TOPTON Mini PC Running OPNSense Frequent Freezing

[toonable]

Hi everyone,

Please don't roast me in the replies as I'm quite new to networking & OPNsense. I wanted to tinker with VLANs on my home network, as well as segregate my IoT devices for privacy reasons, so in my opinion, my setup isn't really all that complex, nor would I consider myself a heavy user.

I was running OPNsense on an EliteDesk previously for several weeks and it was incredibly stable. However, I wanted to upgrade to 2.5 GbE speeds as my internet plan is 3 Gbps, so I purchased A Topton device from AliExpress (https://www.toptonpc.com/product/intel-n150-7505-6305-6x-i226-v-2-5g-solid-firewall-router-fanless-mini-pc-ddr4-nvme-1com-type-c-pfsense-opnsense-mini-computer/) -- I specifically got the 6305 model, and I loaded the same config to the new device (I obviously set the new interfaces, but otherwise the VLANs, firewall rules, etc. stayed the same). I do not have IDS or IPS enabled.

I have seen a lot of chatter on the forums that i226-V NICs have quite a bit of instability, but almost entirely related to dropped packets, random disconnects, etc. However, my issue is that my device freezes entirely and is unresponsive to SSH, ping, WebGUI (even when directly connected to one of the devices available ports). I have tried a number of different settings to try to get this sorted and I'm at my wit's end. The longest I've been able to keep this box online was 3.5 days, but it usually freezes up once per day, and there is nothing specific I am able to tie it to.

Here are my questions for the community:

• Has anyone seen this exact pattern? (EEE fix helps, ASPM tunable presumably makes worse or does nothing)
• Is BIOS-level ASPM/C-state disabling necessary in addition to OS tunables? Or should OS tunables be sufficient?
• Any reports of Topton N150 + i226-V + bare metal OPNsense running stable? What settings were used?
• Is NIC firmware V2.32 worth the flash, or should I focus on BIOS tweaks first?
• Has anyone modified/updated the BIOS on a Topton N150? Board: HSX-TGLNP V126

Below is all the detail I can possibly think of that will hopefully help someone diagnose the root cause. Otherwise, I'm going back to the EliteDesk setup, because my network going down at least once a day is not something I want to be dealing with.

Hardware Setup
Topton X6E (marketed as N150):
CPU: Intel Celeron 6305 @ 1.80GHz (Tiger Lake UP3, 2 cores)
NICs: 6x Intel i226-V 2.5GbE
Current EEPROM: V2.14-0 eTrack 0x80000290
Community max available: V2.32 (via BillyCurtis GitHub)
RAM: DDR4 SO-DIMM (16GB, ex-EliteDesk hardware)
Storage: WDC PC SN720 256GB NVMe (ex-EliteDesk)
Form Factor: Fanless + external case fan running 24/7
BIOS: AMI `HSX-TGLNP-12-V126` dated 2024-01-29
Network:
3Gbps fiber ISP (Telus, Canadian) (10G port in bridged mode connected to the OPNsense WAN port. 1G ports of Telus modem not connected to anything)
OPNsense runs bare metal (NOT virtualized)
Router position: between fiber modem and Proxmox host
CPU utilization: ~5-10% under normal load

Symptoms
System freezes completely:
Cannot SSH or ping box
Watchdog does not trigger
WebGUI unresponsive
NIC LEDs still blinking (power + activity present)
Power cycle always fixes it (temporarily — 1-3 days uptime before next freeze)
No kernel panic messages in logs before freeze, in fact there is nothing useful in the logs as to why this is happening
Nothing major running when freezes occur (e.g., qBittorrent seeding only '1 torrent total])
Timeline:
2026-04-29: Daily crashes discovered → disabled EEE → uptime improved to 3.5-4 days
2026-05-02: Crash after ~3.5 days → disabled ASPM tunable → uptime dropped to ~15 hours
2026-05-03: Still crashing; applied additional interrupt delay tunables (no improvement)

Tunables Applied (System → Settings → Tunables)
All listed below are confirmed working via `sysctl` commands:
Tunable   Value   Purpose   Verified
`dev.igc.0.eee_control`   `0`   Disable Energy Efficient Ethernet on NIC 0   `sysctl dev.igc.0.eee_control`
`dev.igc.1.eee_control`   `0`   " NIC 1   ✓ all 6 NICs
`dev.igc.2.eee_control`   `0`   " NIC 2   ✓
`dev.igc.3.eee_control`   `0`   " NIC 3   ✓
`dev.igc.4.eee_control`   `0`   " NIC 4   ✓
`dev.igc.5.eee_control`   `0`   " NIC 5   ✓
`hw.pci.enable_aspm`   `0`   Disable ASPM (link power saving)   `pciconf -lvc | grep ASPM`
`hw.igc.rx_abs_int_delay`   `0`   Disable RX interrupt delay (prevent NIC hang on timer)   Added 2026-05-03
`hw.igc.tx_abs_int_delay`   `0`   Disable TX interrupt delay   Added 2026-05-03

Interface settings (System → Settings → Networking):
Hardware CRC offload: ✓ Disabled
Hardware TSO: ✓ Disabled
Hardware LRO: ✓ Disabled
Hardware state:
C-states: Currently set to C1
Speed Shift: Not configured

What's Been Ruled Out
NVMe: FreeBSD's nvme driver does not implement APST; drive stays in PS0. `sysctl dev.nvme.0` shows zero failures/retries/recovery events.
RAM: Worked without issue in prior EliteDesk hardware. Not investigated further.
Temperature: External case fan runs 24/7; system never exceeds 29.5°C even under load.

Hypothesis
The system is freezing at the OS/hardware level, not crashing. No kernel panic logs suggests either:
A power state incompatibility (C-states + i226-V on FreeBSD) that the tunable alone can't fix
Interrupt handling issue with the NICs during idle/light load
BIOS-level power management conflicting with OPNsense settings
Key observation: Disabling EEE improved uptime 24x (daily → 3.5 days), but ASPM tunable presumably made it worse--or did nothing (15 hours), suggesting hardware-level power management in BIOS may be overriding the OS-level tunable.

Next Steps Being Investigated
BIOS power management settings:
Disable C-states in BIOS (not just OS-level)
Disable ASPM in BIOS hardware config
Verify Power Limit 1 (PL1) and Power Limit 2 (PL2) settings
NIC firmware upgrade (if BIOS changes don't help):
Billy Curtis community firmware: V2.14 → V2.32
Verified MD5 hashes before flashing
Will update via Linux + nvmupdate64e tool
BIOS firmware update (last resort):
Current BIOS dated 2024-01-29; no public update found
Considering contacting AliExpress seller

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[pfry]

Have you checked the console?

[BrandyWine]

I wanted to tinker with VLANs on my home network

1. freezes how? does the console itself freeze?
2. VLANs? this usually indicates tagged traffic. are you using .1q, or do you just have a subnet per iface?

Consider some pro-active changes:
mkdir /var/crash
chmod 700 /var/crash

rc.conf
dumpdev="AUTO"


kernel config
options DDB


When it freezes, go dig out why.

Then we can perhaps provide some fix recommendations.

[meyergru]

If the System freezes up completely, I would try using the CPU microcode plugin.

[nero355]

I loaded the same config to the new device.

I would never do that when moving to different hardware, but I think that's not the cause of these crashes anyway so let's ignore that for now... :)

I have seen a lot of chatter on the forums that i226-V NICs have quite a bit of instability, but almost entirely related to dropped packets, random disconnects, etc.
However, my issue is that my device freezes entirely and is unresponsive to SSH, ping, WebGUI (even when directly connected to one of the devices available ports).

I think those two can still be related in this case...

Is BIOS-level ASPM/C-state disabling necessary in addition to OS tunables?
Or should OS tunables be sufficient?

I would always start with the BIOS/UEFI Settings if I would suspect that changing any of those is needed.

Is NIC firmware V2.32 worth the flash, or should I focus on BIOS tweaks first?

I would always check with the manufacturer first in this case and flash a newer BIOS/UEFI if they have one or think it would help!

Otherwise, I'm going back to the EliteDesk setup, because my network going down at least once a day is not something I want to be dealing with.

I think your TopTon would crash even when just running IDLE while not being connected to your network in this case so you could test it while using a different Router if you have one :)

This is just weird :

Topton X6E (marketed as N150):
CPU: Intel Celeron 6305 @ 1.80GHz (Tiger Lake UP3, 2 cores)

It's either the one or the other :
- https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/208646/intel-celeron-6305-processor-4m-cache-1-80-ghz-with-ipu/specifications.html
- https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/241636/intel-processor-n150-6m-cache-up-to-3-60-ghz/specifications.html

It can't be both !!

RAM: DDR4 SO-DIMM (16GB, ex-EliteDesk hardware)
Storage: WDC PC SN720 256GB NVMe (ex-EliteDesk)

These Mini PC thingies can be very picky when it comes to the RAM and SSD used !!

The fact that these parts worked in the EliteDesk Mini PC does not guarantee that they will work in the TopTon without any issues...

NVMe: FreeBSD's nvme driver does not implement APST; drive stays in PS0. `sysctl dev.nvme.0` shows zero failures/retries/recovery events.

Please use commands like :
- nvmecontrol
- smartctl
To check the actual S.M.A.R.T. details ;)

RAM: Worked without issue in prior EliteDesk hardware. Not investigated further.

NOFI but running memtest should have been the first thing that you had done after experiencing these issues !!

Many Linux/*BSD distros have one included in their Live ISO Boot Image for USB Sticks ;)

Next Steps Being Investigated :

- Considering contacting AliExpress seller
- BIOS firmware update (last resort):
Current BIOS dated 2024-01-29; no public update found

- NIC firmware upgrade (if BIOS changes don't help):
Billy Curtis community firmware: V2.14 → V2.32
Verified MD5 hashes before flashing
Will update via Linux + nvmupdate64e tool

I would do those things in that order and not the other way around ;)

[BrandyWine]

Is NIC firmware V2.32 worth the flash, or should I focus on BIOS tweaks first?

I would always check with the manufacturer first in this case and flash a newer BIOS/UEFI if they have one or think it would help!

Just for some reader clarity, the nvm for i226 is not any bios/efi thing.

There are probably no cases where updating nvm causes issue for a bios/uefi. There are however possible pitfalls (low risk) where an older driver (klm and the like) does not work 100% with new nvm, but this is usually something in old driver that cannot take advantage of some new feature in new nvm. The general rule has been, use latest nvm with latest driver. An unfortunate of most distro's is use of the GENERIC build, making it difficult to just unload bad klm and load in new better klm. It's only my opinion, but I think it's better to compile kernel very stripped, then do the load in of needed klm's.

I don't think I have ever seen any kernel code version that was dependent on the (as example) igc hardware nvm.
If the kernel supports igc, then the nvm version should (should) make no difference.

What we expect from updated nvm is, security/bug fixes and in some cases added features.

I believe most of the functionality changes (problems) are seen at the driver level (klm or otherwise). The kernel tree gets some new/bad code, it compiles down, goes to distro, and the bug list begins, then some patch is released, then final fix in next kernel tree. Certainly, Intel devices that use the igc driver code, is code probably supplied by Intel. I am not aware of say Oracle having a dev team who is writing their own "igc" driver for i226. Custom dev drivers certainly do exist, but that's for specialty/boutique stuff likely running with custom compiled kernel.

Getting to nvm v2.32 to fix a problem, was likely just Intel goofing up some code along the way, then they finally fixed it.