2 ports disappeared on Intel quad nic

aebrett

I recently installed pfSense on a new machine with a fleabay quad nic. The installation process was very smooth, and when it finished I could see the network port on my motherboard (re0) as well as all 4 ports on the NIC were working (em0 -> em3). I setup WAN on re0 and LAN on em0, and successfully connected a PC on em0, acquired an IP via DHCP and accessed the internet.

The morning after the initial setup, however, there was no connectivity via em0, and no lights on the em0 NIC port. After rebooting, pfsense only shows 2 ports available on the NIC (em0 and em1) corresponding to the ports that had initially been em2 and em3 on initial setup. Everything works ok after recreating my LAN interface on (the new) em0, and once again I have internet access. However, several reboots and a power down for 30 mins haven't resurrected the 2 ports that have disappeared.

From system.log, here was the logging from initial setup:


Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: pcib0: <acpi host-pci="" bridge="">port 0xcf8-0xcff on acpi0
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: pci0: <acpi pci="" bus="">on pcib0
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: pcib1: <acpi pci-pci="" bridge="">irq 16 at device 1.0 on pci0
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: pci1: <acpi pci="" bus="">on pcib1
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: pcib2: <acpi pci-pci="" bridge="">at device 0.0 on pci1
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: pci2: <acpi pci="" bus="">on pcib2
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: pcib3: <pci-pci bridge="">at device 2.0 on pci2
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: pci3: <pci bus="">on pcib3
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em0: <intel(r) 1000="" pro="" network="" connection="" 7.4.2="">port 0xd020-0xd03f mem 0xf7b20000-0xf7b3ffff,0xf7a80000-0xf7afffff irq 19 at device 0.0 on pci3
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em0: Using an MSI interrupt
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em0: Ethernet address: **:**:**:**:**:31
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em1: <intel(r) 1000="" pro="" network="" connection="" 7.4.2="">port 0xd000-0xd01f mem 0xf7b00000-0xf7b1ffff,0xf7a00000-0xf7a7ffff irq 18 at device 0.1 on pci3
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em1: Using an MSI interrupt
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em1: Ethernet address: **:**:**:**:**:30
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: pcib4: <pci-pci bridge="">at device 4.0 on pci2
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: pci4: <pci bus="">on pcib4
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em2: <intel(r) 1000="" pro="" network="" connection="" 7.4.2="">port 0xc020-0xc03f mem 0xf7920000-0xf793ffff,0xf7880000-0xf78fffff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci4
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em2: Using an MSI interrupt
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em2: Ethernet address: **:**:**:**:**:33
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em3: <intel(r) 1000="" pro="" network="" connection="" 7.4.2="">port 0xc000-0xc01f mem 0xf7900000-0xf791ffff,0xf7800000-0xf787ffff irq 16 at device 0.1 on pci4
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em3: Using an MSI interrupt
Jan 27 23:02:46 pfSense kernel: em3: Ethernet address: **:**:**:**:**:32</intel(r)></intel(r)></pci></pci-pci></intel(r)></intel(r)></pci></pci-pci></acpi></acpi></acpi></acpi></acpi></acpi>

and here it is the next morning, after rebooting:


Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: pcib0: <acpi host-pci="" bridge="">port 0xcf8-0xcff on acpi0
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: pci0: <acpi pci="" bus="">on pcib0
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: pcib1: <acpi pci-pci="" bridge="">irq 16 at device 1.0 on pci0
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: pci1: <acpi pci="" bus="">on pcib1
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: pcib2: <acpi pci-pci="" bridge="">at device 0.0 on pci1
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: pci2: <acpi pci="" bus="">on pcib2
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: pcib3: <pci-pci bridge="">at device 2.0 on pci2
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: pci3: <pci bus="">on pcib3
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: pcib4: <pci-pci bridge="">at device 4.0 on pci2
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: pci4: <pci bus="">on pcib4
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: em0: <intel(r) 1000="" pro="" network="" connection="" 7.4.2="">port 0xe020-0xe03f mem 0xf7d20000-0xf7d3ffff,0xf7c80000-0xf7cfffff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci4
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: em0: Using an MSI interrupt
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: em0: Ethernet address: **:**:**:**:**:33
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: em1: <intel(r) 1000="" pro="" network="" connection="" 7.4.2="">port 0xe000-0xe01f mem 0xf7d00000-0xf7d1ffff,0xf7c00000-0xf7c7ffff irq 16 at device 0.1 on pci4
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: em1: Using an MSI interrupt
Jan 28 06:38:47 pfSense kernel: em1: Ethernet address: **:**:**:**:**:32</intel(r)></intel(r)></pci></pci-pci></pci></pci-pci></acpi></acpi></acpi></acpi></acpi></acpi>

This is my first pfsense install, and while I've got some linux experience I definitely fit into the "noob" category when it comes to pfsense. Can anyone suggest what the problem/solution might be?

Many thanks.

talos

Can you verify that your new NIC is healthy? Perhaps remove it and run it on a linux box. You need to somehow make sure you are not experiencing hardware issues.

Then if the nic is verified as working and in good health, we can then blame pfs :P

Also check that the nic is seated properly in the socket, sometimes brackets are misaligned and tend to lift cards over time!

If all checks fine and good, perhaps reinstalling OS?!

Aluminum

The older quads are basically a pair of 82571 and a pci-e bridge chip, looks like literally one of your controllers is no longer seen.

Do the usual first thing, reseat the card and make sure its not getting wedged out, try again.

After that boot up with another OS or try another slot just to be sure, its possible something failed in hardware though.

Perforado

What board are you using the Quad-NIC-Card on?

Did you try to boot without MSI-X?

aebrett

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried it in another machine on Windows 10, and it had the same problem there as well, which suggested it was a hardware problem. Fortunately, the seller on ebay was extremely helpful and shipped me a new card which works fine.