Topton N5105 based system

[regs]

May I ask how you got OPNsense working?
I have a similar N5105 based PC with 6 ports in my case. Unfortunatelly on OPNsense/pfSense, the cables are not detected, no link up.

For instance on Proxmox it works though.

I've tried the latest 22.7 version from end of July.

that's my hardware
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B2JXQS1K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

I have a problem with one of my two 100 Mbit connections, with no link and no lights at all, unless I explicitly set the port to 10BASE-T in OPNsense interface settings, so it's only 10 Mbit. Tried every port on both ends and every cable i have, except cross.

All gigabite connections are working fine. Didn't try 2.5 GbE.

On another 100 Mbit connection 100BASE-TX working fine.

I have 6-port Topton CW-N11.

And I wonder if anyone tried at least any cat 6+ LTE modem, mPCIe or m.2?

[Catalin]

UPDATE:

Flashed a new bios from here (https://www.changwang.com/down/59.html) on the off-chance it works and solves the issue.

Solved the issue. The frequency now scales up and down based on usage.

Here's a dump of my tunables as well:

Code Select Expand

dev.hwpstate_intel.0.epp Intel Speed Shift Efficiency runtime 100
dev.hwpstate_intel.1.epp Intel Speedshift Efficiency runtime 100
dev.hwpstate_intel.2.epp Intel Speedshift Efficiency runtime 100
dev.hwpstate_intel.3.epp Intel Speedshift Efficiency runtime 100
dev.igc.0.fc Flow Control on Interface runtime 0
dev.igc.1.fc Flow Control on Interface runtime 0
dev.igc.2.fc Flow Control on Interface runtime 0
dev.igc.3.fc Flow Control on Interface runtime 0
hint.hwpstate_intel.0.disabled disable speed shift unsupported 0
hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest C-States runtime C1
machdep.hwpstate_pkg_ctrl Intel Pstate boot-time 0

Hi. I also flashed a bios on my N6006 unit but it seems I broke it, I no longer have video. Unfortunately, support in basically non-existent and the update from Chanwang site (link above) is not a full BIOS. Do you tink it's possible for your to send me a full dump of the BIOS from your unit? cand be done via UEFI boot process.

[mimizone]

That sounds strange - the manufacturer says that the hardware is verified to run with OpnSense and you say it works under Proxmox (so no hardware defect).

Did you try under Proxmox first and restored a backup of your OpnSense settings from that installation under your bare-metal OpnSense install? In that case, the interface names do not match. You would have to re-assign the logical interfaces to physical ones via the console menu.

Normally, there is nothing to worry about with these systems - the I225 ports are detected automagically.

It is indeed strange.
PFsense and OPNsense were both tested bare metal installed from a USB stick freshly created from the latest images available online last week.
Is there a way to force the interface to 2.5Gb or to 1Gbps from the CLI ?

I'll try one last time, otherwise I'll stick to using proxmox and dedicating the PCI device to the OPNsense VM.
If the performance is not bad, it's a nice way to get snapshotting capability too! :D

[Seimus]

My two cents in this topic.

I ordered from Ali a Topton N5105 i226-V box without RAM and NVME (those I suplied myself as its cheaper localy).

Order placed on:  Jun 7, 2023
Delivered:            Jun 16,2023

My possitive observations:

• It came with set C1 in BIOS and a better Power Supply.
• It came with updated BIOS


• Installed VGA flavor of the OPNSense baremetal, OPN is able without problems recognize the i226-V NICs and capable to run 1G thoughput without problems (I dont have 2.5G Switch so unable to test it). No tunables were changed all default as set by OPNSense.



• The Idle Temps sits around 48C-50C.
• When the BOX is transfering traffic the temps are around 69C (normal usage) - 81C (stress test) in a small 1U based Rack with other devices and servers at 28C ambient temperature room.


• Temps are similiar to APU2D2


• CPU utilisation doesnt usually go above 20-30% even during stress test of OPN (iperf3) with implementations I have (LAGGs, L3 VLANs, Shapers, several sets of Rules, Aliases, VPNs etc.)


• HTTPs resonse is around 0.04ms-0.06ms
• ICMP response is around 0.001ms-0.002ms

My negative observations:

• BOX is extremly hot on touch. Due to its size it has smaller heat spread field thus the concentration of heat is bad. You literary can not put a hand on it for more than few seconds. But this is to be expected

Overall I am happy with what I got. Thermals are Okay, The BOX performs very well, and I have more headroom to implemented more features.

Will see with time how the BOX will perform long term as well during extremly hot days. But so far so good.

Regards,
S.

[Seimus]

Small Update on my N5105 unit. Temps dropped another 4C.

I did disassemble it to look how is the cooling system done. On the CPU there is a small heat plate that is bridging the CPU Die with the Cooling plate (chassis). Not sure what Paste they did use but between the small heat plate and the Cooling plate paste was extremely dried out.

Cleaned the Paste from CPU (didn't looked to fresh as well) and the heat plate as well heat sing. Put a fresh line of MX4 and assembled back. This did drop temps about 4C in the same environmental conditions.

Regards,
S.

[134]

Just bought CWWK N100 unit. I was paying attention to N5105 but ultimately waited for N100 and the reviews. Alder Lake-N is much faster than Jasper Lake.

[Seimus]

Just bought CWWK N100 unit. I was paying attention to N5105 but ultimately waited for N100 and the reviews. Alder Lake-N is much faster than Jasper Lake.

I was thinking to buy one instead of N5105. Because at least per ServetheHome YT channel these N100 came with better chassis and overall performance was better. However the N100 at the time I was looking at it was much more expensive so I went with N5105 instead.

Regards,
S.

[chuliu]

Same result here with the Topton unit.

I have done not only the heatspreader with K5 pro but also use the new Changwang BIOS which offers a "performance" menu (if I remember correctly) where I lowered PL1 and PL2 to 10 and 12 Watts respectively - also, I lowered the CPU voltage by 30 mV (careful, I have read that setting this too low can render the device useless, even beyond a CMOS reset!).

My relevant tuneables are:

hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest=C1 (do not try lower - system gets unstable!)
hw.ibrs_disable=1 (might help a little)

I am not using powerd.


The device is at 45°C now, but only one port connected and basically sitting idle so far.

P.S.: Put every sysctl setting in tuneables in the GUI, it detects automagically which ones have to be done on boot and which can be set dynamically. I tried it and it survives a reboot.

P.P.S: I just applied 'sysctl dev.hwpstate_intel.0.epp=100' and temps dropped another 4°C.

Hi, I am running opnsense on a N5105 mini pc which I bought off aliexpress.
I too am getting high cpu temperature issues.
The cpu would go up to 81 celcius.
I am newbie to all this.
May I know in details where to type in these commands:
hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest=C1 (do not try lower - system gets unstable!)
hw.ibrs_disable=1 (might help a little)

Thanks.

[newsense]

A screenshot of your Powerd settings please. System - Settings - Miscellaneous

[newsense]

And don't cross post please, you already opened a thread for this

[mimizone]

Forgot to answer... sorry.

so just for info, the issue was a mix of the user (me) and opnsense drivers (I guess).
The interfaces show up in a different order if I remember correctly.