Quad Port NIC not detected

gilesitis

Hi all,

Converted a SuperMircro Mini-0020 (former google appliance) into a nice pfsense box. It's been working great on 2.4.0.

I need to add some more ports, so I ordered a riser board ( CSE-RR1U-X) and an Intel Pro 1000 MT Quad Port PCI-X Network Server Adapter.

Both PCI-X and both were supposedly comptabible with pfSense/FreeBSD.

Upon installation, the NIC wasn't detected. Tried reseating, changing bios settings, rebooting, but no luck. Just not being recognized by the computer.

I'm not too familiar with FreeBSD and this is the first time trying to add hardware to pfSense.

Not sure if I need to try a different version of pfSense, do firmware updates on the SuperMicro, or maybe it's a driver issue.

If anyone has any other troubleshooting advice on this, I would so much be appreciative.

stephenw10

Do you see the NIC devices listed by the BIOS?

Try booting something else, some live distro perhaps, just to check it's not something specific to FreeBSD 11.1

Steve

gilesitis

I see the Broadcom extremes (onboard) but no mention of the intel.

Wondering if it’s the em driver that needs to be loaded.

I’ve read some information and apparently you can download it from intel but not sure how to transfer to the pfSense box... maybe ftp?

Gertjan

@gilesitis said in Quad Port NIC not detected:

transfer to the pfSense box... maybe ftp ?

That question shouldn't exist.
pfSense has SSH, so it has SFTP. Far more easier as FTP..
FreeBSD 11.x not finding Intel NICs seems strange to me.
No trace in dmesg ?

gilesitis

good point about sftp.
can't find anything in the dmesg output other than the onboard nics

i would assume it would automatically support the nic with it being a years old and an intel

is the driver load worth a shot? im starting to wonder if the riser board and or card is dead

i have tried in two machines. they are both identical and neither recognized it.

looking to also try a live freebsd to see what it finds

stephenw10

Do the NICs appear in the output at the command line of?:
pciconf -lv

If they are there but no driver is attached they will show 'none' devices. If they are not shown at all then they are not visible on the PCI bus and no driver will work.

Not sure what output the BIOS might have on that board but it might show a table of all the detected PCI devices just before it boots. If the NICs are not shown there then they will never work in any OS.

Steve

gilesitis

Unfortunately the NICs do not show in either pciconf or dmesg. Guess they are toast.

Any recommendations for a USB NIC that will work?

Gertjan

USB NIC ?
Short answer : no.
Longer answer : you would advice such a thing to your worst enemy.
Best answer : if a USB NIC has been listed as it would work with FreeBSD, and you find traces on the net that confirms so, you might give it a try.

gilesitis

Maybe time to start looking for a new box with enough NICs then.

My current box is 1U so I'm not interested in trying another riser board and NIC and would definitely hate to waste anymore time looking for a USB NIC just to find it doesn't work either.

stephenw10

Try the NIC without the riser directly in the slot, if it will fit with the top removed.
Try a PCI NIC in one of the other slots, with the top removed.

Those are probably 32bit 33MHz PCI slots so limited to ~1Gbps for the slot. You might not need more than that across the ports in it. The bix might not be capable of more anyway depending on what CPU it has. That's pretty ancient hardware.

Steve

gilesitis

@stephenw10 said in Quad Port NIC not detected:

Try the NIC without the riser directly in the slot, if it will fit with the top removed.
Try a PCI NIC in one of the other slots, with the top removed.

Those are probably 32bit 33MHz PCI slots so limited to ~1Gbps for the slot. You might not need more than that across the ports in it. The bix might not be capable of more anyway depending on what CPU it has. That's pretty ancient hardware.

Steve

Unfortunately, the card won't fit without the riser : (

I believe the PCI-X slot is 133MHz, but I'm pretty much going to find another box.

Oh well, you live and learn. I did gain some FreeBSD knowledge through the experience. Thanks to you guys for your advice!