2.5GbE with X520-T2

[reynolds087]

I am using Intel X520-T2 NIC cards, and want to use the 2.5GbE option. The problem is that it's not showing up in the drop-down list as an option. Does anyone know if this is an option? I know it is supported in Windows and Linux, so I assumed it would also be supported in OPNSense.

[dpsguard]

This is an older 2010 model of 10Gig copper RJ45 card from Intel and at that time, there was no multirate / mGig 1/2.5/5/10Gbps standard even. So this card will not support 2.5Gbps.  Unless Intel did some magic and released some driver to allow it to work at 2.5Gbps.

Here is the datasheet

https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-Sheets_Documents/en/us/intel-ethernet-server-adapter-x520-t2-product-brief.pdf

[reynolds087]

Hi, can you have a look at this article?

I believe they did add this feature in a driver update.

https://community.intel.com/t5/Ethernet-Products/network-adapter-X550-T2-driver-no-support-2-5GbE/m-p/551451

[meyergru]

I think the thread is mislabeled: The older models X520-T2 and X540-T2 where indeed limited to 1/10 GbE. I assume you refer to the newer X550.

The X550 can handle 1/2.5/5/10 GbE, but the intermediate speeds (aka NBASE-T) are not easily selectable. Usually, NBASE-T speeds used to be auto-negotiable only. Under Windows, there was a later driver that could set the speed manually, but only to a fixed speed, not by "limiting" it.

Also, there is a newer firmware needed: https://community.intel.com/t5/Ethernet-Products/Intel-X550-T2-where-is-firmware-update-for-promised-802-3bz/td-p/1429739

Under Linux, you can set the 2.5 GbE speed manually via "/usr/sbin/ethtool -s $IFACE advertise 1800000001028".

For FreeBSD, there is a patch to enable these settings: https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/commit/9eed130b298f72da2518f7f9211c1609b16639e3

So probably, there is a possibility to set this via ifconfig, but maybe not from the GUI.

[newsense]

Don't know the history of this driver, so I've reported your post just to make sure the FreeBSD commit is not missed (did a quick search on GH and didn't see it so I'm not sure if it's been pulled)

[franco]

% git branch --contains 9eed130b298f72da2 | grep stable
  stable/22.7
  stable/23.1
  stable/23.7

Looks like we have had the patch for a while...


Cheers,
Franco

[vpx]

X520-T2 based on 82599EB supports 10/1GbE:

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/69655/intel-ethernet-converged-network-adapter-x520t2.html
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/32207/intel-82599eb-10-gigabit-ethernet-controller.html

X550-T2 supports 10GbE/5GbE/2.5GbE/1GbE/100Mb:

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/88209/intel-ethernet-converged-network-adapter-x550t2.html

[CJ]

If you have any open PCIe slots, you may want to just pick up a i225 or i226 card and use that for your 2.5G connection.  The cards are pretty cheap and work well IME.