New Alix board for 2013

I hope Netgate get the new cases soon.
(I just order 2 correct cases)

The cases in the Netgate store are made by PC Engines.

A couple years back we were making out own (due to supply issues with PC Engines). These fit the Alix boards correctly.

After that, PC Engines revised their case, and it is this revised case that they can get adequate volumes of, and that fits the APU.

@jimp:

@GruensFroeschli:

Tested again with the onboard NICs.
Getting lots of DMA errors under load again.

Which image for netgate do you mean?
I could try with this one too.

For now i'm going to test 2.2 :)

It's not a public image, it's the one that will be loaded onto the APU when it's released by Netgate. It's Netgate's 2.1.1 version tailored for the hardware, though some things are still being tweaked for it yet.

2.2 would have AHCI by default (no old ATA stack) so it might not be a bad test, though the current 2.2 snap has a pf rule issue the next one should be better (or pick an older one)

This "Netgate image" is also the image that will be on APUs sold through the pfSense Store.

The problem is not just AHCI, .vs ATA. There are a lot of variables to get right in order to use that SSD with TRIM support enabled and have a stable system. Patches to the system (which are not in 2.2), patches to the installer (also not yet in 2.2), etc. are all required.

The issue is complex enough (and occurs on other OSes, such as Linux) that PC Engines has pulled the msata16 for now.

theIntangible

Noob question here:

I just got my board yesterday and have tried just about every pfsense build (nano, memstick, i386, etc) but cannot get the device to boot from the usb/sd. All I get is:

booting from Hard Disk…
Booting from 0000:7c00

Then it just sits there indefinitely.

I read that the ALIX required you to boot into the BIOS to change the baud rate to 9600 to load pfsense. I have tried every key combination I could think of and nothing gets me into the BIOS. Can someone point me in the right direction for what to do to get something running?

Thanks!

jimp

The BIOS defaults to 115200, pfSense defaults to 9600. You do not have to change the BIOS, you can set your serial client to 9600 and though you will not see the BIOS messages, you will see pfSense boot.

dotdash

@theIntangible:

Noob question here:

I just got my board yesterday and have tried just about every pfsense build (nano, memstick, i386, etc) but cannot get the device to boot from the usb/sd.

Did you take the previously mentioned steps?
Interrupt the boot loader.
type-
set kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
boot
After booting add kern.cam.boot_delay=1000 to /boot/loader.conf.local via edit or from console.

I have done this successfully with nano builds on USB and SD. I also tried nano on an SSD on the SATA port. It needed no modification, but is not a practical option in this case. m-SATA is probably a good option, but I didn't have one around to test with.

The serial speed is annoying, and it seems you cannot change the serial console speed in coreboot without re-compiling. It's also annoying that the interfaces count backwards from the legacy products. So the port marked LAN, is re2 and opt is re0. Also, be careful to get the correct power cord. It's a 2.5mm plug vs the 2.1mm on the Alix boards.

nscheffer

Hi,

I receive my APU with the SSD m.Sata and a wireless card today and very enthusiast to replace my current DSL box with the APU and a simple DSL modem but :

I play hard a long time before to switch the console from 115200 to 9600 to be running correctly when the APU play at 115200 and the pfsense install at 9600… Now I am ok
I try the different version for the install (LiveCD, memstick and Nano version) and for me the memstick seems to be the most appropriate installer
the current 2.1 cannot boot on the APU
the latest 2.1.1 snapshot cannot boot on the APU
the latest 2.2 snapshot is booting on the APU

I decide to do a full install from the memstick to the internal SSD.
After reload and reboot to branch to the DSL modem location I was not able to have a proper pppoe session with the correct DNS info. Impossible to replace the DSL box today. I will inspect more in depth to try to have an 2.2 Alpha running better.

Any feedback with more success ?

GruensFroeschli

I try the different version for the install (LiveCD, memstick and Nano version) and for me the memstick seems to be the most appropriate installer

the current 2.1 cannot boot on the APU

the latest 2.1.1 snapshot cannot boot on the APU

You must be doing something wrong, since the 2.1 memstick works without a problem on the apu.

Did you download the version with serial?
Did you press F12 to select the memstick as bootmedium?

nscheffer

@GruensFroeschli:

I try the different version for the install (LiveCD, memstick and Nano version) and for me the memstick seems to be the most appropriate installer

the current 2.1 cannot boot on the APU

the latest 2.1.1 snapshot cannot boot on the APU

You must be doing something wrong, since the 2.1 memstick works without a problem on the apu.

Did you download the version with serial?
Did you press F12 to select the memstick as bootmedium?

Correct, it works now, should be a different behavior with my RedPark adapter on the iPad with the 2.1 and the 2.2 ALPHA !
Could pfSense add a new serial build with 115200bps enabled by default ? (menstick-serial and memstick-serial-115k for example).

hackin8

Just ordered a ready-built one - I am getting the SSD version, will report when running:

http://linitx.com/product/linitx-apu-1c-3nicusbrtc-pfsense-msata-firewall-kit/14095

HTH

GruensFroeschli

@hackin8:

Just ordered a ready-built one - I am getting the SSD version, will report when running:

http://linitx.com/product/linitx-apu-1c-3nicusbrtc-pfsense-msata-firewall-kit/14095

HTH

That's…. about twice as much as when ordered at pcengines directly O_o

mircsicz

That's…. about twice as much as when ordered at pcengines directly O_o

And they still use a pic from a WRAP… :o

phil.davis

@tohil and others re: running on SD card
Now that the "standard" 16GB mSATA has been pulled, I know not to go with that - glad I didn't order last week. I have a friend coming from the USA in mid-April and I really want to order something, but don't want to find that in 2 weeks some other show-stopper issue comes up, like that there is some issue with using an SD card or…
And I would prefer to run the nanoBSD image, just because of the flexiblity of the dual-slice for doing upgrades and going back if necessary. But a full install should also be OK, I guess.

I would like some feedback from anyone who has put the nanoBSD image (2.1.1 or 2.2) onto an SD card and run it. I guess you can put an SD card into a Windows device and write it with phydiskwrite in the same way as a CF card? And then put it in the APU, select the correct boot device, boot, set the interface from the console, and go?

ozlecz

@phil.davis

may i know whats the issue with msata ssd..I havent encountered any problem yet using the ssd with pfsense 2.1 nano install. but please tell me before ordering another one…thx

phil.davis

@ozlecz:

@phil.davis

may i know whats the issue with msata ssd..I havent encountered any problem yet using the ssd with pfsense 2.1 nano install. but please tell me before ordering another one…thx

http://store.netgate.com/16-GB-mSATA-SSD-module-P2041.aspx

Not compatible with Sophos UTM or pfSense

http://store.netgate.com/APU1C-DIY-Kit–P2040.aspx

The mSATA SSD is not currently compatible with pfSense. If you plan to load pfSense on this system, please select a SD Card.

I think there was some mention of the issue earlier in this thread - but not sure that it goes into all the gory detail, just to say that there were also some tricky issues with running some Linux on it also.

These things happen with very new hardware. At least NetGate are upfront about it and have put notices about it on their store.

GruensFroeschli

So you're not refering to this one:
http://pcengines.ch/msata16a.htm

Because from the image they are different brands.
The one from pcengines certainly works. (albeit the mentioned dma warnings when the board is overloaded).

ozlecz

I have the APU and we installed pfsense on the msata and it works straight away till date as a firewall and a CP…planing to buy another one for another site but further reading this thread made me think a bit...wanna know what are the issues on pfsense

dotdash

@phil.davis:

I would like some feedback from anyone who has put the nanoBSD image (2.1.1 or 2.2) onto an SD card and run it. I guess you can put an SD card into a Windows device and write it with phydiskwrite in the same way as a CF card? And then put it in the APU, select the correct boot device, boot, set the interface from the console, and go?

I haven't put one into production, but I'm testing using nano (2.1.1-pre i386) off an SD card. Used physdiskwrite and a card reader, then put the card in the apu. You have to set the cam.boot.delay as mentioned in previous posts. The apu will boot automatically from any storage it finds, there should be no reason to get into the console.

nscheffer

Just to correct the pfSense and APU support :

i was new with the APU and pfSense product and system
the main trick is the serial console speed change between the APU and pfSense to know (115K vs 9600)

For the rest pfSense on the APU is working like a charm and i plan to purchase more APU for different locations…
APU + pfSense is a win-win solution : great work !

phil.davis

@GruensFroeschli:

So you're not refering to this one:
http://pcengines.ch/msata16a.htm

Because from the image they are different brands.
The one from pcengines certainly works. (albeit the mentioned dma warnings when the board is overloaded).

That PC Engines reference has a part S238 and so does the NetGate store. The PC Engines picture has 1 memory chip soldered on 1 side of the board, and the other on the reverse side. The NetGate picture has them both soldered on the same side - maybe it depends how the production supervisor is feeling on the day? :)

PC Engines warns "Not compatible with Sophos UTM", NetGate warns "Not compatible with Sophos UTM or pfSense".

nesense

@GruensFroeschli:

50 concurrent iperf connections from PC1 to PC2

50 concurrent iperf connections from PC2 to PC1

Could you please show us your iperf command options so I could test it using a different brand of mSATA? I'm using Kingston SSDNow SMS200S3/120G and I never got any DMA errors using it even when I ran iperf.

I used to get the same DMA errors a lot on a x79 Chipset/LGA2011 CPU with Kingston SSDNow V300 Series SV300S37A/240G Drive connected to a SATA 6.0 Gbps port and running as squid AUFS cache. after changing it to diskd I rarely get them ever again. I also changed vfs.read_max=32 to vfs.read_max=128 and kern.ipc.nmbclusters to a value of 32768 but these two by themselves weren't enough.

I'm guessing it all has to do with drive & port transfer rate, but why would iperf saturate the drive in the first place? the msata16a is SATA II only (and performs lower than that) but the APU board ports should be using SATA III 6.0 Gbps according to AMD docs.