Zotac ZBOX CI323 nano

blueduckdock

Thanks to TheNarc- got the module and loaded it up.
So far, so good but it's only been a day so..

Edit- so…given that the normal FreeBSD drivers for Realtek NICs are not up to par, is there any reason we can't load up a kernel module in pfSense by default (question to the devs)? Is there some kind of issue loading up realtek drivers in the module due to copyright, openness, etc.? Figured you could just grab one of the latest, have beta testers test it, then keep it for the length of the FreeBSD base (ie. same driver/kernel module all the way through FreeBSD11, then upgrade the driver when it goes to 12, etc.)

silviu

Is this still ok to use on 2.4.1 ? Should be since we are still FreeBSD 11. Or do I need to recompile?

blueduckdock

@silviu:

Is this still ok to use on 2.4.1 ? Should be since we are still FreeBSD 11. Or do I need to recompile?

No issues here with that 1.94 module linked above.

Guest

1.94 seems to help Zotac CI327 too in terms of gaining stability and network performance when running pfsense 2.4.1.

So thanks to all those who figured out and provided the solution and especially for the binary.

I wonder if it would also benefit 2.3.x (FreeBSD 10.3).
Anyone has used it with 2.3.x ?

DvdW

Thanks to (among others) Ermax, Cinnamon, TheNarc and a little Google this noob was able to almost max out my 400/40 line on the C1327 nano with 2.4.1-RELEASE. Next stop: learn to speak FreeBSD… :o

MuadDib81

Hi!

I have also the ZBOX CI323 nano and the wireless is not working with pfsense 2.4.1. I added the two lines to /boot/loader.conf:


...
legal.intel_iwi.license_ack=1
legal.intel_ipw.license_ack=1

The output from pciconf -lv:


...
none2@pci0:4:0:0:       class=0x028000 card=0x80708086 chip=0x08b38086 rev=0x83 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Wireless 3160'
    class      = network

I assume the missing subclass (Wireless) is responsible for not showing up in the wireless section. Is there any possibility to make it working though?

Guest

My CI327's wifi card was not supported by FreeBSD 10.3 or 11.1, but in an old laptop I found a wifi card that agreed with FreeBSD, so I swapped them.
The laptop (running linux) figured out the proper driver in a heartbeat so the new card didn't go to waste. On the pfsense box, the legacy wifi card supports G only, but better than nothing.
You might want to try something similar or even buy a suitable wifi card for your pfsense box. Wifi troubleshooting is way too painful especially on a FreeBSD system.

bgbird03

@TheNarc:

I run a CI323 nano and just updated to 2.4.0-RELEASE. As part of that, I grabbed Realtek's latest driver (v1.94 released September 15, 2017) from here: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=5&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

I then grabbed a ready-to-run FreeBSD 11.1 VM image here: https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/VM-IMAGES/11.1-RELEASE/amd64/Latest/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64.vmdk.xz and fired it up in Virtualbox. The compilation went right through with no patching or modifications required. All I had to do then was put the compiled if_re.ko module in /boot/kernel/ and add the line if_re_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf.local and everything seems to be happy, at least as evidenced by if_re.ko being listed in the output from kldstat and no stability issues so far.

I've added the compiled module in case anyone else wants it. The SHA512 of the if_re.ko file (not the ZIP file) is:
00f0278b396844e2735d10b57780ccf31a085d9a52e9e192fb758a904172fa4a9c27da297f6722f69906d9d62f4168ea3babfc8a27849f37a667bc0323c1841b

My apologies for this very amateur hour question, but how do I do this with my Zotac box? I've got version 2.4.1 running great, but obviously I'm getting the "re0:watchdog timeout" with the drivers that came with the box. Updating the drivers seems to be the best chance (the interface dies every few hours…). I tried uploading the files from both the GUI and the command prompt during loading and can't figure it out.

The very, very gracious if_re.ko file that you provided is unzipped and on a USB drive, but I can't figure out how to move that to the /boot/kernel folder; I've been trying the "mount /dev/da0s1a /mnt" command from the 'execute shell command' in the GUI but...no joy. I can add the text line in /boot/loader.conf.local no problem using the Diagnostics/Edit File in the GUI.

Thanks for your help! Hopefully this will fix this Realtek issue once and for all for me.

EDIT: well regrettably wasn't able to get anyone here to help me out with the issue, but another forum suggested using WinSCP to get the file over to the box; that worked perfectly and was very intuitive (for even me) to use. So if anybody is as clueless as I am, that tool is a great way/GUI to connect to your pfSense box and move files around between Windows & Unix/FreeBSD/pfSense.

bgbird03

@MuadDib81:

Hi!

I have also the ZBOX CI323 nano and the wireless is not working with pfsense 2.4.1. I added the two lines to /boot/loader.conf:
...
legal.intel_iwi.license_ack=1
legal.intel_ipw.license_ack=1
The output from pciconf -lv:
...
none2@pci0:4:0:0:       class=0x028000 card=0x80708086 chip=0x08b38086 rev=0x83 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Wireless 3160'
    class      = network
I assume the missing subclass (Wireless) is responsible for not showing up in the wireless section. Is there any possibility to make it working though?

I just ended up purchasing a cheap ($20) wireless D-Link access point for my home as a "workaround". It is great. I have the WAN as re0 and LAN as re1 going to the wireless device configured with a static IP. The pfSense does the routing/DHCP…and the D-Link is just an access point. You might want to consider a solution like that rather than using an internal NIC. Its tough to find anybody on this forum that supports using internal NICs as your home WAP.

trottoluccia

Sorry guys but I'm new to freeBSD (actually I'm just a user with no experience in compiling stuff)… is there any guide to put this driver in my pfsense installation?

I've got the Zotac CI323 and I can only go up to 100tx on my LAN despite everything else is gigabit... hope the diver can help..

thanks, Max

TheNarc

Apologies to bgbird03; I don't check the forums as often as I should. But the WinSCP solution referred to by him/her is probably the path of least resistance for getting the if_re.ko file to the /boot/kernel/ location on your pfSense machine from a Windows machine. Here's a decent write-up with a link to download WinSCP that should still work even though it was written in 2010: https://dave.harris.uno/using-winscp-to-connect-to-pfsense/. Once you have the file up, you may need to set its permissions and/or ownership; in any case, it's a good idea. The easiest way to do this from a Windows machine is probably using putty. Here's a decent guide on that: https://turbofuture.com/internet/How-to-Access-pfSense-Remotely-Using-SSH. Note that you only need to follow it as far as "The Console Menu." Once you have a command prompt after entering 8 at the options menu, execute the following two commands:
chown root:wheel /boot/kernel/if_re.ko
chmod 0555 /boot/kernel/if_re.ko
After this, if you execute:
ls -al /boot/kernel/if_re.ko
You should see output like this:
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 522968 Oct 12 19:51 /boot/kernel/if_re.ko

After that, you just need to tell the system to load and use this module. To do that, go to the normal pfSense web interface and navigate to Diagnostics > Edit File. Type in /boot/loader.conf.local and click Load. At the end of anything already there, add the line:
if_re_load="YES"

I also have these lines, which I found some time ago in this thread: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=101587.0. Full disclaimer, I don't know whether they're really necessary or helpful, but I've had them forever on my CI323 and they certainly don't cause any trouble . . .
hw.re.msi_disable=1
hw.pci.enable_msix=0
hw.pci.enable_msi=0

So that ought to do it. Obviously you'll need to reboot your pfSense machine for the changed to take effect. If you want to verify the new module is being used, SSH in again using putty and run:
kldstat

You'll probably get a few lines of output from this, but one of them should list if_re.ko.

bgbird03

@TheNarc:

Apologies to bgbird03; I don't check the forums as often as I should. But the WinSCP solution referred to by him/her is probably the path of least resistance for getting the if_re.ko file to the /boot/kernel/ location on your pfSense machine from a Windows machine. Here's a decent write-up with a link to download WinSCP that should still work even though it was written in 2010: https://dave.harris.uno/using-winscp-to-connect-to-pfsense/. Once you have the file up, you may need to set its permissions and/or ownership; in any case, it's a good idea. The easiest way to do this from a Windows machine is probably using putty. Here's a decent guide on that: https://turbofuture.com/internet/How-to-Access-pfSense-Remotely-Using-SSH. Note that you only need to follow it as far as "The Console Menu." Once you have a command prompt after entering 8 at the options menu, execute the following two commands:
chown root:wheel /boot/kernel/if_re.ko
chmod 0555 /boot/kernel/if_re.ko
After this, if you execute:
ls -al /boot/kernel/if_re.ko
You should see output like this:
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 522968 Oct 12 19:51 /boot/kernel/if_re.ko

After that, you just need to tell the system to load and use this module. To do that, go to the normal pfSense web interface and navigate to Diagnostics > Edit File. Type in /boot/loader.conf.local and click Load. At the end of anything already there, add the line:
if_re_load="YES"

I also have these lines, which I found some time ago in this thread: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=101587.0. Full disclaimer, I don't know whether they're really necessary or helpful, but I've had them forever on my CI323 and they certainly don't cause any trouble . . .
hw.re.msi_disable=1
hw.pci.enable_msix=0
hw.pci.enable_msi=0

So that ought to do it. Obviously you'll need to reboot your pfSense machine for the changed to take effect. If you want to verify the new module is being used, SSH in again using putty and run:
kldstat

You'll probably get a few lines of output from this, but one of them should list if_re.ko.

TheNarc: you're amazing! You've already done a ton by compiling the driver and posting it, so yeah, I don't blame you if you don't live on the forum 24/7. Your debt to society has been paid in my opinion…

Putty'd in no problem and changed the permissions like you said (my time stamp is slightly different, but whatever -- good enough for me). Edit file was super easy also. I had seen most of those lines before -- seems like every Zotac box of this type needs them? -- and added the hw.re.msi_disable=1 because I didn't have that one. And...of course it caused my boot to hang at some random thing...atrtc0, right above some "event timer". I rebooted, pushed option 3, set hw.re.msi_disable=0, and everything booted fine. So henceforth, I deleted that from mine. No idea why my box didn't like it.

Rebooted and verified with kldstat that if_re.ko is indeed running. Also did a dmesg and after hunting around for it, found my re0 & re1 version was 1.94.01, so I'm assuming things went as planned.

Will this driver work with future version of pfSense? Like when they move to FreeBSD 12.0 or whatever (in the future?) Just kind of curious. I think the solution is to probably move away from a Realtek NIC, but for the moment I wanted a cheap project to play around with and learn simple firewall/unix stuff, and this box really fit the (low power) bill.

It seems to have fixed my watchdog timeout error. Now if only I could get my PS4 to stop having massive lag! Again -- thanks for your help on this very specific issue.

TheNarc

Nice! Thanks for the kind words and glad this worked for you. Not sure about that hw.re.msi_disable option; honestly I haven't really looked into exactly what it does. But of course the important thing is getting rid of the timeout errors. As far as forward-compatibility, I would sort of expect we'll need to (or at a minimum should) recompile again for the next major FreeBSD release (e.g. 12.0) but that what we have now should work for any minor releases of FreeBSD 11. That kind of compatibility question really depends on how OS releases are managed, and I'm not a BSD guru. But I think it's a reasonable expectation, in roughly the same way that you would expect a driver for Windows 7 to work regardless of what service pack you're on, but not necessarily that the same driver would work for Windows 10. Although I'll be glad to recompile for FreeBSD 12.0 whenever pfSense transitions to it.

bgbird03

Interesting followup to the hw.re.msi_disable=1 that you had in the loader.conf.local. If you remember, I put that in, it "broke" the boot, so took it out and it worked fine. Well…when I upgraded to 2.4.2 today, it for some reason got stuck in the exact same spot (even though hw.re.msi_disable=1) wasn't in the loader.conf.local. So...I manually set it to hw.re.msi_disable=0 before the boot process using option 3, and that fixed it. I've now added hw.re.msi_disable=0 to the loader.conf.local permanently; just interesting that it is the exact opposite setting of what you have.

TheNarc

That is strange, especially since the default value is supposed to be 0 based on on information here: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=re&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+11.1-RELEASE. Are you also running a CI323 or the newer CI327? Maybe they use slightly different Realtek chipsets. Although since they both use the same Realtek driver you'd expect that driver setting to behave the same on both. Anyway, whatever works I suppose, though it's always nice to understand why things work when possible :)

bgbird03

I've got a 3127NANO-U, so maybe that is the difference. Then again, I have no idea what I'm doing and my pfSense experience so far has been like fighting (against myself) in the contested cyber domain. Sure, I can sort of do some things. But then other things break (like my BBC News App), and it takes me hours to figure out how to fix the firewall rules and why in the heck these things are being blocked (don't get me started on my VPN & certificate issues). So yeah…

My experience is what I think fighting China must be like in cyberspace. Except I am my own enemy.

rek5

Update: new module does not with with 2.4.2 I was able to load a fresh version of 2.4.1 and the module loaded correctly. I am still having issues with the WAN throughput for the device. Internet is 120/10, I can only get 50/10 after the pfsense box. iperf shows 500mbit speeds.

bgbird03

I was able to get it working with 2.4.2, unless you're talking about something else. And I only have 50/50 internet, but I can usually pull that through my Zotac. My PS4 doesn't work through it though, and my VPN is slower than molasses. But I still have 2.4.2 working…

Warhol

Thanks a lot to TheNarc for posting the compiled module!

I tried it with pfSense 2.4.2 on a ZBOX CI327:

The module does load! :)
However, I had to set loader options opposite to what TheNarc suggested:
- hw.re.msi_disable=0
- hw.pci.enable_msi=1
- hw.pci.enable_msix=1

With the options set otherwise, I experienced weird behaviour - either the boot hangs completely, or the system comes up (VGA console visible, bootup-tune plays), but then neither USB-keyboard nor network I/O is working, preventing all access to the running system.

rek5

@Warhol:

Thanks a lot to TheNarc for posting the compiled module!

I tried it with pfSense 2.4.2 on a ZBOX CI327:

The module does load! :)

However, I had to set loader options opposite to what TheNarc suggested:

hw.re.msi_disable=0

hw.pci.enable_msi=1

hw.pci.enable_msix=1

With the options set otherwise, I experienced weird behaviour - either the boot hangs completely, or the system comes up (VGA console visible, bootup-tune plays), but then neither USB-keyboard nor network I/O is working, preventing all access to the running system.

I will try out these settings on my 327 and report back.