Supermicro X9SBAA-F

[ocpistol]

Idk if this would work but can you use a different motherboard to install it on a the hard drive? Will bsd switch drivers?

[kejianshi]

The newest latest greatest is always a bad idea when using pfsense.  Also with linux.

2+ years old hardware is gold.

[bigbird007]

I do feel like banging my head flat out.
I think the x9sbaa-f is almost 1.5 years old now

[kejianshi]

I made the mistake of buying new new hardware a while back.  in only 2.5 years it was finally supported.  So, you might get lucky on next major release?  Who knows.  Depends on BSD developers and pfsense devs.

[chrcoe]

@id88:

It is possible to run and install pfSense (2.1.3) on a Supermicro X9SBAA-F.

As others have pointed out, the problem is that this board only supports USB 3.0 and support for that is not (yet?) included in pfSense. However, pfSense 2.1.3 is based on FreeBSD 8.3 which does support USB 3.0. So what you basically need to do is to add the XHCI kernel module of FreeBSD 8.3 to pfSense and make sure it is loaded so that you can use a USB stick and USB keyboard.

This is what you need:

• pfSense 2.1.3 USB image

• FreeBSD 8.3 image (should be version 8.3!)

• Ability to mount UFS filesystem (a running FreeBSD instance is easiest)

• Memorystick

• FreeBSD 9.x or 10 image if you are going to install to disk.

Basically, the steps are as follows:

• Mount the pfSense and FreeBSD images.

• From the FreeBSD image, copy /boot/kernel/xhci.ko to /boot/kernel in the pfSense image.

• In the pfSense image, add xhci_load="YES" to /boot/defaults/loader.conf.

• Unmount the images and copy the pfSense image to USB stick.

• Boot from the stick. Before doing so make sure all USB settings in the BIOS are set to "Enabled".

• Choose to boot pfSense (the default).

• You can now run pfSense from the USB stick and run it as a live image. You can also install it to disk or SSD if you wish. I chose Custom Install and couldn't get pfSense to boot if when I installed a Bootblock, so I disabled that option. After installation to disk, you must make the modification to /boot/defaults/loader.conf again, as it is lost when the contents are copied from USB stick to disk. This is needed so that you can use a USB keyboard to complete the part of the configuration that must be done before the web GUI starts  To make this modification, you can boot a live image of FreeBSD 9.x or 10.0 d so that you can mount the partition (likely /dev/adxs1a) and edit the file. Then reboot from disk and finish the configuration.

This was exactly what I needed!  I knew there had to be some way to add xhci support to pfsense manually.. just didn't realize it would be so easy to do.  There's many different ways to accomplish this same technique, I just didn't know the file or where it needed to be stored.

I ended up using a BSD live cd and two thumb drives to copy the file from one to another since I didn't have any other way of dealing with UFS

[id88]

Yes, there are various techniques of doing this. I used a VM with FreeBSD and mounted the pfSense image inside to make the modifications.

I have since used this motherboard for another purpose, so I can't comment on the long term stability of this fix. But if you don't use the USB ports after installation I suspect pfSense should run just fine. The only problem really seems to be that you need USB3 support to get past the first part of the install.

Good luck!

[bigbird007]

@kejianshi:

I made the mistake of buying new new hardware a while back.  in only 2.5 years it was finally supported.  So, you might get lucky on next major release?  Who knows.  Depends on BSD developers and pfsense devs.

I hope your right, would be good if the next major release did have additional hardware support, Fingers crossed 8)

[bigbird007]

@id88:

Yes, there are various techniques of doing this. I used a VM with FreeBSD and mounted the pfSense image inside to make the modifications.

I have since used this motherboard for another purpose, so I can't comment on the long term stability of this fix. But if you don't use the USB ports after installation I suspect pfSense should run just fine. The only problem really seems to be that you need USB3 support to get past the first part of the install.

Good luck!

Would it be easier to use a VM with FreeBSD instead of using a live CD and then mount?

[id88]

One is not really easier than the other. Basically you perform the same steps: copying xhci.ko to the pfSense image and making sure it is being loaded. I just happened to have a FreeBSD VM available so I used that.

[kejianshi]

Its good that this can be done - Lots of ways to skin a cat.

Still, its much better to just check compatibility before a purchase.

There is no board worth fiddling with this much unless you were given it for free.

[cmcologne]

I've much Problems copying this file. I just have de xhci.ko (amd64). Does anybody have already a customized image?

[eSpezi]

Hi cmcologne,

before you spend too many time with hacking the current release of pfS, I would recommend to try out the 2.2-ALPHA
Snapshots here: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=74154.0

I installed it yesterday on a Supermicro 5018A-FTN as the current 2.1.5-RELEASE had some strange behavior on that system.
The 2.2 Snapshot seems to work pretty well (at least in my test environment) and even seems to support USB 3.0 as it is freeBSD 10.1 based (did recognize the USB 3.0 Ports on my board).

I would not be comfortable with putting this system in production, but as rumours say the core functions of 2.2 are pretty stable and 2.2 should change to beta status in the near future.
For me not using any fancy stuff (IPSEC still seems to have issues), the 2.2 works pretty well so far and I'm happy that it finally supports more current hardware.

Give it a shot, it doesn't hurt :-)

Good Luck!
Harry

[cmcologne]

Hi eSPezi,

thanks for this advice. Can you confirm OpenVPN Client and Server is working?

[eSpezi]

Sorry, I haven't tried OVPN yet on 2.2

As the changes with OVPN are not as huge as with IPSEC (migration from racoon to openSwan) I suspect it should work.
To be 100% shure, you will have to test it yourself…

[bigbird007]

@eSpezi ill give that alpha snap shot a try over the weekend even though it's alpha im interested to see how it goes with usb 3.0

[Moosecall]

I have a box running 2.2 with a snapshot of Sep 12 and openvpn works fine as a server and a client.

[bigbird007]

@Moosecall  did you get it running on a Supermicro X9SBAA-F ?

[charliem]

@eSpezi:

I would not be comfortable with putting this system in production, but as rumours say the core functions of 2.2 are pretty stable and 2.2 should change to beta status in the near future.

It was just changed to beta today, in fact :)

For me not using any fancy stuff (IPSEC still seems to have issues), the 2.2 works pretty well so far and I'm happy that it finally supports more current hardware.

If you do find any issues, please post them over in the 2.2 forum.  And yes, I have some IPsec issues at the moment, maybe related to the change from strongswan 5.1.3 to 5.2.0.

[bigbird007]

I'm able to boot up of the live cd beta and have it detect  usb 3.0 This is great.

Unfortunately for me I have to wait for this to be a released stable version as this needs to be in a full production environment.

I will try and test this over the next weekend and see how it goes

beers for everyone , this is a glorious day  :)

[SkyNET]

Hi guys, this might not be the answer you all looking for,
but If you really want to run pfsense 2.1.5 on the X8SBAA-f you can do so with a VM on ESXi.

It runs like it should and provide around 180+ MBit lan->wan speed.

Check this link how to get ESXi running on the Supermicro X9SBAA-F
https://communities.vmware.com/thread/447162