[solved] Intel i226 Firmware (see post #39)

[pOpY2k25]

I have been using a "Fenvi" branded AliExpress 2 port i226v card since December without any issues.  Updated the card using the 2mb file.  Can sustain 2Gbps throughput.  I have officially 1.5Gbps cable internet that is over provisioned.

You can have a look in the BIOS.  Most BIOS have a setting to turn off ASPM or pci power management. 

Same model as mine.
I got to flash it correctly with the 2MB file too, but the goal was to fix the ASPM compatibilities to avoid having to disable it. (having it disabled is a 10w increase in power consumption)
The way I got it stable is forcing ASPM in bios, forcing it in the kernel cmdline and forcing the "performance" power profile, that disables ASPM for all devices. If it's disabled in BIOS, the card crashed on boot or crashes as soon as a cable is connected.
The OPNsense VM was behaving perfectly when the card was passed through because ASPM was automatically disabled for the device.

If after doing the NVM update and the iface still experiences something odd that seems related to ASPM, then I suspect an issue not related to NVM.

For a Aliexpress 226 pcie card, I might suspect there's a pcie issue between card and host mobo and/or OS. I would start looking there (log messages, etc).

Yes there's a pcie switch on the card (the card is a pcie x1). ASPM issues are probably related to the switch chip, at this point.

Hi,

i am had similar performance issues on unraid (see my post #110) in this thread.
Also hoping to fix it with an update of the nvm firmware, sadly not.

BUT Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The i226-v driver bug i am reffering to in #110 posts (performance loss when ASPM is on) is fixed in unraid 7.3.0-rc1 (kernel 6.18.23).
Here is the commit which fixed the issue: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=0325143b59c6c6d79987afc57d2456e7a20d13b7
Basically disabling aspm L1.2, preventing the performance issue with minimal higher power consumption.


So with this commit, i can recommend the Intel i226-v for low power opnsense/unraid builds WITH full ASPM support and no performance loss.
The c-states rabbit hole has become smaller for me 😁

Hope this helps somebody to escape the c-states rabbit hole.