FreeNAS 9.2.1.3 - Broadcom 10GB NIC

[Papasmerf]

I have used FreeNAS in a number of different configurations but this is the first time I am trying 10GB networking. I have a single Broadcom 57810 dual port nic along with a set of intel nic's in the system. The intel nic's load without any problem and are seen by the OS and web GUI. The Broadcom's are an issue thoug, I noticed in the release notes that the updates include the bxe(4) driver though it does not seem to be loading. I have tried changing loader.conf to force the module to load but that does not seem to be working.

I know the NIC's are working and functional, the operating system sees the physical hardware and can read the manufacture information from them. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know what additional information you may need to help me with this issue.

 

[jgreco]

The usual thing is to provide the output of "pciconf -l" so we can see what's attached and what's not, and even better if you try both with and without the card to identify which specific line item it is showing up as. If it is showing up as a candidate device, then the output of "dmesg" would also be useful.

 

[Papasmerf]

Here is the result of running dmesg, this is just a snippet of the entire message highlighting the device in question

pci6: <network, ethernet> at device 0.0 (no driver attached)
pci6: <network, ethernet> at device 0.1 (no driver attached)

Here is the relevant section of "pciconf -lv

none3@pci0:6:0:0: class=0x020000 card=0x100614e4 chip=0x168e14e4 rev=0x10 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Broadcom Corporation'
device = 'NetXtreme II BCM57810 10 Gigabit Ethernet'
class = network
subclass = ethernet
none4@pci0:6:0:1: class=0x020000 card=0x100614e4 chip=0x168e14e4 rev=0x10 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Broadcom Corporation'
device = 'NetXtreme II BCM57810 10 Gigabit Ethernet'
class = network
subclass = ethernet
I apologize, as you can tell this is the first time posting to this forum. I hope this is helpful, please let me know what additional information you may need.

 

[jgreco]

I apologize, as you can tell this is the first time posting to this forum. I hope this is helpful,

No apologies. That was a perfect home run and you identified exactly what was needed. Saves time, thanks.

The bad news, not supported in FreeBSD 9. Based on a trite reading of if_bxe.c which lists BRCM_DEVICEID_BCM57710, 57711, 57711E with chip ID's that do not match 0x168e.

The worse news, still problematic in FreeBSD 10. http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=187258

I apologize if that's disappointing news but at least it is nice to arrive at the answer without lots of fuss.

 

[Papasmerf]

I should have said I went ahead and installed FreeBSD 10 and it worked like a champ. Any idea where I might be able to find someone that has back ported the newest driver and kernel modules?

 

[cyberjock]

You can put a ticket in at bugs.freenas.org. But, if that version is coming with info that says its unstable, you can expect that the developers won't put it in until it's been fixed.

Your best bet is to go to ebay and buy yourself an Intel card. This is yet another example(50th this month?) of why buying Intel "just works".

 

[jgreco]

Hard to predict but you can certainly point out that an updated driver is available in 10 and see what happens.

 

[jgreco]

point out in your bug report that is. sigh, long week.