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    PFSense on a DEC3840 (Netboard A20)

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
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    • 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

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        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

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          So slightly further?

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            bpl294 @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10 yes:

            2.5.2
            e120e15f-a855-41ea-989e-15ebd0e28d01-image.png

            2.6
            a6ecc437-b8cc-4adb-986b-b187365567d9-image.png

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              bpl294 @stephenw10
              last edited by bpl294

              @stephenw10 support from Decisio metioned the following as well:

              "Try to add the following to loader.conf.local hw.uart.console="io:0x3f8,br:115200" "

              Would this get added to the loader.conf.local after install on a donor system? or can it be done pre-install?

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                You could set that at the loader prompt before it boots.

                OK> set hw.uart.console="io:0x3f8,br:115200"
                OK> boot
                

                You could add it to loader.conf.local on the other system before moving is across.

                That was the only line we saw which looked like it could be doing anything so it's certainly worth trying. Those are the default com1 values though.
                Having read through the commits it might be setting it back to the default values after the detection quirks that were added for earlier EPYC systems were interfering.

                Steve

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                  bpl294 @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10 that did the trick!! Thanks alot man!!

                  So the loader.conf.local file wouldn't be removed or changed during updates or anything right?

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Ah, nice. Interesting that does anything.

                    Yes, that will be retained across updates.

                    Steve

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                      bpl294 @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10 One more thing, the cpu is being detected in PFSense as 2 cache groups x2cores. could this cause any performance impact? and is there a way to define what type of cores they are?

                      3d61354f-06a3-4808-9cca-c2201bbdbe7a-image.png

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        That's just how the CPU/BIOS reports it. I wouldn't expect it to make any difference.

                        More concerning is the fact it shows as running at 1200MHz. Does it ever rise from that?

                        You might need to enable powerd if you haven't already. Assuming there is a driver to support switching it.

                        Steve

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                          bpl294 @stephenw10
                          last edited by bpl294

                          @stephenw10 Yea that was my other concern, it does not. If i disable PowerD, running " sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq " shows 2100. But with PowerD it stays at 1200 and that's with running multiple speed tests at gigabit over wireguard and not.

                          So i have disabled PowerD for now as the CPU temp is pretty steady at about 115 Fahrenheit.

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                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Hmm, well if it changes when you enable it that shows it can set the frequency.
                            What profile did you use? Hi-Adaptive is usually the best to use.
                            It doesn't make a huge amount of difference to power consumption on modern CPUs anyway though.

                            Steve

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                              bpl294 @stephenw10
                              last edited by

                              @stephenw10 I tried it Hi-Adaptive and Maximum, both stayed at 1200.

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                Hmm, I mean there is a possibility that CPU loading never gets high enough to start ramping up. Or that it's not detecting the loading correctly.

                                Try running:

                                sysctl -a | grep freq
                                

                                So you see cpu frequency levels shown?

                                If so you can try killing powerd and setting the level manually.

                                Steve

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                                  bpl294 @stephenw10
                                  last edited by bpl294

                                  @stephenw10 it returns the following:

                                  Would the command to set it manually be " set dev.cpu.0.freq_levels=2100/1890" ?

                                  [2.6.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@core.sycamore]/root: sysctl -a | grep freq
                                  kern.timecounter.tc.ACPI-fast.frequency: 3579545
                                  kern.timecounter.tc.i8254.frequency: 1193182
                                  kern.timecounter.tc.HPET.frequency: 14318180
                                  kern.timecounter.tc.TSC.frequency: 2096114517
                                  kern.ntp_pll.time_freq: 85052405328768
                                  kern.ntp_pll.pps_freq: 89169788928000
                                  device  cpufreq
                                  kern.eventtimer.et.i8254.frequency: 1193182
                                  kern.eventtimer.et.RTC.frequency: 32768
                                  kern.eventtimer.et.HPET2.frequency: 14318180
                                  kern.eventtimer.et.HPET1.frequency: 14318180
                                  kern.eventtimer.et.HPET.frequency: 14318180
                                  kern.eventtimer.et.LAPIC.frequency: 49907470
                                  kern.acct_chkfreq: 15
                                  net.inet.sctp.sack_freq: 2
                                  debug.cpufreq.verbose: 0
                                  debug.cpufreq.lowest: 0
                                  debug.uart_poll_freq: 50
                                  machdep.tsc_freq: 2096114517
                                  machdep.i8254_freq: 1193182
                                  machdep.acpi_timer_freq: 3579545
                                  dev.cpufreq.0.%parent: cpu0
                                  dev.cpufreq.0.%pnpinfo:
                                  dev.cpufreq.0.%location:
                                  dev.cpufreq.0.%driver: cpufreq
                                  dev.cpufreq.0.%desc:
                                  dev.cpufreq.%parent:
                                  dev.hwpstate.0.freq_settings: 2100/1890 1700/1445 1200/990
                                  dev.cpu.0.freq_levels: 2100/1890 1700/1445 1200/990
                                  dev.cpu.0.freq: 2100
                                  
                                  
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                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    Ah, OK. Looks like it's working.

                                    Kill the powerd process then:

                                    sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq=1700
                                    

                                    Or whichever speed you want.
                                    The second number there is meant to be power consumption in mW. But I've always found it to be somewhat random!

                                    Steve

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                                      bpl294 @stephenw10
                                      last edited by bpl294

                                      @stephenw10 that command did change the freq in the console:

                                      adcff6c1-aa22-4f84-a3e9-b23c33ad7255-image.png

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                                      • stephenw10S
                                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                        last edited by

                                        Then maybe your test simply didn't load up the CPU enough.

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                                          bpl294 @stephenw10
                                          last edited by

                                          @stephenw10 So when i do a speed test over a WG interface it spikes the CPU up to 80% when the PowerD is enabled and at 1200mhz and it doesn't increase the freq. Is the CPU spiking that high good enough to say to increase the freq?

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                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            Yeah, 80% should be plenty high enough in highadaptive mode.

                                            I would suggest powerd is not accurately reading the loading in that case. I'm not sure there's anything we can do about that.

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