PfSense with Gigabyte GA-J1900N-D3V
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If I was going to do it again, I'd probably go with something that had integrated Intel NICs. I don't know if Realtek NICs are inherently inferior to Intel's, or if it's that the drivers aren't as fully featured or reliable, but it's rare that you hear of folks having issues with Intel NICs. If you're okay w/ Realtek, then perhaps you're also okay with a USB NIC as a permanent solution – as long as the throughput is there. So why not give a USB 3.0 adapter (e.g. ASIX AX88179) a shot? At under $20/ea, it could be a cheap fix.
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Thx.
I think I might get a USB NIC and persevere for 4-6months and see if the braswell's mature.
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I'm not needing high performance or ultra-low power, just average average connecting to 110Mbps ISP three home vlans and a couple of openvpn connections
Perhhaps using the follower of the J1900, a little bit less powerful (- 7%) but also using less electric power
6 Watt against 10 Watt. -
I had my LAN NIC fail this morning and after a couple of hard cold boots, it recovered.
On a grasp at straws this morning, since I had lost my config in rebuild, i tried the latest 2.3 alpha (yes warnings taken in), and both NICs are now working, so there's something in 2.2.5 that this board doesn't like.. ;-)
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I'm aware that this thread is getting old (but so am I) and people seem to be more happy now than in the start of the thread.. However, I ran into the same kind of problems.. But the only setting that caused problem was trying to boot from USB formatted with the latest pfSende img. Debian works fine. Putting in HDD from old computer with pfSense installed from DVD runs perfectly. So right now I think the only problem is in the pfSense distro.
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I just ordered this board on recomendations from some other boards, then I find this problem after 4 hours of troubleshooting!
I have the F4 Firmware out of the box, followed all the BIOS settings mentioned in the thread, never really had an trouble installing pfsense 2.2.6.
RE0 DHCP would never work over the WAN. Then switched I switched to RE1 for WAN and bam, instant IP.
So RE1 was working for LAN and WAN, but nothing will work on RE0, DHCP, Fixed, etc for WAN or LAN. I even took a switch, gave the RE0 WAN a fixed PUBLIC IP that is allowed on the, hooked a host to the switch with an IP that is public and could not ping it.
So is my RE0 dead? I made RE0 LAN and nothing could ping it from the switch, no arp, etc.
I have none of the problems mentioned, but this RE0 just not work for WAN DHCP or LAN Fixed IP.
Looking on the mobo they both have the same chipsets.
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I have none of the problems mentioned, but this RE0 just not work for WAN DHCP or LAN Fixed IP.
Perhaps there is something in the BIOS to set it up as working in the so called bypass mode?
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@BlueKobold:
I have none of the problems mentioned, but this RE0 just not work for WAN DHCP or LAN Fixed IP.
Perhaps there is something in the BIOS to set it up as working in the so called bypass mode?
Thanks, I am new to pfsense, what is this bypass mode? Doesnt help that UEFI is all new to me too, all the production systems I deal with are still BIOS based.
To rule out it is the nic, and because I am more of a centos/fedora guy, I booted of a live CD and am able to get an IP on both interfaces fine.
lspci shows them being recognized as the exact same devices on the pci bus. Same revision etc. I looked at the chips on the board, they look the same.
It is almost as if the pfsense is doing something different with RE0 vs RE1.
Also tried the expermental release, no go.
Guess it is time to really go through the BIOS and try things to switch things to legacy mode.
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Installed untangled last night 100% stable and works, this is frustrating. Works OK, but it is not pfsense.
Any tips to see if the WAN is initialized differently that the LAN? Well really if RE0 is inited differently.
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Installed untangled last night 100% stable and works, this is frustrating. Works OK, but it is not pfsense.
The Linux and Windows driver support for hardware are more common then for BSD and Unix systems
but this is not a really secret.Any tips to see if the WAN is initialized differently that the LAN? Well really if RE0 is inited differently.
Are there any special BIOS settings according to that LAN port?
- Power saving
- speed increasing
- Green Ethernet
- bypass mode
- settings related to this above named things
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Thanks Frank for your suggestions, this board unfortunately only has the ability to enable or disable the ports.
So I was able to get it to work, after 2.2.6 and 2.3 beta did not work, I tried 2.2.4 and it worked out of the box. I then installed 2.2.6 again and the first port re0 never works as WAN or LAN still.
So my question is, how do I find out what has changed in the code specifically for the first lan port re0 initialization? Again these are both the same chipset, just different positions on the PCI bus.
I am using the pfsense-memstick-2.2.4-release-amd64.img.gz. I did try 32bit for giggles, but it crashes. Xenserver and CentOS worked beautifully too!
I may at a later point try 2.2.5 to see if that works or broke at that point.
I would like to contribute and find out what it is, and open a bug report.
Thanks!
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I had been running 2.3 on my J1900 board before I finally put it onto my main box… I don't remember if I updated the BIOS to F4 though... it might still be F3. I know I had no problems with both NICs functioning.
I don't have it hooked up at the moment though... if I have the opportunity sometime this week, I'll see what the BIOS settings look like.
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I tried 2.2.4 and it worked out of the box. I then installed 2.2.6 again and the first port re0 never works as WAN or LAN still.
It could be based on the driver or the general architecture or pfSense code but this might be only a
guess from me. So I personally would more tend to go with 2.2.4 and wait a bit longer to try it out
from time to time. -
@BlueKobold:
I tried 2.2.4 and it worked out of the box. I then installed 2.2.6 again and the first port re0 never works as WAN or LAN still.
It could be based on the driver or the general architecture or pfSense code but this might be only a
guess from me. So I personally would more tend to go with 2.2.4 and wait a bit longer to try it out
from time to time.Thanks, from the sounds of it, there is a good chance this lan chipset won't be supported. So I decided to return the board. Really wanted to make it work, based on the price. and seemed stable when running, but a reboot or a shutdown was a crap shoot on whether it would come back up or not!
So I returned the board (and case) but stuck with the pico psu and 12v brick (Cost of doing business I guess) and ordered this: http://www.amazon.com/Solana-Tech-pfsense-firewall-motherboard/dp/B01DB9JRNC?ie=UTF8&colid=2PRIMO09NOET5&coliid=I1R617T4IQIYBV&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl
Twice the price but intel nics, so hoping it works as advertised, since it does say pfsense this time around!
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Oh man… I guess I should have done more research before buying this mobo... Am I completely stuck or will this thing ever play nice? I was able to get 2.3 to install, I had to disable UEFI and a turned off usb junk. I was able to boot and install from a DVD+R, I was able to get into the web gui but it seems to get angry with the other nic. I REALLY would like to get this board working, has anyone has any success with this mobo and 2.3 or, should I down-grade to a different working version (can someone provide a link, can't seem to find one). Thanks!
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I REALLY would like to get this board working, has anyone has any success with this mobo and 2.3 or, should I down-grade to a different working version (can someone provide a link, can't seem to find one). Thanks!
Try out pfSense version 2.2.4 or 2.2.6 if this will helping you out.
Older pfSense version ISO files -
I REALLY would like to get this board working, has anyone has any success with this mobo and 2.3 or, should I down-grade to a different working version (can someone provide a link, can't seem to find one). Thanks!
I have been using this board (GA-J1900N-D3V) since November 2014 with pfSense. Updating with each new release. Currently on 2.3-RELEASE (amd64) with no issues with either NIC.
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Thanks for the reply's guys! I took another look at this board this morning and I had a blank screen. Went to reboot it and take a look back into the BIOS and I get wiggly screen and random lock-ups. Looks like I have a dead board. Going to send it back to Amazon for a refund, I REALLY like what the board offers and I would like to get it to work, but I'm a little concerned with compatibility and reliability. Thoughts?
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I REALLY would like to get this board working, has anyone has any success with this mobo and 2.3 or, should I down-grade to a different working version (can someone provide a link, can't seem to find one). Thanks!
I have been using this board (GA-J1900N-D3V) since November 2014 with pfSense. Updating with each new release. Currently on 2.3-RELEASE (amd64) with no issues with either NIC.
Yesterday, the board seemed to behave, but I would get issues from the WAN NIC. Then I would reset and re-address them and it worked for a while. But now the board flaked out. It gives me hope that I still might use it, since you are having good luck with it, but I don't know what I want to do now… I find it hard to believe that no one makes a decent mini-itx board with Intel NICS, that would be REALLY nice!
Would also like to know which BIOS you are on, this one shipped with the latest I believe, F4? Thanks for the insights.
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I REALLY would like to get this board working, has anyone has any success with this mobo and 2.3 or, should I down-grade to a different working version (can someone provide a link, can't seem to find one). Thanks!
I have been using this board (GA-J1900N-D3V) since November 2014 with pfSense. Updating with each new release. Currently on 2.3-RELEASE (amd64) with no issues with either NIC.
Thank you for the link, I found a list of old archives the other day and made sure to grab 2.2.4, .5 and .6.
I really dig the new web look of 2.3! They did a fantastic job on making it look more modern, sort of reminds me of Sophos UTM.
