OPNsense on Dell Optiplex 7040

[Patrick M. Hausen]

24.7 - 2024, July.

[meyergru]

Or you can check now by:

Code: [Select]

# opnsense-update -zkr 14-STABLE -a FreeBSD:14:amd64
I use it because of the 100% speed increase for Wireguard and it runs pretty smooth so far. You can even lock the kernel package in the firmware settings and thus no upgrades will change it.

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Or you can check now by:

Code: [Select]

# opnsense-update -zkr 14-STABLE -a FreeBSD:14:amd64
I use it because of the 100% speed increase for Wireguard and it runs pretty smooth so far. You can even lock the kernel package in the firmware settings and thus no upgrades will change it.

Won't that be reverted by the next minor update? Also in my experience tools like sockstat or netstat frequently behave strangely when there is a userland/kernel mismatch.

[rbabruce]

Or you can check now by:

Code: [Select]

# opnsense-update -zkr 14-STABLE -a FreeBSD:14:amd64
I use it because of the 100% speed increase for Wireguard and it runs pretty smooth so far. You can even lock the kernel package in the firmware settings and thus no upgrades will change it.

Do you have a command that would upgrade it to 13.3 rather than 14.0 which is older.

[Greg_E]

14 will be newer, that's how the release numbers go.

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Greg, sorry, no.

14.0 was released November 20, 2023
13.3 was released March 5, 2024

FreeBSD maintains multiple branches in parallel. 14.1 is next.

[meyergru]

That version was specifically provided by @franco for Wireguard testing because we knew that the FreeBSD 14-based "other" project's code was quite a bit faster.

We shall see how fast the shift to 14.1 will be for OpnSense. Technically, 24.7 is based on 13.3 mainly because 14.1 will not be finalized until OpnSense 24.7.

As I said, I have no problems whatsoever with that kernel under 24.1.x. And I just upgraded from 24.1.4 to 24.1.5_3 with the 14.0 kernel package locked.

[Greg_E]

Well, that makes sense in versioning. 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

FreeBSD 14 is in the process of being updated to release 14.1. That probably won't make it in time for OPNsense 24.7, unfortunately.

FreeBSD 13 is also a supported branch, way into 2026. So there will be a 13.4 release almost certainly. Probably after 14.1. Think of these as two different products.

Just like Windows Server 2019 and 2022 are both supported and widely deployed. And receive patches.

13.3 is a minor update for FreeBSD 13. 14.1 is a minor update for FreeBSD 14.

[rbabruce]

Can anyone give me the command to upgrade to the 13.3 version of FreeBSD.

I would like to try that version as it specifically addresses some PCI bus issues that I believe may make the other network card available.

Thanks

[rbabruce]

Can anyone give me the command to upgrade to the 13.3 version of FreeBSD.

I would like to try that version as it specifically addresses some PCI bus issues that I believe may make the other network card available.

Thanks

Just following up to see if there is an answer to the above

[opnfwb]

Do you know the chipset used for the NIC that is not being detected in OPNsense?

The pciconf output for all of the detected NICs shows they are quite old. I'm assuming this is an OptiPlex 7040 Tower since some of these are PCI based. The I219-LM NIC is the onboard NIC on the Dell mainboard. But the other 3 interfaces (Intel 82546 and Intel 82571) are older, with the 82546 being PCI based.

Rather than waiting for 13.3, I would highly suggest instead just getting newer NICs that are PCIe based. You can find used Intel 4 port server NICs on ebay for $25. Buy two of those and you'd have a way better setup than trying to use a mashup of very old parts and PCI interfaces. And the 7040 Tower should have two x16 slots that will accommodate dual PCIe x4 quad port NICs.

[rbabruce]

Ye the other dual nic is an Intel card similar to the detected one except it has a physically longer PCI connector.

[opnfwb]

Verify that you have at least two PCIe x4 slots (or greater) and then just order two of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/166706911164.

I would not suggest messing with standard PCI slots. They won't saturate gigabit, especially if you have a dual port card plugged in to a standard 32bit PCI slot.

PCIe has been around since 2005. PCI is positively ancient at this point, don't use it.

[chemlud]

fwiw the 7040 has 2x 16x PCIe and 2x PCI interfaces according to this here

https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/optiplex-7040-desktop_owners-manual_en-us.pdf

Would go with modern 4x Intel PCIe cards if <= 9 ethernet ports are needed for the install.