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    LAN Driver, Qualcomm Atheros AR8171

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
    43 Posts 6 Posters 17.3k Views
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    • arrmoA
      arrmo
      last edited by

      Hi,

      Have been hunting around for a while now, pulling my hair out … :-(. Has anyone found a driver for an Atheros AR8171. It's on my MB, ASRock H81M-ITX.

      Thanks!!!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        There is a development driver here:
        https://github.com/markjdb/alx-freebsd
        You would have to compile it yourself and add the kernel module. Not sure what it would compile against though, FreeBSD 10 probably.

        Steve

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        • arrmoA
          arrmo
          last edited by

          Thanks very much! Checked it out, compiled it … and it works.

          Much appreciated!

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          • N
            nikkon
            last edited by

            That's good news.i could have the same issue if i bypass the install issue i have.
            Can you make some performance test with this "beta" driver just to know how it goes ?
            Thx

            pfsense 2.3.4 on Supermicro A1SRi-2758F + 8GB ECC + SSD

            Happy PfSense user :)

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            • arrmoA
              arrmo
              last edited by

              You bet! I installed the driver, and tested iperf through the pfSense box … both UL (LAN to WAN), and DL (WAN to LAN). Here is what I saw ...

              • UL ~ 430 Mb/s
              • DL ~ 600 Mb/s

              This is on a GE network, that I have benchmarked before up to pretty close to 1 Gb/s. But overall, quite good it seems - feel free to disagree though.

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                What CPU is that throughput data using?

                Which pfSense version? Did you compile it against FreeBSD 8.3?

                Steve

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                • arrmoA
                  arrmo
                  last edited by

                  Hi,

                  This is on pfSense 2.2, compiled on FreeBSD 10.

                  Sorry, do you mean the CPU load during the test? I admit, didn't monitor that (but I think this may be limiting iperf overall).

                  Thanks.

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    I meant what actual CPU are you using. Looking at your board I would expect almost any compatible CPU to be capable of routing at >1Gbps in which case 600Mbps doesn't look that great. I guess the driver is non-optimal, still a lot better than not working at all.  ;)

                    Steve

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                    • arrmoA
                      arrmo
                      last edited by

                      Hi,

                      I didn't put a great processor in it - just a Pentium G3220. Was trying to build a fairly inexpensive box. But even that is a 3 GHz processor, so you may very well be right.

                      I did notice that the driver is logging a lot to syslog. I can remove this, and try again … make sense? But ... I don't have a box on the WAN side anymore that runs iperf ... I can install it on the pfSense box, and have it terminate there, but - will it make a difference if I use the WAN or LAN IP address?

                      Thanks!

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                      • arrmoA
                        arrmo
                        last edited by

                        FYI, recompiled, reinstalled the driver (and rebooted) … and retested. I'm now getting ~ 930 Mb/s, so life is good ... :). I'll be honest though, not sure how to tell if I'm going through the WAN port or not. I am targeting the WAN IP address (from the LAN side), but not sure if it really gets there ... :(.

                        Thanks.

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                        • D
                          davros123
                          last edited by

                          Hi arrmo.

                          Congrat's on getting this working!

                          I also have this board and would love to run with the single onboard nic (using VLANs).

                          Can you please post the driver and some instructions (or links) to get this working?

                          Thanks a heap!

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • arrmoA
                            arrmo
                            last edited by

                            Absolutely! More than happy to help out if I can. Is there a place to post the file? I can't attach it here (not of the allowed file types).

                            Thanks.

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                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Just re-name the file, add .png to the end. Don't use the .txt extension as that confuses some browsers and corrupts the file.

                              That driver appears to still be in active development, the last commit was only 19days ago, so check back if you find any bugs.
                              Edit: Nothing major changed since Dec last year though.

                              Steve

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                              • D
                                davros123
                                last edited by

                                Excellent!

                                wikisend.com looks good for small files - no reg. needed.

                                or as Steve suggested, rar it, then rename to .png and add it to a post here.

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                                • arrmoA
                                  arrmo
                                  last edited by

                                  Hi,

                                  You bet - attached here … just remove the .png from the end (real name is if_alx.ko).

                                  Yes, it's active. I actually spoke to the author before building my driver, asked him to remove some of the console diagnostics (which he very graciously did - very helpful guy!). Let me know if you have any issues with this driver.

                                  Thanks.

                                  if_alx.ko.png

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                                  • D
                                    davros123
                                    last edited by

                                    Thanks.

                                    Do you have a linky or pointers on how to install/use the driver?

                                    I am new to freebsd o/s….guess i can google but all help appreciated.

                                    Thanks.

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                                    • D
                                      davros123
                                      last edited by

                                      ok, found some instructions…but get this error... :-\

                                      
                                      [2.1.4-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root(1): kldload /boot/kernel/if_alx.ko
                                      kldload: can't load /boot/kernel/if_alx.ko: Exec format error
                                      
                                      [2.1.4-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root(3): uname -a
                                      FreeBSD pfSense.localdomain 8.3-RELEASE-p16 FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p16 #0: Fri Jun 20 13:19:29 EDT 2014     root@pf2_1_1_amd64.pfsense.org:/usr/obj.amd64/usr/pfSensesrc/src/sys/pfSense_SMP.8  amd64
                                      [2.1.4-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root(4):
                                      
                                      

                                      and this in dmesg

                                      KLD if_alx.ko: depends on kernel - not available or version mismatch
                                      linker_load_file: Unsupported file type
                                      
                                      
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                                      • stephenw10S
                                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                        last edited by

                                        Because:
                                        @arrmo:

                                        This is on pfSense 2.2, compiled on FreeBSD 10.

                                        You can't use this module on 2.1.X because that's built on FreeBSD 8.3 as you've seen. Also it has to be the correct architecture, 32 or 64bit. I'm not sure what the module is.

                                        Steve

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                                        • D
                                          davros123
                                          last edited by

                                          Bugger, missed that very important piece if information.

                                          Ok, soooo, what's involved in compiling on 8.3?  Can I do this from pfsense (without downloading bucketloads of extra bloat) or do I need to have a freebsd install to compile?

                                          Perhaps I should just cop the extra watts from my pcie Intel nic and run with that…

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                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            No, there are no build tools in pfSense and trying to add them will be a disaster. Use FreeBSD 8.3 to build things for pfSense. I have used a bsd live cd to compile simple things before.
                                            I imagine you would have difficulty compiling this kernel module against 8.3 though, a lot has changed between that and 10. Probably easier to take the power hit.  ;)

                                            Steve

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