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    Processor issues with a VIA C7-D processor

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    • C
      Compass
      last edited by

      I am working on bringing online a new firewall. The mother board is a JetWay J7F4K1G5D-PB VIA NanoBGA C7 Processor VIA CN700 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo running a 1.5 Ghz VIA C7-D processor.http://www.jetwaycomputer.com/spec/J7F4-Series.pdf

      In searching other posts, I found that I can run this command to learn more about the processor:

      sysctl -a | egrep -i 'hw.machine|hw.model|hw.ncpu'
      

      The results should be something like this:

      hw.machine: amd64
      hw.model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X3220  @ 2.40GHz
      hw.ncpu: 4
      hw.machine_arch: amd64
      

      Instead i see this:

      hw.machine: i386
      hw.model: VIA/IDT Unknown
      hw.ncpu: 1
      hw.machine_arch: i386
      

      I am not a BSD geek and I do not have advanced experience in administrating pfsense but this seems to me that pfSense is not recognizing the processor. Is this the case and is there anything that I can do to fix the problem?

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      • W
        wallabybob
        last edited by

        I am not a BSD geek and I do not have advanced experience in administrating pfsense but this seems to me that pfSense is not recognizing the processor. Is this the case and is there anything that I can do to fix the problem?

        Well pfSense is recognising the CPU brand and the fact you have got that far suggests that pfSense probably doesn't need to know any more to work. However that may be some software that would attempt to use the crypto instructions in the C7 but not do so because the kernel hasn't detected the CPU is a C7.

        You may get a more detailed CPU recognition if you try the test version of pfSense 1.2.1 (I presume this report came from pfSense 1.2) whih is based on a more modern version of FreeBSD.

        See http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,9780.0.html for a pointer to a version of pfSense based on FreeBSD 6.3.

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        • Cry HavokC
          Cry Havok
          last edited by

          @Compass:

          I am not a BSD geek and I do not have advanced experience in administrating pfsense but this seems to me that pfSense is not recognizing the processor. Is this the case and is there anything that I can do to fix the problem?

          Is it actually causing a problem?  If not then it's purely cosmetic, don't worry about it.

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          • C
            Compass
            last edited by

            @Cry:

            @Compass:

            I am not a BSD geek and I do not have advanced experience in administrating pfsense but this seems to me that pfSense is not recognizing the processor. Is this the case and is there anything that I can do to fix the problem?

            Is it actually causing a problem?  If not then it's purely cosmetic, don't worry about it.

            Yes there is a larger issue that I am trying to ge tot the bottom of. The system is running a 1.5Ghz proc with 1 gig of ram yet is unable to keep up with a 30 user network running a site to site ovpn. All of the specs that I have read say that this should be more than enough to get the job done yet the proc maxs out as soon as i put traffic on it. I am only averaging 1.5 - 2.0 Mbps with the vpn traffic.

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            • C
              Compass
              last edited by

              Is there a way to verify that pfSense is utilizing all the bandwidth on the processor?

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              • W
                wallabybob
                last edited by

                Is there a way to verify that pfSense is utilizing all the bandwidth on the processor?

                From the Web GUI, move the mouse over status (near the top right), click on RRD Graphs. If the system tab is not already selected click on it. You may see a number of graphs displayed. I find them quite hard to read but the numbers below the first graph will probably be useful. If you don't see any graphs you probably need to enable them by clicking on the Settings tab, click in the Enable box and save then go back to the System tab, wait a few minutes (to accumulate some stats) and click on the browser refresh button.

                Post the numbers in a reply if you want some help interpreting them.

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                • C
                  Compass
                  last edited by

                  My system still seems to be having some trouble. The proc is maxed out non stop. I shut down all of the ovpn to the box and it still is getting hammered. It seems to me that the system is not recognizing the proc correctly and is there fore not utilizing it's full power.

                  Is this a possibility? Is there any way that I can verify this if it is a possibility? How should i proceed from here?

                  Please Help…

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                  • D
                    David_W
                    last edited by

                    As has been said, it's unlikely that the failure to detect the particular processor model in your machine is causing the problem.

                    On the console, choose option 8 for the shell. Type in top and press Return. If you can't see one or more of the user processes pegging the process, press S (that's a capital S) to show the system processes. To get out of top, press q, then back at the prompt type exit and press Return.

                    If you really can't get a console on the machine, execute top -S -d1 from the Command Prompt option on the web user interface. You need to do this several times is to ensure that you've correctly identified the process or processes pegging the processor - rather than being able to watch a display updating once a second on the console, you're limited to a 'single shot' via this route.

                    When we know what is pegging the processor, we'll be in a better position to advise.

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                    • C
                      Coldfirex
                      last edited by

                      Are you running any extra packages on the box?  Can you check the BIOS to make sure the cache of the CPU isnt disabled or something funky like that?

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                      • C
                        cmb
                        last edited by

                        It's not possible for any OS to "not recognize the processor" and run at some slower speed. Output from what top shows would be helpful in determining what's happening.

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