Minnowboard MBT-4220 & 2.5.0
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From kenv I'm getting:
smbios.system.product="Minnowboard Turbot D0 PLATFORM"I'm not completely clear on your first post. In my case, the BIOS version should not be a factor. Is my best bet to switch to UFS because there is a lack of space for the ZFS module in the EFI staging area?
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In 2.5.2 the BIOS should not be a factor at all. It will recognise both strings and load the i915 drivers. That will cause ZFS to fail.
I only mentioned it because if you had updated the BIOS and were running ZFS you might have seen behaviour inconsistent with the description before this was fixed:
https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/9242Steve
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@stephenw10 Thanks. That clears it up. Not having much experience with Minnowboard, I looked up upgrading the firmware. Do you have any idea why their tutorials appear to be non-existent? They have a tutorials page, but each tutorial links directly to their homepage. Same deal with the link in pfSense's Minnowboard page. On that page, there is an absolute link to https://minnowboard.org/tutorials/updating-the-firmware but it redirects to the homepage, too.
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Been a while since I did it. I think I used the Intel support page. You can do it from the EFI shell directly.
There's no need to update it though. I only did it to test. .
Steve
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@stephenw10 I can confirm that using UFS instead of ZFS resolves my hang-on-boot issue. Thanks for your posts about this problem and how to avoid it! In the end the solution was easy (i.e., reinstall using UFS), but ZFS had worked well for my customer since January 2019 and it just never occurred to me to suspect that it was the root cause of the problem. So I'm very happy to have finally resolved the issue.
Nevertheless, I've decided to replace the MBT-4220 with an SG-1100, at my own expense, for this customer. I felt that my reputation was beginning to take a hit (this was my second attempt to upgrade to 2.5.x for him, resulting overall in several hours of internet outage), and because I'm a small business owner and referrals and reputation mean everything to me, I'm justifying the relatively small expense of replacing his firewall with an officially branded Netgate device. I bought the MBT-4220 during the (6-month?) window after the SG-1000 was discontinued but before the SG-1100 was available and hence it was the only low cost pfSense option available from Netgate. I'll move the MBT-4220 into my test lab and make good use of it there. I haven't seen any issues as severe as hang-on-boot during s/w upgrades with officially branded Netgate hardware, so feel confident I'm making the right move.
--tom
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Good to hear.
The MBT-4220 is significantly more powerful than the SG-1100. That may be no problem in your application but something to be aware of.
It's possible to run ZFS on the MBT if you disable the i915 driver. But that then prevents hot-plug on the HDMI port which is inconvenient for troubleshooting. So, compromises.
I added a com port on my personal device which gets around that. Serial console is just easier for me anyway.
At some point we will probably move to ZFS as the default so the MBT is something we have been discussing internally.
Steve
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@stephenw10 I've used the internal serial port on the MBT (using an FTDI serial to USB cable) and I assume that's similar to what you did when you say "I added a com port." I agree, it is easier to use that interface and a terminal emulator rather than the HDMI/USB keyboard approach.
How would I go about disabling the i915 driver? I'm certainly willing to try try ZFS without i915/HDMI.
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Edit /boot/loader.conf.local and comment out the lines. Like:
#i915kms_load=YES #drm.i915.enable_unsupported=1 #kern.vt.fb.modes.VGA-1=d #kern.vt.fb.default_mode="1024x768"Only the first line really needs to be commented out but I'm not sure if the others will throws if left in. Unlikely to be a problem though.
Without that loaded you will only have a console if the HDMI is connected and active at boot.
Yup, I used the internal header and a TTL USB-serial adapter. I used a 3.5mm stereo jack since it fits in there great and the adapters are easily available.
Steve
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@stephenw10 Nice use of that existing 1/4" hole in the MBT chassis!
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Yeah I was pleased with that.
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@stephenw10 I was just wondering...
When you consider the features of ZFS, is there an advantage to it over UFS when using it for pfSense on a little box like a Minnowboard? The reason I ask is because it isn't being used for storage and you can backup & restore the config at any time. -
The biggest advantage, in my personal opinion, is the increased resilience against damage in the even of power loss. Certainly in current pfSense. It also has snapshots etc which we hope to take advantage of on the long term.
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@stephenw10 Could it be that the CE 2.5.2 installation image (available here: https://www.pfsense.org/download/) does not include some of the modules required to create a ZFS-based installation? When I try to follow the instructions given on https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/install-zfs.html I get to the step where I'm asked to select a disk and the list is supposed to include a Virtual Device Type. But no VDTs are included in the list and if I try to select the real on-board SSD disk I get an error saying no disks have been selected (0 < 1 disks).
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Hmm, it gives you the choice between mirror and stripe though?
The ZFS installer is quite a bit different to UFS. It's sometimes unclear you have to actually select a disk to use in the VDT.
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Yes, the stripe/mirror/raidXXX menu is shown, as described in the Netgate documentation, and I chose "stripe" . It's the following menu, Select Disks, that differs. No vtbdX (VirtIO Block Device) is listed and of the two choices that are listed, the SSD and the USB memory stick, selecting the SSD gives the error I described.
I'll try going back to my old 2.4.4 installation USB and see what happens. That's how I originally configured my MBT to use ZFS.
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@trickyt said in Minnowboard MBT-4220 & 2.5.0:
VirtIO Block Device
You would only see that if you're installing in KVM. The docs show it because it's much easier to get screenshots that way. You should be able to select just the SSD and continue.
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You can definitely do stripe with one disk in 2.5.2. You have to actually select the disk by pressing space though. That's not obvious. Should look like:
Steve
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Figured the same thing out about the time you were posting your last message. Yes, must select the device using the space bar! Duh. Have now successfully partitioned with ZFS and installed 2.5.1. At the end of the installation process it gave me a chance to invoke a shell and edit /boot/loader.conf, which I did. But there were no lines there referencing the i915 kernel module. And now I'm in the same situation I started with: insufficient EFI staging area that leads to the kernel hanging just after starting. I'm thinking that the path /boot/loader.conf likely was the file on the USB drive and I need to use a different pathname for the file on the MBT's SSD drive. That make sense to you?
BTW, I added the stereo jack serial console connector today. Works GREAT! 5-stars on this idea.
--tom
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It adds the i915 values to
loader.conf.localfor the MBT. You need to comment them out there. -
Just to wrap things up: My MBT is working fine now, running pfSense Plus 2.5.2 and configured with ZFS partitioning. So I'm confirming the process described in this thread works. I also tried installing 2.5.1 and then upgrading to 2.5.2 and my modified loader.conf.local was not changed by the upgrade process and thus the upgrade went smoothly.
One last question for @stephenw10 though: when, if ever, should I be concerned that doing an upgrade might change loader.conf.local or that the i915 kernel module might get loaded by some other config file? Then I'd be back to my original problem of the MBT hanging during boot. As far as I've determined, there's no easy way to edit loader.conf.local except during the last step of the installation process.