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    Intel X550T 2.5G Not Working

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    • L Offline
      livegrenier
      last edited by livegrenier

      Hey,

      I got an Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller 10G X550T, I'm trying to get 2.5Gb but XCP-NG keeps putting it to 1Gb

      On the other port on that card, I have it connected to a 10G switch and that works fine.

      I also use another port for the management that is on another card, that one is expected to be 1Gb

      Any suggestions?

      here's that nic's info out:

      Settings for eth2:
      	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 
      	Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric
      	Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
      	Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
      	Speed: 1000Mb/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
      

      Thanks.

      alt text
      alt text

      A 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
        • A Online
          Andrew Top contributor @livegrenier
          last edited by

          @livegrenier That is correct. Intel officially does not officially support 2.5/5G on the x550 cards.

          You can manually add the 2.5/5G advertisement, but it may not work correctly as the card does not fully support the standard.

          Intel Readme for the driver with ethtool example.

          L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • 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 Online
                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.

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                  • A Online
                    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 Online
                        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 Online
                            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 Online
                                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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