Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    PC Engines APU4C4 Experience

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
    68 Posts 12 Posters 18.5k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • boukeB
      bouke @gtrdriver
      last edited by

      @gtrdriver Try to downgrade the BIOS. When unsuccessful: use a debricker. These cost a few Euros/Dollars.

      https://www.pcengines.ch/spi1a.htm

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • G
        gtrdriver
        last edited by

        Hi

        What Version of Bios do you think should i choose ?

        fireodoF V 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • fireodoF
          fireodo @gtrdriver
          last edited by

          @gtrdriver said in PC Engines APU4C4 Experience:

          Hi

          What Version of Bios do you think should i choose ?

          You could give the legacy Bios 4.0.28 or mainline Bios prior to 4.10.0 a try - the versions above contain some significant changes that may interfere with your other hardware.
          IMHO,
          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.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • G
            gtrdriver
            last edited by

            Hi

            i have created a bootable Debian Stick - and tryed this

            BIOS version v4.9.0.7

            With this Bios Version Pfsense Seem to boot correctly - i will test.

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

              @gtrdriver said in PC Engines APU4C4 Experience:
              Hi,

              BIOS version v4.9.0.7

              should be fine ...

              With this Bios Version Pfsense Seem to boot correctly - i will test.

              it would be helpful if you let us know what kind of SSD/HDD you use for you pfsense installation and if there is also other hardware (wireless etc.).

              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.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • G
                gtrdriver
                last edited by

                Hi

                i use a Plain APU4c4 Device without Wireless - only the 4 NIC´s
                I also use the "original" SSD Device wich comes within the Bundle.

                There is no Vendor on the Delivered Msata SSD so i think its bulk

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

                  @gtrdriver said in PC Engines APU4C4 Experience:

                  Hi

                  i use a Plain APU4c4 Device without Wireless - only the 4 NIC´s
                  I also use the "original" SSD Device wich comes within the Bundle.

                  There is no Vendor on the Delivered Msata SSD so i think its bulk

                  OK, thanks - those SSDs that come with the APU4 shouldnt make any trouble, but there is always a "but" possible ...

                  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.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • G
                    gtrdriver
                    last edited by

                    Hi

                    i also see that this Boards can be rund with a SD Card

                    Does there exist eny long Time exp whats better SD or SSD ?
                    I use SD on some Raspberry Projekts - no Problems at all ...

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

                      @gtrdriver said in PC Engines APU4C4 Experience:

                      Hi

                      i also see that this Boards can be rund with a SD Card

                      Does there exist eny long Time exp whats better SD or SSD ?
                      I use SD on some Raspberry Projekts - no Problems at all ...

                      SSD is the better alternative. The SD-Card is slower and if you have packages like squid or other, write intensive, packages a SD-Card would not be a good choice because of limited write cycles. In fact it depends how you intend to use pfsense.

                      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.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • V
                        viragomann @gtrdriver
                        last edited by

                        @gtrdriver said in PC Engines APU4C4 Experience:

                        What Version of Bios do you think should i choose ?

                        I upgraded one to v4.10.0.1 three weeks ago. There wasn't any issue since then.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • boukeB
                          bouke @gtrdriver
                          last edited by bouke

                          @gtrdriver Looking at the error message again... could there be an issue with the partition? Did you remove the existing partitions and try a clean installation?

                          I did read about the attempt to reinstall in your comment - but it once happened to me that I accidentally didn't boot from the USB stick but straight from the SSD... It looked like I was booting from USB but I wasn't. This happend after a power issue some time ago.

                          I am running BIOS 10.0.0. I am using one of those mSATA SSDs of 16 GB.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • G
                            gtrdriver
                            last edited by

                            Hi

                            First of all - im sure that this happen on USB Boot !
                            I tryed this 5 Fimes and for security i created a new USB Media ...

                            Perhaps The Installer "see" the bad Partition and Crash - dont know ...

                            Booting from the Debian Live Stick worked fine - then downgraded Bios and Attemp new Boot works fine then ... (Still with the bad parition ...)

                            So - after all - im nocht 100% sure but 95% ...

                            Second:

                            After some Tests im realy Impressed about this box:

                            Here we have 2 100Mbit VDSL Modems and use Wan1 and Wan2 with Load Balancing - works fine.
                            But more Impressed im about the OpenVPN Performance

                            I use the Box to Connect to a Virtialised PFSENSE (Fat Host Hardware) in a DataCenter for S2S VPN

                            Do some Tests with Iperf:

                            85Mbit Down / 32Mbit Up in TcpIp Mode
                            88Mbit Down / 34Mbit Up in UDP Mode

                            I think when i put the Overhead of OpenVPN to this results im Near to the Max Cap of one of our Lines (and we dont get 100/40mbit - i think its 98/36Mbit)

                            The Results are Steady even after much more Tests.

                            The Best thing is that in Real User Practise (We use RDP 8.x to Connect to Remote Windows Server in Datacenter i can Stream a Youtube Video over RDP in Fullscreen with arround 40-60Mbit/s over VPN in UDP Mode without any Issues
                            And RDP is not the Best Way to Stream a video ...

                            This is not our Business Case but when a Fullscreen Video run Smooth than 15 RDP Workers can run Office and Craphical Tools smooth over a simple 100Mbit Connection with VPN.

                            With our old Hardware we had Dropouts on such Payloads.

                            Now i Hope this Kind of Box runs stable....

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

                              @gtrdriver
                              That is a filesystem error. Almost certainly nothing to do with the Coreboot update.

                              https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/hardware/troubleshooting-disk-check-errors-fsck.html#manually-run-fsck

                              Steve

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

                                Just a hint:

                                To the best of my knowledge the APU family has no power button, but from time to time one has to power down, certainly after a bios update, as this is highly recommended. I have encountered many that power down using the power cord, which is understandable, but this may result in file system damage. The best way is to use the "Halt System" option in the GUI and wait until the system is powered down fully. It can take up to 5 minutes until all LED's are off, but this way you are certain that the system powers down gracefully.

                                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

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • G
                                  gtrdriver
                                  last edited by gtrdriver

                                  Hi

                                  I think (but don't know) that this is one of the differences to their own negate devices (special arm)

                                  I think they use other file system methods to avoid this. (Ro temp and so on....)

                                  I also think not every power loss will END ON A damaged file system.

                                  Here I use usv ....

                                  Does anyone know if those apu devices have a watchdog which works with pfsense ?

                                  Or does the original arm netgate devices have a watchdog ?

                                  In terms of price this kind of apu devices are same price as the sg1100

                                  If I'm understand right the sg1100 have also a 2.5gbps backplate for the 3 Ethernet devices ...

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

                                    One of the things I personally like about the APU is that they use Intel NIC's

                                    https://pcengines.ch/apu2.htm

                                    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

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • G
                                      gtrdriver
                                      last edited by

                                      Personaly i agree but I think if you have original pfsense hardware I think this should also be stable

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • V
                                        viragomann
                                        last edited by

                                        Such filesystem errors due to power outage seem to occur with UFS only.
                                        Install pfSense with ZFS and you will be relaxed. That was recommended here already many times.

                                        boukeB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • boukeB
                                          bouke @viragomann
                                          last edited by

                                          @viragomann Please see the following excellent document: https://teklager.se/en/knowledge-base/pfsense-ufs-filesystem-corruption-after-power-loss/

                                          V 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • V
                                            viragomann @bouke
                                            last edited by

                                            @bouke
                                            I agree with that. That affirms what I wrote above.

                                            ZFS seems to be very robust against power outage (incomplete write processes). I'm running pfSense on ZFS at home for almost two years and had recently multiple power outage due to a fault device a week ago with no effect to pfSense. It boots up and does its job every time when the power come back.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.