Silcom PEG6I (82571EB Based)
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Good explination Wallabybob. Do you think this could be fixed via a BIOS update from SM or its is a phy limitation of the board itself?
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Do you think this could be fixed via a BIOS update from SM or its is a phy limitation of the board itself?
A BIOS update would appear to be necessary to fix this. I don't know enough about the hardware to say if it would be sufficient. I have seen reports hinting of restrictions placed on Atom based boards (e.g. no PCI-Express slots on early Atom boards, at most one expansion slot etc) so there may be a hardware limitation but I read in this thread that all the NICs had been recognised when running Linux but maybe it wasn't clear that it was Linux running on this type of board. If Linux running on this board finds all the NICs and can drive them then there is no limitation in the hardware that would stop FreeBSD finding all the NICs and driving them - it just needs the BIOS to initialise the PCI bridges (both in the chipset and on the card) so FreeBSD can find the NICs when it walks the PCI device tree.
Frankly, I think it is poor form to provide an expansion slot and be silent about the fact that certain combinations of cards and operating systems won't work in the slot. There is a precedent with 4GB memory - plenty of motherboard manufacturers say you can't use more than about 3GB of RAM with 32 bit Operating Systems and are quite upfront about max size of memory.
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Has any of this code made it into 8.3 I wonder:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-arch/2011-April/011268.html
It seems to be addressing this issue. Or at least a similar one. ;)Steve
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Has any of this code made it into 8.3 I wonder:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-arch/2011-April/011268.html
It seems to be addressing this issue. Or at least a similar one. ;)Thanks for the reference. After reading the whole thread it does look as if it addresses at least a similar issue. I suggest trying a pfSense 2.1 snapshot build. If that isn't very convenient you could send an email to John Baldwin referencing the thread and this discussion and ask if the code is in FreeBSD 8.3 and does it address this issue.
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Look like it made it into the code base some time ago. A while before the 8.3 branch point.
Steve
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Some time this week I will try a 2.1 x64 snapshot and see what happens.
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Finally got around to trying the latest 2.1 x64 snapshot, but still no luck with the card. I also tried Ubuntu 11.10 x64 live and it would not detect the card. Seems to be more of a BIOS issue, maybe i will write up a support email to supermicro about the PEG6i and see what happens.
Thanks for your help wallabybob
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Since this probably won't be fixed in a timely manner, anyone have a recommendation for another 4-6 port Intel-chipset NIC that is compatible with the SuperMicro Atom boards?
And if anyone has one they want to sell, I'll trade the PEG6I for it.
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It might be worth asking SuperMicro if any multi-port boards with Intel NICs are supported on their Atom motherboards running FreeBSD.
It might be worth asking Silcom if the PEG6I is supported on any SuperMicro Atom motherboards running FreeBSD.
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I sent SuperMicro some emails with the above questions a few weeks ago, but no responses >:(
I'm hoping someone here has added a 2-4 port NIC to a SuperMicro Atom with success and can recommend it here
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Erack
I'm using a DELL G174P 2port Intel card. The version i have is using the newer Intel Pro ET chip. There are two version of this card from what I could tell, newer Intel Pro ET has no heatsink on the chip and older PT has a heat sink. I have been using the card as my LAN interface for several months with multiple vlans and haven't noticed any issues yet.
This is what pfSense 2.0.1 detected the card as.
igb0: <intel(r) 1000="" pro="" network="" connection="" version="" -="" 2.2.3="">port 0xcc00-0xcc1f mem 0xfe9e0000-0xfe9fffff,0xfe400000-0xfe7fffff,0xfe9dc000-0xfe9dffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1 igb0: Using MSIX interrupts with 5 vectors igb0: [ITHREAD] igb0: [ITHREAD] igb0: [ITHREAD] igb0: [ITHREAD] igb0: [ITHREAD] igb1: <intel(r) 1000="" pro="" network="" connection="" version="" -="" 2.2.3="">port 0xc880-0xc89f mem 0xfe9a0000-0xfe9bffff,0xfe000000-0xfe3fffff,0xfe9d8000-0xfe9dbfff irq 17 at device 0.1 on pci1 igb1: Using MSIX interrupts with 5 vectors igb1: [ITHREAD] igb1: [ITHREAD] igb1: [ITHREAD] igb1: [ITHREAD] igb1: [ITHREAD]</intel(r)></intel(r)> -
Since this probably won't be fixed in a timely manner, anyone have a recommendation for another 4-6 port Intel-chipset NIC that is compatible with the SuperMicro Atom boards?
And if anyone has one they want to sell, I'll trade the PEG6I for it.
The post from Gluon99 reminded me that I have seen hints of Intel chips packing 4 NICs into the one chip. Investigations a few years ago suggested some of the Intel 2 port and 4 port boards might have all the NICs in a single chip. I suspect the absence of a bridge will enable such boards to work with the Super Micro motherboards.
