Intel Ethernet Controller I225-LM Support?

bk150

@stephenw10 Correct. I did a fresh install of 2.5.2 and DNS resolution was not working. I then (slowly) navigated to the GUI in System > Advanced > Networking and disabled hardware checksum offloading.

It prompted me to reboot and after the reboot, DNS was working as expected and the GUI was no longer slow.

Edit: IPv6 is also working completely as expected.

silvercharge

I have the single port version of the QNAP Intel i225-LM running on bare metal 2.5.2 CE. Reading this thread, it seems that Intel i225-LM is supported. Any known reason or thoughts why the igc drivers are not loaded and interface is not recognized on my install? Model of card is QXG-2G1T-I225.

Thank you.

none2@pci0:4:0:0:       class=0x020000 card=0xc0011baa chip=0x15f28086 rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I225-LM'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet

stephenw10

Looks identical to the one shown here: https://forum.netgate.com/post/993924
Check the boot log for errors when the driver tries to attach.

Steve

silvercharge

@stephenw10 Found something pretty interesting...

May be a red herring. I do have an onboard intel NIC that was loading fine as em0. I have since disabled it. Error persists whether the onboard nic is enabled or disabled in the bios.

igc0: <Intel(R) PRO/1000 PCI-Express Network Driver> mem 0xe1b00000-0xe1bfffff,0xe1c00000-0xe1c03fff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci3
igc0: Setup of Shared code failed, error -2
igc0: IFDI_ATTACH_PRE failed 6
device_attach: igc0 attach returned 6

silvercharge

@silvercharge There seems to be some type incompatibility between a quad port Broadcom card and the I225-LM installed. When the Broadcom's link state is down, then the igc0 driver can load successfully.

stephenw10

Hmm, curious. So it works with the Broadcom NIC still installed but simply not linked?

But, yes, that's some low level failure preventing the driver attaching.

Steve

silvercharge

@stephenw10 Agree. Although I have all offloading is disabled in 2.5.2 CEA, a quick search show similar complaints over the years (e.g. intel & broadcom incompatibly).

stephenw10

Yeah, no amount of offload disabling is doing to help if the driver doesn't attach.

stephenw10

Anyone able to test this in a 2.6 snapshot?

It looks like 2.5.2 missed this fix for UDP checksum offloading.
That is in 2.6.

Steve

bk150

@stephenw10 I'll throw the 2.6 snapshot on a flash drive and test it right now.

Edit: It looks like everything works with the I225-LM NICs on the 2020806 build. Upon fresh installation, DNS and IPv6 were working without making any changes. I navigated to System > Advanced > Networking and verified that the disable hardware checksum offloading option was not checked.

I'm about to head out of town soon so let me know if you want anything specific checked. Otherwise I can dig further early next week.

slk2k

@bk150

Did you have anything in the HW things disabled (Checksum, TSO, LRO)??

Thanks!

stephenw10

TSO and LRO should be disabled by default anyway.

@bk150 said in Intel Ethernet Controller I225-LM Support?:

verified that the disable hardware checksum offloading option was not checked.

So that's all the offloading option at their defaults should work in 2.6.

Steve

slk2k

@stephenw10

I was curious of his testing. I ran for years with everything enabled using my 2 port Broadcom LOM on my Dell r220. Never a problem. I understand it's against what is recommended, but the Broadcom drivers for my NICs were mature and handled everything correctly without issue.

bk150

@slk2k I left everything at the default.

slk2k

@bk150

Awesome - thanks!!

silvercharge

@silvercharge FWIW, in my scenario, I had to ensure that only i225 NICs were installed in a system. If any other NICs, (intel, broadcom, etc.) were installed then the i225 driver would fail to load over 90% of the time. I tested on two distinct systems.

whizatit

Eyeing post intently, drooling with anticipation...

whizatit

This post is deleted!

whizatit

@stephenw10 said in Intel Ethernet Controller I225-LM Support?:

@whizatit said in Intel Ethernet Controller I225-LM Support?:

currently running a 1000 Gb connection

You're gonna need a big CPU!

There is no i225 support in current pfSense. But there will be at some point.

Steve
I JUST now got that, I feel dumb now thanks lol

As for the rest of the post... I'm looking for at least a 2 port 2.5Gb card as internet here is/can/does have that speed for download. The card I originally posted about here just caught my eye. I still have not purchased a 2.5G card as I have seen conflicting information about everyone of them from the traffic graphs not working, cards not supported etc etc...

Are there ANY currently working 2.5Gb cards available that are 100% compatible with pfsense? Preferably one with a built on fan as this is not going into a rack server and case fans do not have enough CFM for the most part for a high bandwidth card. No fan no problem i can add one, it would just make it more plug and pray!

stephenw10

Most of the issues on this thread seem to be from UDP checksum which you can easily disable or run a 2.6 snapshot. We've seen no issues running the i225-V in the 6100.

Steve