FreeNAS and JAVA KVM (supermicro ipmi)

[Todd Hayward]

I am having a strange issue; I can use the JAVA KVM applet (IPMIViewer v2.11.0) to interact with my supermicro server's IPMI interface to watch the server boot, and to manipulate the bios settings. But, once the FreeNAS kernel loads, all keystrokes into the KVM stop working.

Is there some tuneable I need to setup so that I can continue to use the JAVA KVM to interact with the FreeNAS boot menu, shell, etc?

IPMI card is the AOC-SIMLP-3(+), firmware 1.66 (cannot locate any newer bits).

Thanks!

 

[Ericloewe]

IPMI card is the AOC-SIMLP-3(+), firmware 1.66 (cannot locate any newer bits).

Separate card? What hardware are we talking about?

 

[Todd Hayward]

Yes, separate Supermicro IPMI card. The mainboard is a X7DBE which has no on-board IPMI, but has a special slot of an SIMLP card (of which there are a few types). The 3+ has 2 ports, one for dedicated IPMI/KVM, the other adds a 3rd gigabit Ethernet interface to the machine.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/SIM.cfm

 

[Ericloewe]

What's the behavior of physical USB HIDs?

 

[Todd Hayward]

I do not understand the question ... if by HID you mean 'human interface device', none of the USB ports are being used for mouse or keyboard. The mainboard has PS/2 connectors, which are connected to a physical KVM solution. The actual HID work fine all the way through boot and into the menu, and beyond.

Again, the KVM over IP functionality is fine until the grub starts the kernel load ... then it breaks. So, I am thinking that it's not 'the IPMI card' which is why I am asking about tunables or other kernel startup parameters.

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, the IPMI card uses USB to emulate the HIDs (yeah, Human Interface Devices), so PS2 working doesn't add much information.

 

[Todd Hayward]

I do not know how to answer your question about the physical USB HID behavior.

 

[Ericloewe]

I do not know how to answer your question about the physical USB HID behavior.

Plug in a USB keyboard and see if it works.

 

[Todd Hayward]

It works, and then it doesn't. I have to unplug it and plug it back in to get it to work again. Looks like the board has faulty USB thingos.

 

[Ericloewe]

It works, and then it doesn't. I have to unplug it and plug it back in to get it to work again. Looks like the board has faulty USB thingos.

Yeah, the USB controller on the chipset must be faulty or suffering from some very weird quirk.

Realistically, I don't expect much chance of fixing that, unless you stumble upon a known issue that has been worked around (X7 is rather old).

 

[Todd Hayward]

Agreed. I have a new board on order to replace. I'll report back after installation to complete the thread.

 

[pvuchetich]

I had the same issue on an IPMI KVM connection (both via web browser/Java and Supermicro Windows IPMI app)- when installing FreeNAS, the keyboard stopped working once it booted the OS for installing. The solution, at least on that board (Supermicro X9SRI-3F model) was to make a small config change in the BIOS related to EHCI and USB. Per my notes, the specific settings that may be relevant are below.

AMI Bios 2.12.1236
"Advanced" tab
All USB Devices = Enabled
EHCI Controller 1 = Enabled
EHCI Controller 2 = Enabled
Legacy USB Support = Enabled
Port 60/64 Emulation = Enabled
EHCI Hand-off = Enabled

Troubleshooting process -
Java KVM on a separate PC, https://IPMI-IP-Address; Load FreeNAS 9.10 ISO via KVM CD
the KVM keyboard worked fine to setup BIOS, so the core functionality of IPMI worked (not a hardware issue). Boot drive set only to KVM CD.
The keyboard stopped working only after the OS started, and the installation screen stopped at the point user input was required.
I tried plugging in a physical USB keyboard while viewing the Java KVM, and the physical keyboard worked fine.
After a quick search (my search was not well documented), I saw a reference that suggested the Java KVM emulation may require legacy USB support, so I searched the BIOS settings, and made the settings above to ENABLE (not set to "AUTO") the options to support legacy USB. Upon reboot, I was able to use the Java KVM keyboard.

The only other USB devices on that FreeNAS server are the mirrored boot drives, which work fine with these settings.

At this point, my guess is that there is an issue between FreeNAS/FreeBSD kernel and the BIOS "AUTO" settings for Legacy USB support. Since it is trivial to force BIOS to support legacy USB, this seems to be the optimal resolution at the current time, but may be worth rechecking if someone on the FreeBSD/FreeNAS side is making changes to the USB driver, such as when FreeNAS changes to a new kernel.

This solution may not apply to every motherboard/BIOS, but other BIOS programs may have some way to force Legacy USB support to be enabled, which seems to be the general resolution.