PC Engines apu2 experiences

Vollans

Hi all, I had my apu4d4 delivered last week, and it’s working pretty well. It’s easily coping with my NBN connection.

One thing I’ve not managed to find a definitive answer to is if the hardware watchdog in it is compatible with pfSense and if it is how to enable/configure it. Anyone?

Qinn

@vollans I can’t comment, I only use the service_watchdog from the package manager and that works rather nice. If you are worried for power surges, be sure to use the ZFS filesystem.

Vollans

@qinn oh, don’t worry, I already do.

fireodo

Hi,

is there somebody who's running pfsense 2.5.0 on his APU and is he/she getting the Front-LEDs working?

Thanks,
fireodo

Qinn

@fireodo No I don't use it and you mean the RC, as to the best of my knowledge it isn't released, yet.

fireodo

@qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@fireodo No I don't use and you mean the RC, as to the best of my knowledge it isn't released, yet.

The 2.5.0 RC is available since today and i installed it on a APU2C0 (spare-test) but the old apuled.ko driver (compiled for freebsd 11.) is not working anymore and a new compiled driver for freebsd 12 (2.5.0 RC is based on) is not working. I also have seen that the /dev/led/ is missing in the tree.

Qinn

@fireodo Maybe report it by starting a new thread in an appropriate category and explain the problem in as much detail as possible.

Vollans

@fireodo Thanks for that, saves me the hassle of upgrading and working it out for myself! I’ve just finished modifying the script to my taste to show me if my primary nbn or secondary 4G connections are having problems.

fireodo

@vollans
@qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@fireodo Maybe report it by starting a new thread in an appropriate category and explain the problem in as much detail as possible.

I made a few tests this day. Going back to the APU2 Bios version 4.9.0.6 the driver I compiled with freebsd 12.1 is working as expected. I dont know why with bioses above 4.10.0 the patch in boot.conf.local (debug.acpi.avoid="_SB_.PCI0.GPIO") have no effect in freebsd 12.2 (pfsense 2.5.0 RC)

So until here - good news!
fireodo
PS. If someone likes to test too, here is the driver.apuled12.ko

saltandpepper

Hi

Since today 2.5.0 is released. Has already someone tested how the performance is impacted by the new version?

keen

@saltandpepper Yes upgraded without any problems

Qinn

Update to pfS 2.5.0 went smooth.

logan5247

@saltandpepper I also had a smooth update.

Vollans

@fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

I made a few tests this day. Going back to the APU2 Bios version 4.9.0.6 the driver I compiled with freebsd 12.1 is working as expected. I dont know why with bioses above 4.10.0 the patch in boot.conf.local (debug.acpi.avoid="_SB_.PCI0.GPIO") have no effect in freebsd 12.2 (pfsense 2.5.0 RC)

I can confirm that 4.9.0.7 works with the final release version as well with your module. 4.10.x onwards doesn’t.

fireodo

@vollans said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

@fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

I made a few tests this day. Going back to the APU2 Bios version 4.9.0.6 the driver I compiled with freebsd 12.1 is working as expected. I dont know why with bioses above 4.10.0 the patch in boot.conf.local (debug.acpi.avoid="_SB_.PCI0.GPIO") have no effect in freebsd 12.2 (pfsense 2.5.0 RC)

I can confirm that 4.9.0.7 works with the final release version as well with your module. 4.10.x onwards doesn’t.

Thanks for the feedback!

Fine Weekend,
fireodo

Vollans

@fireodo I’ve just looked at the output of dmesg after it loaded:

apuled0: <APU4> at iomem 0xfed81610-0xfed8161b,0xfed81664-0xfed81667 on isa0

It looks like it’s on the ISA connection not the PCI.

kimble

@fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

PS. If someone likes to test too, here is the driver.apuled12.ko

On v4.11.0.2:

apuled0: <APU4> at iomem 0xfed81610-0xfed8161b,0xfed81664-0xfed81667 on isa0
apuled0: Unable to allocate memory region 0
device_attach: apuled0 attach returned 6

If that's any help...

fireodo

@kimble said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

On v4.11.0.2:

As I wrote in my post before - it don't work on APUs with Bios 4.10 and above!

apuled0: <APU4> at iomem 0xfed81610-0xfed8161b,0xfed81664-0xfed81667 on isa0
apuled0: Unable to allocate memory region 0
device_attach: apuled0 attach returned 6
If that's any help...

Regards and fine Weekend,
fireodo

tele_01

I've updated an APU2C4 from 2.4.5p1 to 2.5. After adjusting some setup to new OpenVPN Client options it was working fine with my uploaded backup data from 2.4.5p1. Also Squid and pfBlockerNG Devil are working well. A real impact is the VPN speed - even if I've used the same settings as my VPN provider taught for version 2.5. I'm using OpenVPN with NordVPN and after updating the d/l speed is the half. Under 2.4.5p1 I've had about 96Mbit/s now at about 50Mbit/s. I've tried different options also under "Allow Compression" in the VPN Client settings but no change achieved so far, also with a different server. If this will is not getting better I'll go back to 2.4.5p1.

By the way, the processor load was not above 90% via SSH with 2.5. On 2.4.5p1 I experienced sometimes more than 100Mbit/s in d/l (provider hosts max 120mbit) the processor load was at about 94%. I use Coreboot 4.0.7 because a lot of other rom's were not stable. I'll give 4.9.0.2 another try.

saltandpepper

2.5 seems to have an impact on the performace. I didnt measure VPN traffic yet but on the WAN-LAN troughput i noticed a decrease around 200mbit (or 1/3).