Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    PFSense on a DEC3840 (Netboard A20)

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
    51 Posts 2 Posters 8.8k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      I would install from it, then check the loader files in the resulting install.

      Steve

      B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • B
        bpl294 @stephenw10
        last edited by stephenw10

        @stephenw10 below is the opnsense loader.conf after a serial install. do you notice anything that PFSense does differently?

        ##############################################################
This file was auto-generated using the rc.loader facility. 
In order to deploy a custom change to this installation,   
please use /boot/loader.conf.local as it is not rewritten, 
or better yet use System: Settings: Tunables from the GUI. 
##############################################################

loader_brand="opnsense"
loader_logo="hourglass"
loader_menu_title=""

autoboot_delay="3"

- Vital modules that are not in FreeBSD's GENERIC
- configuration will be loaded on boot, which makes
- races with individual module's settings impossible.
carp_load="YES"
if_bridge_load="YES"
if_enc_load="YES"
if_gif_load="YES"
if_gre_load="YES"
if_lagg_load="YES"
if_tap_load="YES"
if_tun_load="YES"
if_vlan_load="YES"
pf_load="YES"
pflog_load="YES"
pfsync_load="YES"

- dynamically generated console settings follow
comconsole_speed="115200"
#boot_multicons
boot_serial="YES"
#kern.vty
console="comconsole"

- dynamically generated tunables settings follow
hw.ibrs_disable="0"
hw.ixl.enable_head_writeback="0"
hw.syscons.kbd_reboot="0"
hw.uart.console="io:0x3f8,br:115200"
kern.ipc.maxsockbuf="4262144"
kern.randompid="347"
net.enc.in.ipsec_bpf_mask="2"
net.enc.in.ipsec_filter_mask="2"
net.enc.out.ipsec_bpf_mask="1"
net.enc.out.ipsec_filter_mask="1"
net.inet.icmp.drop_redirect="1"
net.inet.icmp.icmplim="0"
net.inet.icmp.log_redirect="0"
net.inet.icmp.reply_from_interface="1"
net.inet.ip.accept_sourceroute="0"
net.inet.ip.intr_queue_maxlen="1000"
net.inet.ip.portrange.first="1024"
net.inet.ip.random_id="1"
net.inet.ip.redirect="0"
net.inet.ip.sourceroute="0"
net.inet.tcp.blackhole="2"
net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack="0"
net.inet.tcp.drop_synfin="1"
net.inet.tcp.log_debug="0"
net.inet.tcp.recvspace="65228"
net.inet.tcp.sendspace="65228"
net.inet.tcp.syncookies="1"
net.inet.tcp.tso="1"
net.inet.udp.blackhole="1"
net.inet.udp.checksum="1"
net.inet.udp.maxdgram="57344"
net.inet6.ip6.prefer_tempaddr="0"
net.inet6.ip6.redirect="1"
net.inet6.ip6.use_tempaddr="0"
net.link.bridge.pfil_bridge="0"
net.link.bridge.pfil_local_phys="0"
net.link.bridge.pfil_member="1"
net.link.bridge.pfil_onlyip="0"
net.link.tap.user_open="1"
net.local.dgram.maxdgram="8192"
security.bsd.see_other_gids="0"
security.bsd.see_other_uids="0"
vfs.read_max="32"
vm.pmap.pti="1"
        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          The only thing there is this:

          hw.uart.console="io:0x3f8,br:115200"

          But that's the expected default value.

          Is there a loader.conf.local?

          B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • B
            bpl294 @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10 these are all the files that begin with "loader", i dont see a loader.conf.local

            d73a60e5-c36c-4099-9d93-406febc6084d-image.png

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              What's in device.hints? You can see it's loading that too.

              Steve

              B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • B
                bpl294 @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10

                # $FreeBSD$
hint.fdc.0.at="isa"
hint.fdc.0.port="0x3F0"
hint.fdc.0.irq="6"
hint.fdc.0.drq="2"
hint.fd.0.at="fdc0"
hint.fd.0.drive="0"
hint.fd.1.at="fdc0"
hint.fd.1.drive="1"
hint.atkbdc.0.at="isa"
hint.atkbdc.0.port="0x060"
hint.atkbd.0.at="atkbdc"
hint.atkbd.0.irq="1"
hint.psm.0.at="atkbdc"
hint.psm.0.irq="12"
hint.sc.0.at="isa"
hint.sc.0.flags="0x100"
hint.uart.0.at="isa"
hint.uart.0.port="0x3F8"
hint.uart.0.flags="0x10"
hint.uart.0.irq="4"
hint.uart.1.at="isa"
hint.uart.1.port="0x2F8"
hint.uart.1.irq="3"
hint.ppc.0.at="isa"
hint.ppc.0.irq="7"
hint.atrtc.0.at="isa"
hint.atrtc.0.port="0x70"
hint.atrtc.0.irq="8"
hint.attimer.0.at="isa"
hint.attimer.0.port="0x40"
hint.attimer.0.irq="0"
hint.acpi_throttle.0.disabled="1"
hint.p4tcc.0.disabled="1"
                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  Hmm, nothing unusual there either..... 🤔

                  B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • B
                    bpl294 @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 do you have any other idea why the installer won't load? Is there any bios settings i should look for? Is there anyway to do a more verbose install?

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      You can interrupt the boot loader just before it gets to that point and force it to boot verbose at the prompt:

                      OK> boot -v

                      What NICs does that have?
                      If you install to the SSD in something else then move that across before the first boot it will come up normally if there is a profile for the NICs. So you would be able to hit the webgui even if the console doesn't work.

                      Steve

                      B 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • B
                        bpl294 @stephenw10
                        last edited by bpl294

                        @stephenw10 It has 4 Intel I210s and 2 AMD SFP+ ports. OPNSense looks like it load the ax drivers for them. Does PFSense support those? I can try disabling them in the bios for the PF install.

                        I installed pf on a donor machine and put the drive in the DEC3840, same issue. It hangs on loading the kernel. I tried disabling the SFP+ ports as well, no change in outcome.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • B
                          bpl294 @stephenw10
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10 Also, looks like there is another loader.conf in the /boot/defaults directory:

                          Not sure if it shows anything else there...

                          defaults_loader.txt

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Yeah, if it didn't have drivers for the ax NICs it should still boot completely with igb0 as WAN and igb1 as LAN. Assuming you didn't configure any interfaces on the install box before moving it.

                            In that case this looks like not a console problem at all bit actually hanging booting the kernel for some reason. Might be time to check the FreeBSD forum for anything known for that CPU/platform. Or dig in the OPN code when they introduced it for any defaults they changed.

                            Steve

                            B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • B
                              bpl294 @stephenw10
                              last edited by

                              @stephenw10 I contacted the Manufacturer of this appliance, they said the following:

                              "We don't support pfSense, in order to gain pfSense support you likely need to compile your own kernel at least for the 10gbps drivers to work, the serial console might have issues as well as the Epyc is only supported correctly in the current FreeBSD source if I'm correct.
                              You can always give it a try to downgrade to pfSense, but we can't really help you on that front.

                              If you're tech savvy enough, I don't mind sharing some of the upstream FreeBSD code references you will likely need in your kernel, just let me know in that case."

                              is any of that helpful in pointing me in the right direction?

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                Certainly support for the AMD SoC axgbe driver is not in FreeBSD 12 so that would require a back-port which is unlikely.
                                https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/commit/7113afc84c0b68f1e531dbd6d57d024d868d11c0

                                Surprising it would require anything for serial console support but...
                                This maybe: https://bsdimp.blogspot.com/2018/07/how-to-get-memory-mapped-serial-console.html

                                If that was the case though I'd expect to see a loader value for it and the only one they have are the default values.

                                Can you see the console location in the OPN boot log?

                                Steve

                                B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • B
                                  bpl294 @stephenw10
                                  last edited by

                                  @stephenw10 the dmesg | grep tty didnt return anything in the serial console. In the /dev/ directory i do see quite a few "tty*" files. Only one was changed since i logged in, that was "ttyu0", see below...

                                  Is this what you meant?

                                  9d3efbb1-2c23-4e22-9a8e-3ea6fe61c364-image.png

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    If it's this: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D16432
                                    Then I expect uart0 to show as something other than that standard IO port in the boot log there.

                                    Steve

                                    B 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • B
                                      bpl294 @stephenw10
                                      last edited by bpl294

                                      This post is deleted!
                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • B
                                        bpl294 @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 here is some of the code changes that he was referring to:

                                        "To make sure the OS can find the serial port, you need to remove some pre production acpi hack, this https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/commit/35af9331 should do the trick.

                                        The 10gbps network card needs a driver, which AMD upstreams to https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/tree/main/sys/dev/axgbe, we do have some additional bug fixes which will likely land later on (you can find them now in our repo, https://github.com/opnsense/src)"

                                        can these changes be applied via a module or does it need to be applied in the kernel itself?

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          Ok, that is in 2.6 so the first thing to do there is just try a 2.6 snapshot:
                                          https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-src/commit/a7c68340584c942792188ad50593d4ef15cc8982#diff-96de3fc05e938f0fd1d95debb8e797e7c1da4645867d1722e01b1eff85e17186

                                          Steve

                                          B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • B
                                            bpl294 @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10 the most recent snapshot of 2.6 stalls at the spot below:

                                            5f889d88-5f6b-4ba7-bc20-1542df893d09-image.png

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.