driver-for-PCIe-10-Gigabit-Network-Connections-Under-FreeBSD-?product=192957

Steve

[w0w]

@stephenw10
This is the same driver we have in pfSense 2.5.0. Don't know are there any plans to implement full support for NBASE-T or not, can't find anything about it on FreeBSD side.