EFW Support

Hi All!
I'm planning to upgrade my actual endian installation with new powerful hardware: I've thought to use an Atom mainboard in order to reduce power consumption.
The Atom I'm investingating is Intel® D945GCLF2
http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/D945GCLF2-D945GCLF2D/D945GCLF2-D945GCLF2D-overview.htm

Tech specs:
http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d945gclf2/sb/e45013002us.pdf

Does Endian Firewall v2.2 RC3 support for Realtek 8111c LAN adapter embedded in this mainboard?

Thanks in advance for any answer!
Karl

I am running 4 Realtek chipsets of different versions and I have yet to have a problem.

The board should work just realize there is a single PCI slot and only one onboard NIC. I found in my installs that this wouldn't work for me because I want atleast 4 NIC ports (2 WAN, 1 LAN, 1 DMZ) and also I like to have the option to add in a modem sometimes when internet is unstable in a geographic location.

I recommend the MSI Industrial IM-945GC Atom Mini-ITX Mainboard if you can afford the cost of this board. You can take a better look at the link below. I like this board because of the three serial ports, two onboard Gbit Realtek Lan ports, and the additional PCI slot.

http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9832 (http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9832)

I am having some issues of my own with the dual Realtek 8111C NICs that are built in to a Supermicro SYS-5015A-H 1U server ( http://supermicro.com/products/system/1U/5015/SYS-5015A-H.cfm?typ=H (http://supermicro.com/products/system/1U/5015/SYS-5015A-H.cfm?typ=H) ). The server uses the Supermicro X7SLA-H motherboard, which uses an  Atom 330 CPU. I have 2GB of RAM and a 32GB SSD installed, and no matter what I try, I can not get the onboard Realtek cards to work properly.

As a temporary work around, I've installed an old SMC NIC in the PCI slot and it gets assigned the default green IP so I can manage the installation, but the other network cards simply say that they can not detect the link status. I was trying to figure out how to compile the 8168 driver that Realtek have on their website, but since there are no tools installed on the Endian installation to run "make" and compile the driver, I'm not sure where to go from here.

I guess the next step would be to figure out which Linux distro Endian 2.2 is based on and compile the driver there, then install it on Endian as a kernel module. Anyone know how to go about this?

Joe.

Following the basics of a HowTo by ACID about something completely different, I came up with the following steps to download, compile and install a driver that, so far, is working properly with the dual Realtek 8111C gigabit NICs on my Supermicro Atom330 server.

If you are having the same problems I did, you might have to install an additional NIC in the box in order to gain access. At one point I had 2 additional NICs installed - one for RED and one for GREEN.

1) If you have a monitor installed on your Endian box, log in to the SHELL as root (default password is endian).
   If you don't have a monitor on your Endian box, enable and use SSH to log in to Endian as root.
   Make sure you have a connection to the internet (try pinging something)

2) Install via RPM the INFO and WGET packages

   rpm -Uvh http://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/core/3/i386/os/Fedora/RPMS/info-4.7-5.i386.rpm
   rpm -Uvh http://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/core/3/i386/os/Fedora/RPMS/wget-1.9.1-17.i386.rpm

3) Get the latest developer package from endian (RPMS, not the SRPMS which are source code)

   wget http://dfn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/efw/EFW-COMMUNITY-2.2-rc3-devel-rpms.tar.gz

4) Extract the package of RPMS

   tar xvfz EFW-COMMUNITY-2.2-rc3-devel-rpms.tar.gz

5) Install the utilities needed to compile and make files from source.

   cd RPMS/devel/
   rpm -Uvh binutils-2.15.92.0.2-24.endian1.i586.rpm
   rpm -Uvh kernel-devel-2.6.22.19-72.endian15.i586.rpm
   rpm -Uvh glibc-kernheaders-2.4-9.1.100.EL.endian1.i386.rpm
   rpm -Uvh patch-2.5.4-20.endian0.i386.rpm
   rpm -Uvh glibc-headers-2.3.4-2.39.endian6.i386.rpm
   rpm -Uvh glibc-devel-2.3.4-2.39.endian6.i386.rpm
   rpm -Uvh libgomp-4.1.2-14.endian1.i586.rpm
   rpm -Uvh gcc4-4.1.2-14.endian1.i586.rpm
   rpm -Uvh make-3.81-3.endian0.i586.rpm
   rpm -Uvh cpp-3.4.6-9.endian7.i586.rpm

6) Download the Realtek 8111C driver source. (version 8.013.00 when this was written)

   To do so, you will likely have to visit the Realtek website and download the file from their FTP, then transfer it to your Endian box manually. They have a password on their FTP, and at the time I wrote this I couldn't find an HTTP source for the file.
   Once I downloaded the file on a Windows machines, I uploaded it to a webserver I use for testing and then downloaded it with wget, but I'm sure if you've come this far, you can figure it out.

   http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false#2

7) Extract the driver source.

   tar vjxf r8168-8.013.00.tar.bz2

8) Change in to the new driver folder and make the file

   cd r8168-8.013.00
   make clean modules

9) Change to the src directory and gzip your new driver.

   There is probably a better way to do this, like 'rmmod r8169' to remove the Realtek 8169 kernel module, then 'insmod r8168.ko' or something to install the new one, but in the end, all I ended up doing was gzipping the .ko file and copying it over top of the r8169 file (which I would recommend making a backup copy of first). It's a hack, but hell, I was a Linux newbie about 4 hours ago, so I think I'm doing ok.

   cd src/
   gzip r8168.ko
   cp r8168.ko.gz /lib/modules/2.6.22.19-72.endian15/kernel/drivers/net/r8169.ko.gz


Note:

If you want to install FTP on Endian so you can transfer files like the Realtek driver a little easier, do this:

rpm -Uvh http://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/core/3/i386/os/Fedora/RPMS/readline-4.3-13.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh http://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/core/3/i386/os/Fedora/RPMS/ftp-0.17-22.i386.rpm

 ???   I couldn't see any way to attach a file to this forum post   ???

Anyway, I figured if anyone else comes across this problem, it would be even easier if there was a file already compiled for Endian 2.2 that could just be dropped in as a kernel module driver, so here's a link to the file I compiled.

http://www.box.net/shared/rx4u7ab6iv (http://www.box.net/shared/rx4u7ab6iv)

Joe.

Is there anyway you can make this work for a Realtek 8100c?

I just purchased a new jetway system with a 3 port Realtek 8100c and it is not detected by Endian, or even ipcop or smoothwall or pfsense.

I love Endian and was really hoping this would work.

It is supposedly able to work using the 8139too module but it does not work.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

According to Realtek's website, the drivers for the 8100C (PCI bus 10/100 ethernet controller) are built in to the Linux kernel, so they don't offer a driver download on their website. Plus, I've used Jetway boards in the past with the 3 port 10/100 Realtek daughter card and they have worked right out of the box. If yours is not getting detected, I would double check that the daughterboard is mounted properly and securely, and if so, the problem is likely a defective daughterboard.

Perhaps test load a Windows OS and drivers to confirm it first, but you might be looking at returning or replacing the addon board.

Joe.

I thought that as well i have removed and reseated 2 seperate add on board on 2 seperate jetway mobos, i bought 2 of everything so my client could have a backup firewall just in case of a failure and neither work in any mix and match scenario.

I will try windows and see what happens.....

Also for further information my board is the J7F5M-VDE with AD3RTLANP Daughter board sporting 3xrtl8100c

Joe,


I registered on here just so that I could tell you that you're my freakin hero for this! This worked perfectly on my Intel D945GCLF2 based firewalls. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

LuckyMe = your welcome. I was hoping that after all the trouble I went through trying to get it to work, that by posting the compiled driver, it would save someone else the troubles.

Joe.

Hi Joekville!
THNX A LOT for your GREAT guide to compile 8111c driver in endian box you have write in the following topic:
I installed new EFW 2.4 and driver for 8111c fails as that in v2.2  :'(
In sourceforge I've not found the "devel-rpms" package for 2.4....  :(
I found only the "devel-srpms".
So I can't follow your steps in order to fix this annoying problem with 8111c driver.
Have you some hints to help me?
Do you think I could use 2.2 RC3 "devel-rpms" in order to compile & install driver 8111c for EFW 2.4?
Or how I could use "devel-srpms" in order to solve this problem?
THNX in advance for your help!
Karl

I tried that. it didn't work for me. Well, I might have worked, but it this process it installs kernel from 2.2, which pretty much means you go back to 2.2 version. So I guess we have to wait for devel rpms for 2.4.

Does anyone know when it comes out and why don't Endian just release them together with srpms? what's to wait here?

RPMS ans SRPMS are released together on a single package, search on Sourceforge.

You ppl can compile under EFW 2.4, stop asking for something you already have.  :-\