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

    pfSense does not have full support for the Intel N100.

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
    6 Posts 3 Posters 1.7k 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.
    • matyi.szabolcsM
      matyi.szabolcs
      last edited by matyi.szabolcs

      Hi All,

      Returning to the original topic, is there a solution for the N100 CPU frequency issue? Unfortunately, as of February 2025, the processor is still unable to enable turbo. I tried FreeBSD 15, but it only runs at 806 MHz, so it won't work properly in the new pfSense 2.8.0 either. When can we expect a fix? Maybe in FreeBSD 16 in another 2–3 years?

      Képernyőkép – 2025-02-02 20-40-23.png

      Regards

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

        AFAIK this is not a FreeBSD/pfSense issue it's a BIOS problem. There are several threads documenting this, for example: https://forum.netgate.com/topic/186104/topton-n100-reporting-402-mhz/

        It seems the very low budget manufacturers of these systems do not set any system specific default values and probably only test in Windows.

        matyi.szabolcsM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • matyi.szabolcsM
          matyi.szabolcs @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10
          Thank you for the information, but I have already read through the forum you linked, as well as even more on the Netgate and OPNsense forums, but there is no solution anywhere. No matter how I adjust the P1, P2, C-state, etc. values, nothing changes.

          So you think there won't be any changes in the future? Will it stay at 2922 MHz in every pfSense version?

          Regards

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

            You disabled powerd? speedshift?

            I have no way of testing that platform. And no desire to purchase one given the issues others have reported. 😉

            But everyone else who has solved it did so by making BIOS adjustments. That sometimes required flashing/unlocking the BIOS.

            matyi.szabolcsM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • matyi.szabolcsM
              matyi.szabolcs @stephenw10
              last edited by matyi.szabolcs

              @stephenw10

              Hello,
              of course, I have tried disabling and re-enabling Speed Shift in the BIOS, and I also tested powerd. I've already tried every possible option mentioned in the forums, but in reality, others in the forums were also just experimenting with these settings, and no one has managed to run the N100 processor at 3.4 GHz yet. I also installed FreeBSD 15 and tested all available options there.

              I tried setting the P1 value to 9W, 10W, and 15W, and the P2 value to 20W, 25W, and 30W, etc., but nothing helped. In my BIOS, these options are available by default, so I don't need a modded BIOS or special keyboard combinations.

              However, under Debian Linux, it works properly with the default BIOS settings, and no adjustments are needed. I think I'll return the device while I still can.

              Regards

              hydnH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • hydnH
                hydn @matyi.szabolcs
                last edited by hydn

                @matyi-szabolcs Hey, I also have the N100. You can monitor CPU freq via pfSense command line using this command:

                while ( 1 )
                  clear
                  sysctl dev.cpu | grep freq:
                  sleep 1
                end
                

                Paste that as-is directly into the pfSense shell (using the terminal not UI).

                It'll refresh every second and show you all core frequencies like:

                dev.cpu.0.freq: 1800
                dev.cpu.1.freq: 1600
                ...
                

                Then you can do something CPU heavy like restart Suricata or something.

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