PCEngines APU2/APU3/APU4 running on 20.7

[Ricardo]

Hi folks!

I prepared this thread as a community contributed gathering place for anyone out there who is running Opnsense on any of the PCEngines APU2/3/4 boards. Since Opnsense 20.7 is a big jump from the old FreeBSD/HardenedBSD 11.x to the new FreeBSD/HardenesBSD 12.1, I expect many compatibility, driver, and performance issues. So I definitely resist upgrading. I let others share their experience first :)

- what Coreboot BIOS you are currently using? Did Core Performance Boot (CPB), the Watchdog, PCIE energy saving, AMDTEMP CPU temperature sensor driver, APULED driver, CPU sysctls gone after Coreboot upgrade, and other recent features broke anything in your firewall?
- are you planning to compare the speed benchmark before 20.7 upgrade and after 20.7 upgrade? E.g. WAN throughput, VPN throughput, OpenSSL -EVP (AES-NI) speed test etc.
- Any igb NIC driver issues observed? Manual sysctl / tuned config file entries?
- ECC functions properly with the new 12.1 BSD? How can you prove it really works?
- does the new 12.1 BSD firmware boot-time microcode update works now properly? How can you prove?
- dmidecode output under 12.1 BSD versus dmidecode under 11.x BSD shows correct ACPI entries, RAM ECC-capable flag(s), RAM module speed vs bus speed reporting discrepancy, etc?
- the infamous terrible PPPoE performance has any improvement, or still limited to 200-400 Mbit max on a 1Gbit fibre WAN + NAT + pf?

And any other issues that are not obvious catch, if you dont have a proper testing checklist after every upgrade performed ("it works for me fine after the update" is a clear sign of no checklist used).

[ruggerio]

In short, i am on 20.7 with my apu4, it works (migrated - not a fresh install)

Ruggerio

[aesth]

Yep, same for me, also migrated (no checklists, no tests, sorry it just works). I am seeing slightly lower load average, much higher memory usage. Coreboot is v4.12.0.3.

[senser]

apu2d4 here, full install on ssd.
I needed to disable circular logs in order to make firewall live logs work properly.

Other than that it works great for me so far.
My bios is    v4.12.0.2. I have disabled the watchdog because when enabled (60s), it would reboot right away. Maybe 60s is not enough?
My (pppoe) internet is just 50mbit so I dont have any performance issues.

Edit: I did a clean install using the importer. Previous version was 20.1

[Dieter Bosli]

Seccessfuly migration of an apu4c4 with instlled coreboot v4.12.0.3 from OPNsense 20.1.9_1 without any problem.

Before i upgrade the second one in the cluster, i will observe the upgraded one for 24-48h. After it is working during this time properly i will upgrade the second one also to OPNsense 20.7.

[banym]

Successful upgraded: apu1
Coreboot: v4.9.0.3

This old lady works like a charm.

[dju]

apu.2c4 successful fresh install OPNsense-20.7-OpenSSL-serial-amd64 on msata 128 go
don't work with sd card anymore

coreboot build 20203007 ( v4.12.0.3 )

[Darkopnsense]

Hello,
Upgrade of an apu4c4 from OPNsense 20.1.9 to OPNsense 20.7 then from coreboot v4.12.0.2 to coreboot v4.12.0.3 without any problem.
Regards,

[hirschferkel]

Hi, I suffer this error codes, when I Install 20.7 on a APU2C4 machine:

Code Select Expand

2020-08-04T18:13:01 kernel: mmc0: Card at relative address 22964 failed to select
2020-08-04T18:13:01 kernel: mmc0: Card at relative address 22964 failed to select
2020-08-04T18:13:01 kernel: mmc0: CMD7 failed, RESULT: 1

@Darkopnsense wrote that it does not work with a SD card anymore but with Msata, did you suffer the same problem?
There is only a SD card slot offered in my Varia router but I found some Sata Slots, i guess, inside it, which are empty. But I do not know how to install the OS with Msata this way... kind of clueless at the moment. Any ideas how to fix it?

apu.2c4 successful fresh install OPNsense-20.7-OpenSSL-serial-amd64 on msata 128 go
don't work with sd card anymore

coreboot build 20203007 ( v4.12.0.3 )

[Darkopnsense]

Hello @hirschferkel,

In my experience your Msata disk is defective.
I have already had the case.
Either you change the disk, or you do a new installation by reformatting (pending the death of your disk)

Regards,

[hirschferkel]

I use a SD card and I installed a fresh 20.1 nano image on the card and it runs perfect again.
Problems will only appear, when I try to install 20.7 on that same SD card. So I did not have any experience with Msata, as I do not have any idea how to install OPNsense with Msata?...

best

Hello @hirschferkel,

In my experience your Msata disk is defective.
I have already had the case.
Either you change the disk, or you do a new installation by reformatting (pending the death of your disk)

Regards,

[Darkopnsense]

Hello,

OPNsense installation on an mSATA:

Create a USB key with the OPNsense image.
APU off
Insert the usb key with OPNsense on the APU
Connect an APU serial cable from the apu to your pc
Start PUTTY
Power up your APU
Follow the instructions in PUTTY

Regards,

[k0ns0l3]

apu2 So far it runs without problems,





Regards  8)

[4r7ur]

I have 2 APU2C4 running here, both on coreboot v4.0.30. No issues so far

[iam]

I've observed a lesser WAN speed on my APU2:
https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=9264.msg83684#msg83684