Intel Atom, Intel PRO/1000 MT not detected intermittent problem

shaf

Hi

I'm trying to install the latest snapshot onto my new Intel Atom based box and having problems.

Intel Atom
Intel Pro/1000 MT dual port
Using latest 1.2.1 snapshot (iso)

When I fresh install the card is detected and the install runs fine. When the software is moved to the HDD it also works. The problem comes when you reboot the box. The card fails to be recognised and I get the 'choose interfaces' option and only the onboard lan is present.

Looking at the logging I see the following:

em0: memory access and/or bus master bits were not set
em0: Hardware initialisation failed
em0: Unable to initalise the hardware
device_attach: em0 attach returned 5
em1: memory access and/or bus master bits were not set
em1: Hardware initialisation failed
em1: Unable to initalise the hardware

Please ask for more if required.

Your help appreciated.

cmb

That's a FreeBSD problem, not something we can resolve unless it's resolved upstream. I suggest searching on those error messages and see if you get any hits from FreeBSD lists. There is a utility to update the EEPROM on some Intel pro/1000 cards that might be applicable.

shaf

Thanks. I've replace the intel pro/1000 MT with a linksys nic and I can now progress.

The problem now is when I assign the interfaces:

plip0 -> WAN
dc0 -> LAN

I cannot connect to the internet. No WAN ip is displayed in the status screen of the WebGui.

I try switching the interfaces:

plip0: LAN
dc0: WAN

When the box reboots, no LAN ip is assigned to plip0 and I cannot access the webgui.

Any ideas?

shaf

After some searching I've found that plip0 is not really an interface.

This means that the onboard lan (RTL8111C) is not being detected.

How can I resolve this please?

wallabybob

@shaf:

After some searching I've found that plip0 is not really an interface.

This means that the onboard lan (RTL8111C) is not being detected.

How can I resolve this please?

Enable it in the BIOS?

If that doesn't work please post the startup output (output of dmesg command to the shell ) here.

nocer

Hi

I have Intel 945GCLF as well and put 1.2.1-latest on it. I also have Intel Pro/1000MT Dual port NIC installed in its PCI slot. Looks like you and me have very much similar hardware. Anyway, Pro/1000MT works super duper fine since pfSense-1.2 and 1.2.1, 1.3 with no doubt. There's nothing to do with pfSense since FreeBSD (somehow) didn't recognize your Intel at the boot sequence. Here's some excerpt from my dmesg:

Copyright (c) 1992-2008 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
        The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.
FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE-p4 #0: Thu Oct  2 01:45:12 EDT 2008
    sullrich@freebsd7-releng_1_2.geekgod.com:/usr/obj.pfSense/usr/src/sys/pfSense_SMP.7
Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
CPU: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU  230   @ 1.60GHz (1599.32-MHz 686-class CPU)
  Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x106c2  Stepping = 2
  Features=0xbfe9fbff <fpu,vme,de,pse,tsc,msr,pae,mce,cx8,apic,sep,mtrr,pge,mca,cmov,pat,clflush,dts,acpi,mmx,fxsr,sse,sse2,ss,htt,tm,pbe>Features2=0x40e31d<sse3,rsvd2,mon,ds_cpl,tm2,ssse3,cx16,xtpr,pdcm,<b22>>
  AMD Features=0x20100000 <nx,lm>AMD Features2=0x1 <lahf>Logical CPUs per core: 2
real memory  = 1063649280 (1014 MB)
avail memory = 1027084288 (979 MB)
ACPI APIC Table: <intel  d945glf="">FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 2 CPUs
 cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID:  0
 cpu1 (AP): APIC ID:  1
ioapic0: Changing APIC ID to 2
ioapic0 <version 2.0="">irqs 0-23 on motherboard

[...snip...]

pcib4: <acpi pci-pci="" bridge="">at device 30.0 on pci0
pci4: <acpi pci="" bus="">on pcib4
em0: <intel(r) 1000="" pro="" network="" connection="" version="" -="" 6.7.3="">port 0x1040-0x107f mem 0x50080000-0x5009ffff,0x50000000-0x5003ffff irq 21 at device 0.0 on pci4
em0: Ethernet address: 00:04:23:xx:xx:xx
em0: [FILTER]
em1: <intel(r) 1000="" pro="" network="" connection="" version="" -="" 6.7.3="">port 0x1000-0x103f mem 0x500a0000-0x500bffff,0x50040000-0x5007ffff irq 22 at device 0.1 on pci4
em1: Ethernet address: 00:04:23:xx:xx:xx
em1: [FILTER]</intel(r)></intel(r)></acpi></acpi></version></intel ></lahf></nx,lm></sse3,rsvd2,mon,ds_cpl,tm2,ssse3,cx16,xtpr,pdcm,<b22></fpu,vme,de,pse,tsc,msr,pae,mce,cx8,apic,sep,mtrr,pge,mca,cmov,pat,clflush,dts,acpi,mmx,fxsr,sse,sse2,ss,htt,tm,pbe>

@shaf:

After some searching I've found that plip0 is not really an interface.

This means that the onboard lan (RTL8111C) is not being detected.

How can I resolve this please?

I would recommend you to disable onboard RT chip via the BIOS, because it's too new and is NOT supported in FreeBSD6/7 for now. You can "twist" RT drivers and let kernel recognize/configure the chip, but I don't think worth trying…If you definitely need more ports, then look at this one:

http://www.roc-noc.com/product.php?productid=55&cat=0&page=1

cheers,

shaf

Hey wallabybob and nocer thanks for your replies.

I spent more time yesterday and managed to fix the issues. I now have the Intel PRO/1000 MT card installed and running. One port for WAN and the other for the LAN. I've rebooted a few times and the system is having no problems. :).

@nocer

Yes we do have similar hardware. I wanted something that drew little power but was flexible.

I gave up trying to get the Realtek chip working as I only needed two ports. Thanks for the link for NIC card, I was looking for a 4 port solution but could not find one at a reasonable price. This should do nicely if required.

I must say Pfsense has already made a big impression on me. Massive improvement from my Draytek 2900vg. I just wished I'd set it up earler. :)