PC Engines apu2 experiences

stephenw10

Ooo ouch. Yeah I didn't have that excuse.

logan5247

Anyone running 2.4.5-p1 yet? Already on 2.4.5, so I don't think there would be much of a chance for something to go wrong...
https://www.netgate.com/blog/pfsense-2-4-5-release-p1-now-available.html

fireodo

@logan5247 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

Anyone running 2.4.5-p1 yet? Already on 2.4.5, so I don't think there would be much of a chance for something to go wrong...
https://www.netgate.com/blog/pfsense-2-4-5-release-p1-now-available.html

Here running on 2.4.5_p1 - since yesterday and I cannot see any issue ...

daemonix

Do you run ntopng on apu2c4 without problems on 200-300mbit lines (20mbit ish upload)? (I run pfBlocker, openVPN client and an openVPN server... mo snort etc)

Is this too heavy on the CPU?

Qinn

@daemonix I run Ntopng, no worries works good.

fireodo

@Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@daemonix I run Ntopng, no worries work good.

Hmm, strange here - i uninstalled ntopng because every time I saved the settings I got a core dump (but ntopng has continued to work).

Qinn

@fireodo In the past, Ntopng was slow, not to say very slow and I walked away from it, in the beginning of this year I tried it again and I was amazed how it progressed.

fireodo

@Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@fireodo In the past, Ntopng was slow, not to say very slow and I walked away from it, in the beginning of this year I tried it again and I was amazed how it progressed.

I am speaking from the newest version (0.8.13_5) and its the "core dump" what make me uninstall it - not the speed.

Qinn

@fireodo I am running ntopng v0.8.13_5 runs like a charm, maybe it's the ram, although your 2Gb should be enough as when I stop the service, memory usage goes down a 10% here...

fireodo

@Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@fireodo I am running ntopng v0.8.13_5 runs like a charm, maybe it's the ram, although your 2Gb should be enough as when I stop the service, memory usage goes down a 10% here...

Lucky you - it was running fine here too, (excluding the core dump on saving settings) - maybe there is something in my configuration that is conflicting with it when I'm saving the settings ...

Qinn

@fireodo Just a guess as default Ntopng keeps settings, maybe, uncheck this and then remove the package, then reinstall, maybe vanilla works fine

fireodo

@Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@fireodo Just a guess as default Ntopng keeps settings, maybe, uncheck this and then remove the package, then reinstall, maybe vanilla works fine

It was a vanilla install when that core dump issue occure - i gave it up ...
(And btw: its really overkill for my network)

daemonix

I got some core dumps here again... I think its quite heavy for 24/7 use.

Qinn

@daemonix It's running 24/7 since 6 months never had a problem with it.

daemonix

@Qinn Ill give it another go. all updated but got a core dump.

fireodo

@Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@daemonix It's running 24/7 since 6 months never had a problem with it.

A little question: Have you CPU Boost activated?
https://github.com/pcengines/apu2-documentation/blob/master/docs/apu_CPU_boost.md

apu2

I recently bought a new APU2 board and installed pfsense 2.4.5 release. BIOS is coreboot version v4.11.0.6.
I had mSATA 64G drive. Installation was easy and straightforward.
This setup was runinig fine for about 1 month after which I started to get the following issues.

Disk started to show some timeouts and disconnects.
I can login to the system but cannot do anything that require disk read.

I am trying to understand if this is a hardware of software issue. Is there anything I can do to troubleshoot the issue further?
PC engines mention bootloader parameter hint.ahci.0.msi="0" but it is applicable only for bios version older than 4.6.7

igb1: link state changed to UP
ahcich0: Timeout on slot 1 port 0
ahcich0: is 00000000 cs 00000002 ss 00000000 rs 00000002 tfd d0 serr 00000000 cmd 0040e117
ahcich0: Timeout on slot 18 port 0
ahcich0: is 00000000 cs 00040000 ss 00000000 rs 00040000 tfd c0 serr 00000000 cmd 0040f217
ahcich0: AHCI reset: device not ready after 31000ms (tfd = 00000080)
ahcich0: Timeout on slot 19 port 0
ahcich0: is 00000000 cs 00080000 ss 00000000 rs 00080000 tfd 80 serr 00000000 cmd 0040f317
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): ATA_IDENTIFY. ACB: ec 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): CAM status: Command timeout
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): Retrying command
ahcich0: Timeout on slot 20 port 0
ahcich0: is 00000000 cs 00100000 ss 00000000 rs 00100000 tfd 1d0 serr 00000000 cmd 0040f417
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): ATA_IDENTIFY. ACB: ec 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): CAM status: Command timeout
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): Error 5, Retries exhausted
ahcich0: AHCI reset: device not ready after 31000ms (tfd = 00000180)
ahcich0: Timeout on slot 21 port 0
ahcich0: is 00000000 cs 00200000 ss 00000000 rs 00200000 tfd 180 serr 00000000 cmd 0040f517
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): ATA_IDENTIFY. ACB: ec 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): CAM status: Command timeout
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): Error 5, Retry was blocked
ada0 at ahcich0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0
ada0: <MT-64 H180516> s/n 978081794579 detached
g_vfs_done():ufsid/58bf2d4f649f8ad1[READ(offset=30607212544, length=65536)]error = 6
vnode_pager_generic_getpages_done: I/O read error 5
vnode_pager_generic_getpages_done: I/O read error 5
ahcich0: AHCI reset: device not ready after 31000ms (tfd = 00000180)
ahcich0: Timeout on slot 22 port 0
ahcich0: is 00000000 cs 00400000 ss 00000000 rs 00400000 tfd 180 serr 00000000 cmd 0040f617
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): ATA_IDENTIFY. ACB: ec 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): CAM status: Command timeout
(aprobe0:ahcich0:0:0:0): Retrying command
ahcich0: Timeout on slot 23 port 0
ahcich0: is 00000000 cs 00800000 ss 00000000 rs 00800000 tfd 1d0 serr 00000000 cmd 0040f717

thanks!

fireodo

@apu2 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

I recently bought a new APU2 board and installed pfsense 2.4.5 release. BIOS is coreboot version v4.11.0.6.
I had mSATA 64G drive. Installation was easy and straightforward.
This setup was runinig fine for about 1 month after which I started to get the following issues.

Disk started to show some timeouts and disconnects.
I can login to the system but cannot do anything that require disk read.

I am trying to understand if this is a hardware of software issue. Is there anything I can do to troubleshoot the issue further?

You can try to boot in single mode and do a "/sbin/fsck -y / " (repeat until no error show)

PC engines mention bootloader parameter hint.ahci.0.msi="0" but it is applicable only for bios version older than 4.6.7
igb1: link state changed to UP
ahcich0: Timeout on slot 1 port 0

On the other hand it is possible that your SSD is dying ... make a backup of your config for the case that you have to change the drive.

thanks!

You're welcome,

fireodo

Qinn

I would check the advice from @fireodo; "A little question: Have you CPU Boost activated?" as this makes a lot off difference.

Then I may add, always install pfSense using the ZFS filesystem not the UFS (default). For a few reasons;

TRIM is default enabled (I am using mSATA), but this can also be enabled manually on a UFS filesystem, but the most important reason I advice to use ZFS is that it can 100% safegard you against bit errors, because the APU2 has ECC memory

apu2

@fireodo @Qinn Thanks both!
Good advise for my next ssd :)

Drive actually died and no longer detected by the system. Tried reseating it a few times but no lock.
I am surprised SMART didn't detected anything.
Is there any meaning to run smartd for SSDs?