PC Engines apu2 experiences

valnar

I've been gone for a year and my pfSense APU2 board has been working beautifully on 4.0.11. I want to upgrade for it ECC but not sure if I need to go to mainline or can stick with legacy. Is there any benefit either way?

So my choices are 4.0.29 or 4.11.0.3

I saw in an earlier post as I breezed through everything that you may need to put this in your
boot/loader.conf. Is that still true? Thanks

boot_serial="YES"
comconsole_speed="115200"
console="comconsole"
hint.ahci.0.msi="0"
loader_conf_files="/boot/device.hints"

dotdash

I've been using 4.11.0.3 with a stock serial install. I'm not even seeing any doubled text during boot anymore.
edit- Just rebooted a box from serial and it still has doubled text on the first boot menu.

Qinn

@Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@fireodo No not that "I" experienced. Most bios updates repair bugs or introduce updated SeaBIOS and
updated sortbootorder, but there are a few updates that surely matter, like the 4.0.25 version, which enabled Core Performance Boost feature. https://blog.3mdeb.com/2019/2019-02-14-enabling-cpb-on-pcengines-apu2/

Please read above!

It is now advised to move over to the mainline version and not use the legacy anymore. Please power down (use the option halt in pfSense menu and wait for it to shutdown) after you upgraded to 4.11.03 https://pcengines.github.io/ when it has powered down completely, then remove powerplug and put it back in, to restart.

logan5247

pfSense 2.4.5 is available.

Announcement here
https://www.netgate.com/blog/pfsense-2-4-5-release-now-available.html

Netgate recommends holding on remote upgrades, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and remote working.
https://www.netgate.com/blog/pfsense-upgrade-guidance-during-covid-19-travel-restrictions.html

logan5247

@logan5247 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

pfSense 2.4.5 is available.

Announcement here
https://www.netgate.com/blog/pfsense-2-4-5-release-now-available.html

Netgate recommends holding on remote upgrades, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and remote working.
https://www.netgate.com/blog/pfsense-upgrade-guidance-during-covid-19-travel-restrictions.html

Just updated an APU2D4 to 2.4.5, no issues so far. I don't run anything crazy (no VPN, IDS/IPS, blocking, etc...), just a couple VLANS. I did uninstall all my packages first, then did the upgrade, then reinstalled the packages.

dugeem

PC Engines / 3mdeb have released new coreboot firmware:

Mainline v4.11.0.5 (link https://pcengines.github.io/#mr-33)

No major changes although a few features of interest:

enabled PCI Express power management capabilities. ASPM can be used to increase client device power savings ... whilst not really aimed at FreeBSD/pfSense users it may be of interest for other OS projects
added PCI Express endpoint reset logic at boot. 3mdeb commented that this should improve detection of PCI Express modules.
added thermal zone definition in ACPI. This allows FreeBSD (and thus pfSense dashboard) to derive temperature via ACPI without any further configuration (ie System / Advanced / Miscellaneous / Thermal Sensors can be left on default None/ACPI)

Probably not worth upgrading unless any of these fixes are of particular interest.

Regardless I've updated my test system and it's running fine so far.

Qinn

@dugeem Thanks for the report.

fireodo

@dugeem

Please do me a favor:

Enter this at the command prompt:

sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq

and post the result.

Thank you very much,
fireodo

dugeem

@fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq

sysctl: unknown oid 'dev.cpu.0.freq'

Appears the sysctl dev.cpu tree is missing. I'm running pfSense 2.4.5. It might be useful if someone still running 2.4.4-p3 can verify if behaviour is same to rule out FreeBSD 11.3 as cause.

fireodo

@dugeem said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq
sysctl: unknown oid 'dev.cpu.0.freq'
Appears the sysctl dev.cpu tree is missing. I'm running pfSense 2.4.5. It might be useful if someone still running 2.4.4-p3 can verify if behaviour is same to rule out FreeBSD 11.3 as cause.

Go back to Bios 4.11.0.4 and you are set! I have done myself yesterday the same thing but I wasnt shure, thats why I asked you to enter that line.

Qinn

@fireodo Maybe report it? Just checked and can confirm 2.4.5 and bios 4.11.0.4 gives

[2.4.5-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq 
dev.cpu.0.freq: 1000

fireodo

@Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@fireodo Maybe report it? Just checked and can confirm 2.4.5 and bios 4.11.0.4 gives
[2.4.5-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq 
dev.cpu.0.freq: 1000

Done: https://github.com/pcengines/coreboot/issues/389

Qinn

@fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:
@fireodo Maybe report it? Just checked and can confirm 2.4.5 and bios 4.11.0.4 gives
[2.4.5-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq 
dev.cpu.0.freq: 1000
Sorry I'm in Home Office - I have not so much time ...

Before there can be a report, we need to be sure if this i bug is for all apu2 or specific to certain versions, as I see you use a C0 and I a C4.

At the moment I cannot upgrade to 4.11.0.5 as I cannot "Halt" this router, maybe later in the day...

Qinn

@fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:
@fireodo Maybe report it? Just checked and can confirm 2.4.5 and bios 4.11.0.4 gives
[2.4.5-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq 
dev.cpu.0.freq: 1000
Done: https://github.com/pcengines/coreboot/issues/389

Kudos!

soder

@Qinn It seems to be a good strategy to NOT do software/BIOS/firmware updates immediately after release. Lets first wait for others to burn themselves, then when the fire is put out, do the update.

sToRmInG

Did anyone experience similar issues with their APUs?
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/151963/throughput-issues-on-pfsense-2-4-5-with-apu2e4

I myself am using 4.11.0.4.

dugeem

@soder Yes always sound to deploy to test systems first and/or wait for others.

In this case this is not a serious bug unless you are modifying the dev.cpu.* sysctl to reduce clock speed from default 1.0/1.4GHz default. Benchmarking shows that CPU performance is unchanged between releases.

The likely 3mdeb APU coreboot change which caused this is https://github.com/pcengines/coreboot/commit/9550e97304ecc1c1b6271d50ea089c82b9a82946

Anyway @fireodo has raised issue with 3mdeb ... have to wait for feedback.

bigsy

From https://github.com/pcengines/coreboot/issues/389

"it looks like I rushed things... FreeBSD 12.x detects CPU on ACPI correctly with v4.11.0.5. If pfSense 2.5.0 based on FreeBSD 12.0 is out it will work I guess.

Sorry about that. Will revert it on next release."

Qinn

@bigsy Thanks for informing us

stefanl

That 4.11.05 bios! Back on 4.11.04 now.

Another issue I have on .05 is that my throughput decreased drastically.

I have a 500/500 line and could easily saturate it on .04:

iperf3 -c x.x.x. -P 4

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   158 MBytes   132 Mbits/sec  130             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   157 MBytes   131 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[  7]   0.00-10.00  sec   118 MBytes  98.7 Mbits/sec  152             sender
[  7]   0.00-10.00  sec   116 MBytes  97.5 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[  9]   0.00-10.00  sec   139 MBytes   117 Mbits/sec  102             sender
[  9]   0.00-10.00  sec   138 MBytes   116 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[ 11]   0.00-10.00  sec   190 MBytes   159 Mbits/sec  158             sender
[ 11]   0.00-10.00  sec   188 MBytes   158 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[SUM]   0.00-10.00  sec   604 MBytes   507 Mbits/sec  542             sender
[SUM]   0.00-10.00  sec   599 MBytes   503 Mbits/sec                  receiver

On .05:

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  49.8 MBytes  41.8 Mbits/sec  230             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  49.3 MBytes  41.4 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[  7]   0.00-10.00  sec  50.4 MBytes  42.3 Mbits/sec  240             sender
[  7]   0.00-10.00  sec  49.8 MBytes  41.8 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[  9]   0.00-10.00  sec  42.3 MBytes  35.5 Mbits/sec  222             sender
[  9]   0.00-10.00  sec  42.0 MBytes  35.3 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[ 11]   0.00-10.00  sec  40.0 MBytes  33.6 Mbits/sec  259             sender
[ 11]   0.00-10.00  sec  39.7 MBytes  33.3 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[SUM]   0.00-10.00  sec   183 MBytes   153 Mbits/sec  951             sender
[SUM]   0.00-10.00  sec   181 MBytes   152 Mbits/sec                  receiver

APU2C4 pfSense 2.4.5 with this configuration: https://teklager.se/en/knowledge-base/apu2-1-gigabit-throughput-pfsense/