HEADS UP: Updated em/igb/ixgbe back in snapshots
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~~Due to multiple regressions in the behavior of previously-stable igb and ixgbe interfaces, the updated drivers are being backed out again. We have had reports from customers of their igb interfaces failing or having extremely poor performance, ix interfaces failing to pass traffic for periods of time, and panics from both. The drivers on 2.1-RELEASE worked for these cases (though with ixgbe there was an mbuf leak), so we will be moving back to those so there will at least not be a regression from 2.1-RELEASE to 2.1.1-RELEASE in that area. The change has not yet happened, but will soon.
As much as we'd like to include the updated drivers, they just are not working well and they are holding up 2.1.1. We'd rather get the release out, with all of its beneficial fixes, and work on 2.2 where the drivers are much more stable and functional without all the extra effort. Though we hoped for improvement, apparently a fix that works for everyone just isn't viable on a FreeBSD 8.3 base. FreeBSD 10 is the answer and the way forward, so that's where the focus is moving.
If you need the updated drivers for your hardware and you are not experiencing any other problems/regressions, you may want to save a copy of a current snapshot that works for you so that you can use it until 2.2 arrives.~~
Update: The new drivers have been fixed and are once again included in current snapshots. If you have issues, please report them in a separate thread with as much detail as possible.
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Does this include wireless drivers too such as Atheros AR9280 for example?
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This only affects em, igb, and ixgbe
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Grrr… I just ordered a Rangeley board an hour ago. Time to go cancel. :)
Agreed though, these new drivers are seriously flaky for me.
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This only affects em, igb, and ixgbe
I was hoping this update would include Atheros drivers that work again, that chipset used to work with 2.0.3 but it's broken on 2.1, & I can't find any 2.0.3 images any longer on mirrors.
Thanks.
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The atheros drivers work fine for me, but they'll be much better on 2.2 for everyone.
2.0.3 downloads can be found here: http://files.pfsense.org/mirror/downloads/old/
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Do you plan to list the cases these nics are considered stable or should we avoid them untill 2.2?
Thanks for trying!
Cheers
Dario -
Hello,
I have been having difficulties with the em drivers and bridging in 2.1-RELEASE. Does your message mean you are reverting to THESE drivers, or the ones before 2.1-RELEASE?
Thanks for your time!
–jason
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There were issues with bridging some types of interface, including em, that have been fixed in 2.1.1. These were independent of the driver version. You should try a 2.1.1 snapshot.
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,66908.msg386279.html#msg386279Steve
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The em/igb/ixgbe drivers on 2.1.1 will be the same as those on 2.1-RELEASE
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I will try a snapshot very soon.
Thanks for your reply!
–jason
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A quick question looking for advice here. We had just purchased $25K worth of gear all with 4 ixgbe dual 10 gig card in them with the intention of using pfsense as our primary firewall going forward, this way was way more economical than going the Cisco/Juniper/Whathaveyou route given our need for 10 gig interfaces. All was well and good until we tried to get things working when the gear arrived last week. We were immediately hit by bug 3250 with 2.1-REL. Hearing that the drivers were more stable in 2.0.x we tried installing 2.0.3 only to find out that there was not adequate support for our RAID controllers and thus could not install. With previous 2.1.1 snapshots we got further but still suffered from the mbuf leak that eventually caused the systems to panic and crash. Now that the decision has been made to revert to the 2.1-REL versions of the drivers (which I agree is the right call to have made), we are basically stuck needing 2.2 (for which I can find no builds publicly available) for these boxes which were slated to go into production within a week. If you were in my shoes, had hardware which was already purchased and cannot be returned and a deadline that really can't move…what would you do?
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Run it en ESXi on your new hardware. Then it works fine.
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Definitely something to try, though somehow running my edge devices under a hypervisor makes me a little queasy, not to mention setting things up with BGP and CARP over virtual interfaces all running at 10 gig adds some odd complexity but if it is my only option so be it.
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Do you have a support subscription? If so I'd go straight to ESF who will have a much better handle on what can/can't be achieved by using whichever driver version might be available.
Do they run OK in 2.0.3? You could maybe reconfigure the disk controllers into some mode that is supported or there maybe backported drivers for 8.1.Steve
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Maybe running pfSense from USB flash is an option?
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Hello
is it still possible to insert manually new igb drivers to boot.conf for next 2.1.1 snaphots?
Currently, I have a 2.1.1 from january with new igb, how to extract modules? -
The drivers are compiled into the kernel so you can't extract them as modules. However if you did get hold of the modules there should be no problem loading them via loader.conf.local.
Steve
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Hi,
Anyone know if the snapshot dated 20140217-1607 contains the newer driver?
Tried the image on a Rangeley box and boot log seem to indicate no network driver.
pci0: <network, ethernet="">at device 20.0 (no driver attached)
pci0: <network, ethernet="">at device 20.1 (no driver attached)
pci0: <network, ethernet="">at device 20.2 (no driver attached)
pci0: <network, ethernet="">at device 20.3 (no driver attached)Just want to confirm that it is the driver and not something else, before trying to build the new driver.
full boot log attached.
Thanks.
bootlog.txt</network,></network,></network,></network,>
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The drivers are compiled into the kernel so you can't extract them as modules. However if you did get hold of the modules there should be no problem loading them via loader.conf.local.
Steve
Yes I saw kldstat not returning modules. How to get the igb module file?
