pfSense Newbie Needing Solarflare Card Help

MacWarrior

So I built an ASUS computer from the ground up for pfSense and bought & installed a Solarflare Flareon Ultra 4 Port 10Gb SFP+ PCIe 3.0 Server Card Adapter SFN7124F to help with the speed. However, I am having an issue with how to install the drivers and firmware. I have downloaded both the single files and a Boot ISO but I don't understand how to install any of them. When I boot the ISO I get a screen as shown below but I don't know where to go from there. Any step-by-step directions help would be Greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
MacWarrior

luckman212

@macwarrior I don't see FreeBSD drivers for that card, so you might be in for a tough time.

I suppose you could virtualize, Hyper-V or ESXi since it does seem to support those systems.

stephenw10

Mmm, are you trying to update the firmware with that ISO?

What happens if you boot/install pfSense? Dies it recognise the NICs?

Steve

MacWarrior

@luckman212 Hi luckman - it is supported - Operating Systems
RHEL 5, 6, 7, MRG; SLES 10, 11, 12, SLERT; Debian 6.0, 7.0; Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 10.04 LTS, 14.10; other Linux; Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2; XenServer 6.2, 6.5; FreeBSD 10.x +

MacWarrior

MacWarrior

@stephenw10 Hi Stephen - When I do a normal boot and check "Interfaces" it is not in the list. I doubled and tripled check that it is in the correct PCI slot for my motherboard. I was trying to load the drivers and firmware with the ISO but I don't know how to get into the mode I need to through the ISO boot. I also tried to load the files singly through "Shell" but it doesn't recognize the commands that I put in.

MacWarrior

stephenw10

Boot into pfSense and run at the command line:
pciconf -lv
and
ifconfig -vva

Does it show the interfaces or the device itself?

If it doesn't check the boot log for driver attach failures.

It may simply not be supported by the included drivers. The PCI device IDs should tell us that.

Steve

luckman212

@macwarrior I stand corrected- didn't see it when I did a quick search.

stephenw10

It still might require their own driver or similar...

stephenw10

Supported devices seem to be these:
https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-src/blob/RELENG_2_6_0/sys/dev/sfxge/common/efx.h#L90

By the sfxge(4) driver anyway.

MacWarrior

@stephenw10 -
pciconf -lv

none2@pci0:59:0:0:	class=0x020000 card=0x800f1924 chip=0x09231924 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Solarflare Communications'
    device     = 'SFC9140 10/40G Ethernet Controller'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet
none3@pci0:59:0:1:	class=0x020000 card=0x800f1924 chip=0x09231924 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Solarflare Communications'
    device     = 'SFC9140 10/40G Ethernet Controller'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet
none4@pci0:59:0:2:	class=0x020000 card=0x800f1924 chip=0x09231924 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Solarflare Communications'
    device     = 'SFC9140 10/40G Ethernet Controller'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet
none5@pci0:59:0:3:	class=0x020000 card=0x800f1924 chip=0x09231924 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Solarflare Communications'
    device     = 'SFC9140 10/40G Ethernet Controller'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet

ifconfig -vva

igc0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
	description: WAN
	options=e120bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
	ether f0:************:77
	inet6 fe80::*************:2f77%igc0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
	inet 100.*********** netmask 0xffffe000 broadcast 100.************
	media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
	status: active
	nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
igc1: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
	options=e120bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
	ether f0:****************:76
	inet6 fe80::***************:2f76%igc1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
	inet6 fe80::******%igc1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
	inet 10.********** netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.***********
	media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
	status: active
	nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
enc0: flags=0<> metric 0 mtu 1536
	groups: enc
	nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 16384
	options=680003<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,LINKSTATE,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
	inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
	inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
	inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
	groups: lo
	nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
pflog0: flags=100<PROMISC> metric 0 mtu 33160
	groups: pflog
pfsync0: flags=0<> metric 0 mtu 1500
	groups: pfsync

MacWarrior

MacWarrior

@luckman212 No problem. I understand.

MacWarrior

MacWarrior

@stephenw10 - Here is the download site I was at:

https://support-nic.xilinx.com/wp/drivers#

MacWarrior

MacWarrior

@stephenw10 - Looks like a new bootable just came out today.

MW

stephenw10

Hmm well 0923:1924 looks like it should be supported by the sfxge driver in 2.5.2:
https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-src/blob/RELENG_2_5_0/sys/dev/sfxge/common/efx.h#L100
So I would be checking the boot log for errors to see why it doesn't attach.

I don't see any FreeBSD drivers at the Xilinx site and if there were they would need to be compiled and transferred. Much better to use the native drivers if you can.

Steve

MacWarrior

@stephenw10 -

Here are the only errors I'm seeing in the OS Boot Log:

module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (ipw_bss_fw, 0xffffffff8073dd40, 0) error 1
ipw_ibss: You need to read the LICENSE file in /usr/share/doc/legal/intel_ipw.LICENSE.
ipw_ibss: If you agree with the license, set legal.intel_ipw.license_ack=1 in /boot/loader.conf.
module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (ipw_ibss_fw, 0xffffffff8073ddf0, 0) error 1
ipw_monitor: You need to read the LICENSE file in /usr/share/doc/legal/intel_ipw.LICENSE.
ipw_monitor: If you agree with the license, set legal.intel_ipw.license_ack=1 in /boot/loader.conf.
module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (ipw_monitor_fw, 0xffffffff8073dea0, 0) error 1
iwi_bss: You need to read the LICENSE file in /usr/share/doc/legal/intel_iwi.LICENSE.
iwi_bss: If you agree with the license, set legal.intel_iwi.license_ack=1 in /boot/loader.conf.
module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (iwi_bss_fw, 0xffffffff80765730, 0) error 1
iwi_ibss: You need to read the LICENSE file in /usr/share/doc/legal/intel_iwi.LICENSE.
iwi_ibss: If you agree with the license, set legal.intel_iwi.license_ack=1 in /boot/loader.conf.
module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (iwi_ibss_fw, 0xffffffff807657e0, 0) error 1
iwi_monitor: You need to read the LICENSE file in /usr/share/doc/legal/intel_iwi.LICENSE.
iwi_monitor: If you agree with the license, set legal.intel_iwi.license_ack=1 in /boot/loader.conf.
module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (iwi_monitor_fw, 0xffffffff80765890, 0) error 1
wlan: mac acl policy registered
random: entropy device external interface
module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (vesa, 0xffffffff8140c3e0, 0) error 19

And when I search for Solarflare in the log, it doesn't show anything.

Also, I looked at the link you gave me. I have some computer knowledge but not enough to know how to load this onto my pfSense computer. Is it as simple as copying & pasting into the Shell or something else? Thank you for your help.

MacWarrior

stephenw10

Ah, I had thought this was in-kernel already but it looks like it's built as a module. So do this:

[2.5.2-RELEASE][admin@t70.stevew.lan]/root: kldload sfxge

Then check it's loaded with:

[2.5.2-RELEASE][admin@t70.stevew.lan]/root: kldstat 
Id Refs Address                Size Name
 1   18 0xffffffff80200000  3aea720 kernel
 2    1 0xffffffff83ceb000     2e60 smb.ko
 3    3 0xffffffff83cee000     2ef0 smbus.ko
 4    1 0xffffffff83cf2000     61c0 ichsmb.ko
 5    1 0xffffffff83cf9000     1ae8 mdio.ko
 6    1 0xffffffff83f21000     1000 cpuctl.ko
 7    1 0xffffffff83f22000     8cb0 aesni.ko
 8    1 0xffffffff83f2b000      b28 coretemp.ko
 9    1 0xffffffff83f2c000    7d0c0 sfxge.ko

You'll probably see a bunch of other messages as it attaches to the NICs.

If they then appear in ifconfig you can add it as a loader variable so it loads at every boot.

Steve

MacWarrior

@stephenw10 - I believe that was the fix. It is now showing up in my interfaces. I am going to do a few tests over the next couple of days and will let you know for sure.

2 other things I noticed problems with are: the Dashboard under Version always says "Unable to check for updates" and when I log in or select an item from the menu bar through the GUI it takes a very long time for it to log in and/or go to the selection from the menu bar. Sometimes as long as 45-60+ seconds. When I watch it through the terminal, it shows right away that I have logged in though. It happens with all 3 of my web browsers. Chrome, Firefox, Safari.

Thank you,
MacWarrior

stephenw10

Both those things usually indicate some lack of connectivity from pfSense itself.
Make sure it can ping from Diag > Ping but both IP and FQDN.

Steve

MacWarrior

@stephenw10 Hi Steve, I can ping internally but when I ping outside the network, I get "Host "apple.com" did not respond or could not be resolved." Which doesn't make sense to me when I can search and get onto websites.

MW

stephenw10

@macwarrior said in pfSense Newbie Needing Solarflare Card Help:

I can search and get onto websites.

That's from a client behind pfSense not pfSense itself though.

Go to Diag > DNS Lookup and make sure all the configured DNS servers are responding.

Steve