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    Intel X550T 2.5G Not Working

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Solved Hardware
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    • L Offline
      livegrenier @Andrew
      last edited by

      Hi, @Andrew,

      Wow thanks for the info, I'll try to return my card then, any ideas what's the best card to do 2.5G on xcp-ng? All I'm seeing is people with compatibility problems when I try to research this topic 😞

      Thanks

      tjkreidlT A 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • tjkreidlT Offline
        tjkreidl Ambassador @livegrenier
        last edited by

        @livegrenier 2.5 GiB is unusual. Have used X5xx series NICss before, but only at 1 or 10 GiB.

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        • A Offline
          Andrew Top contributor @livegrenier
          last edited by

          @livegrenier Good question... Why not use 10G on the Intel? That would be the best choice. The intel x540 (1/10G) and newer are good choices for 10G cards.

          I think it's worth just trying to manually enable the 2.5G speed on the 550 card. Intel does not support some required features of the NBASE-T standard, but it should still work ok. The x550 might need a NVM firmware update (available from intel or OEM).

          Other milti-gig PCIe cards:

          The Intel i225/i226 seems to work well, but it's not a 'server' chipset. There are true intel PCIe card, and many cheaper clones using the i225 chip. This is becoming a more common on-board ethernet chip and the driver has good Linux community testing and support.

          The r8125 will also be supported, it's not a great choice. Again, desktop chipset. These are cheap for a reason. This chip is supported by the (not so great) vendor driver and is kind of an odd duck that needs to supported to bring XCP to a larger user base on cheaper hardware.

          The AQC chipsets are used in many cards. The AQC107/108 is on the HCL and supported with the current driver. This is the only officially supported 2.5 ethernet by XenServer (but not XCP!). The newer cards (AQC113/etc) should be supported in the new alt driver available for easy manual install (soon). The different chipset support some range of 10M/100M/1G/2.5G/5G/10G.

          While you can make USB ethernet work, stay away from them. Just say NO to USB...

          L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • L Offline
            livegrenier @Andrew
            last edited by

            @Andrew I was hoping to do 2.5Gb because that's what my pfsense can do.

            Do you have any suggestions on forcing the speed? I attempted several things and it didn't seem to work.

            I did update my firmware since so maybe it will work now, but if you have a suggestion that will survive a reboot ( I believe ethtool is not persistent) let me know.

            Thanks.

            A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • A Offline
              Andrew Top contributor @livegrenier
              last edited by

              @livegrenier ethtool is not persistent, you can add the command to run at startup.

              Quoting the readme:

              By default, devices based on the Intel(R) Ethernet Controller x550 do not
              advertise 2.5 Gbps or 5 Gbps. To have your device advertise these speeds, use
              the following:
              
              # ethtool -s <ethX> advertise N
              
              Where N is a combination of the following.
              100baseTFull   0x008
              1000baseTFull  0x020
              2500baseTFull  0x800000000000
              5000baseTFull  0x1000000000000
              10000baseTFull 0x1000
              
              For example, to turn on all modes:
              # ethtool -s <ethX> advertise 0x1800000001028
              

              So, use ethtool -s ethX advertise 0x1800000001028
              You may have to restart negotiation after the change ethtool -r ethX

              L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • L Offline
                livegrenier @Andrew
                last edited by

                @Andrew unfortunately doesn't sound like a great option long term, you think this will work out of the box?

                https://www.amazon.ca/-/en/Adaptateur-Ethernet-Gigabit-double-Windows/dp/B0C54C4SNX/ref=sr_1_5?__mk_fr_CA=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=FQSUANBXGHRQ&keywords=i226&qid=1700940204&sprefix=i226+%2Caps%2C61&sr=8-5

                I'm looking for something with great support that will work for a long time, my current card doesn't sound like this going to be that unfortunately 😞

                A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • A Offline
                  Andrew Top contributor @livegrenier
                  last edited by

                  @livegrenier Yes, the i226 should work, but that one is very expensive. Do you need two ports? The single port ones are cheap ($25us).

                  I have not tested one of the generic dual port i226 cards, I'll order one for testing (about $40us).

                  If you want an out-of-the-box known supported multi-gig card then you want an AQC107 ($64us, today).

                  05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Aquantia Corp. AQC107 NBase-T/IEEE 802.3bz Ethernet Controller [AQtion] (rev 02)
                  
                  driver: atlantic
                  version: 2.0.3.0-kern
                  firmware-version: 3.1.86
                  expansion-rom-version:
                  bus-info: 0000:05:00.0
                  supports-statistics: yes
                  supports-test: no
                  supports-eeprom-access: no
                  supports-register-dump: yes
                  supports-priv-flags: no
                  
                  Settings for eth4:
                          Supported ports: [ TP ]
                          Supported link modes:   100baseT/Full
                                                  1000baseT/Full
                                                  10000baseT/Full
                                                  2500baseT/Full
                                                  5000baseT/Full
                          Supported pause frame use: Symmetric
                          Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
                          Supported FEC modes: Not reported
                          Advertised link modes:  100baseT/Full
                                                  1000baseT/Full
                                                  10000baseT/Full
                                                  2500baseT/Full
                                                  5000baseT/Full
                          Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
                          Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
                          Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
                          Speed: 2500Mb/s
                          Duplex: Full
                          Port: Twisted Pair
                          PHYAD: 0
                          Transceiver: internal
                          Auto-negotiation: on
                          MDI-X: Unknown
                          Link detected: yes
                  
                  L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • L Offline
                    livegrenier @Andrew
                    last edited by

                    @Andrew I really appreciate your ideas, I like the idea of paying less for just 1 port, you are right I do not need 2 ports.

                    I'm in Montreal so I have to use amazon.ca, the 10G card you link is not available in Canada but for the same price as the 2.5 dual nic card I can get this one:

                    https://www.amazon.ca/Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network-Card/dp/B07G2DV9K2/ref=sr_1_2?crid=24N7U52FGEOL8&keywords=AQC107&qid=1700951323&sprefix=aqc107%2Caps%2C70&sr=8-2

                    That should work right? I just don't want to be returning a card every week 😆

                    A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • A Offline
                      Andrew Top contributor @livegrenier
                      last edited by

                      @livegrenier Looks ok (with full height bracket). You might need to fix the heatsink on that card (check reviews).

                      The TPlink TX401 looks ok.

                      L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • L Offline
                        livegrenier @Andrew
                        last edited by livegrenier

                        @Andrew The TX201 would not work right?

                        I think it needs special drivers and all of that? no out of the box support from what I can tell...

                        A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • A Offline
                          Andrew Top contributor @livegrenier
                          last edited by

                          @livegrenier The TP-Link TX201 uses the RTL8125 chipset.

                          L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • L Offline
                            livegrenier @Andrew
                            last edited by

                            @Andrew thanks, and I see the tx401 has a chipset AQC107, so I'll go with that if you think it's going to work out of the box, I'll probably put this project on hold for a moment, but as soon as I have a confirmation I'll update this post to let everyone know how it went, might take a few weeks but I will.

                            Thanks for the help ❤

                            L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • L Offline
                              livegrenier @livegrenier
                              last edited by

                              Just wanted to confirm I got that TX401 NIC and it's been working well so far on 2.5G👍

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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                              • N Offline
                                Nephtys
                                last edited by

                                I have been able to run a script at startup that enables 2.5g on the Intel X550. Here's how :

                                Create the script that will run at startup

                                nano /usr/local/bin/x550.sh
                                

                                Content of x550.sh :

                                #!/usr/bin/bash
                                
                                sleep 1m
                                ethtool -s eth1 advertise 0x1800000001028
                                echo `date +%F" "%T` "Startup script worked" >> /root/x550.log
                                

                                Make the script executable :

                                chmod +x /usr/local/bin/x550.sh
                                

                                Create the service that runs the script at startup

                                nano /etc/systemd/system/x550.service
                                

                                Content of x550.service :

                                [Unit]
                                
                                Description=Runs /usr/local/bin/x550.sh
                                
                                [Service]
                                
                                ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/x550.sh
                                
                                [Install]
                                
                                WantedBy=multi-user.target
                                

                                Enable the service

                                systemctl enable x550
                                

                                Reboot and run this command to see if the link speed is 2.5g

                                ethtool ethX (replace X with yours)
                                

                                It should show this result :

                                Supported ports: [ TP ]
                                       Supported link modes:   100baseT/Full
                                                               1000baseT/Full
                                                               10000baseT/Full
                                                               2500baseT/Full
                                                               5000baseT/Full
                                       Supported pause frame use: Symmetric
                                       Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
                                       Supported FEC modes: Not reported
                                       Advertised link modes:  100baseT/Full
                                                               1000baseT/Full
                                                               10000baseT/Full
                                                               2500baseT/Full
                                                               5000baseT/Full
                                       Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric
                                       Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
                                       Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
                                       Speed: 2500Mb/s
                                       Duplex: Full
                                       Port: Twisted Pair
                                       PHYAD: 0
                                       Transceiver: internal
                                       Auto-negotiation: on
                                       MDI-X: Unknown
                                       Supports Wake-on: d
                                       Wake-on: d
                                       Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
                                                              drv probe link
                                       Link detected: yes
                                

                                You can check the log file of your script located at /root/x550.log

                                I used this article to create everything :
                                https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/replacing-rclocal-systemd

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