N4F doesn't "see" the TPLink TG-3468

[garyc57]

Hello all,

My "main" server is an ASUS board with 8GB of RAM, running 9.1.0.1 - Sandstorm (revision 775), and four 2TB drives using raidz1. It's been running like a champ for a couple of years now. In fact, as a preventative measure, I just swapped out the oldest drive with a new drive. Following the directions I found here and elsewhere on the web, the swap worked like a charm. The re-silver took about 6 hours. Thanks everyone!

However I'm always worried about how to back it up. I have 2.15TB of files on it.

In order to build a backup server, I scrounged an old HP A8M2N-LA motherboard, putting it in a case that holds more drives.

I scrounged a bunch of drives I had lying around, and JBOD'ed 'em all together, and using ZFS, made a volume of about 3.3TB. Using RSYNC, I was able to successfully back up my main server. However, using the onboard NIC (10/100), it was kinda slow.

I bought a PCI gigabit card, and it was faster - a little. I read that a PCI slot can't support gigabit speeds. Here's where the "fun" starts!

The HP specs on the motherboards says it has: "One PCI Express x16" slot. I bought a TP-Link TG-3468 "Gigabit PCI Express Network Adapter", and plugged it in. (It's a x1 sized card.) I then booted the server with a N4F CD to see if the new NIC would work.

It does and it doesn't.

After the NAS4Free CD (9.2.0.1 (revision 943)) finishes booting, the light on the back of the NIC shows that it is connected at gigabit speed. YEAH!

But, NAS4Free can't "see" anything. I tried pinging other computers on my network and get nothing. I tried pinging the backup server (192.168.1.250) from other computers, and get nothing. I moved the LAN cable to another switch - nothing. I tried a different cable. Nothing.

The print on the chip is too small for my ol' eyes, so my daughter (with a magnifying glass) says the chip reads:
RTL8168E
D4E58H1
GDJ6B

I did a dmesg | more and here are the relevant parts...

re0: <RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F PCIe Gigabit Ethernet> port 0xbc00-0xbcff mem 0xfdeff000-0xfdefffff,0xfddfc000-0xfddfffff irp 16 at device 0.0 on pci2
re0: Using 1 MSI-X message
re0: Chip rev. 0x2c000000
re0: MAC rev. 0x00000000

rgephy0: <RTL8168S/8110S/8211 1000BASE-T media interface> PHY 1 on miibus0
rgephy0: none, 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 10baseT-FDX-flow, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 100baseTX-FDX-flow, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-master, 1000baseT-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX-master, 1000baseT-FDX-flow, 1000baseT-FDX-flow-master, auto, auto-flow

re0: Ethernet address: c0:4a:00:02:55:2f

re0: link state change to UP

Everything I've read says the RTL8168E chip will work. Maybe it's the old HP board vs. the new TP-Link card?

Any ideas?

TIA,
Gary

[raulfg3]

you need to define your new TP-Link card as your LAN card, and your old Onboard, like OPT1 in webGUI: http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=do ... management

[garyc57]

you need to define your new TP-Link card as your LAN card, and your old Onboard, like OPT1 in webGUI: http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=do ... management

raulfg3,

Thanks for your reply. However, because I can't "see" the server, I can't access the GUI. Trying to ping out from the Console Menu, either in "native" mode, or "boot-from-the-CD" mode - neither work.

BTW, my home network is 192.168.1.xxx - just in case that's important.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Gary

[raulfg3]

use option 1 in menu to define new TP-Link card as LAN card, and your old Onboard, like OPT1.

once done, reboot.

this time use option 2 to define your IP, better to choose DHCP if you have a DHCP server in your router, if not possible, define your IP, Gateway and DNS server, and reboot again. this time your NAS will boot with your new TP-LINK as default NIC ( LAN) and you can acess to webGUI.


http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=do ... figuration

[garyc57]

Raulfg3,

Gracias por su paciencia. I didn't think of using the Configure Network Interface option on the Console Menu. I selected 1) Configure Network Interfaces, and it shows two "ports" - re0 and nfe0. Selecting re0 as LAN, and nfe0 as OPT1 or visa versa, neither choice gives me access to the network.

I then re-read your message, and saw your instruction to reboot. OK. I re-configured the interfaces - both ways, rebooting after each reconfiguration, and still - nothing. Neither re0 or nfe0 as LAN gives me access to the network.

I then rebooted, and went into the BIOS, and disabled the onboard NIC. I then rebooted, and reconfigured the network interfaces again. This time, there was only one "port" - re0. I went through the configuration process again, tried pinging - still nothing. I rebooted (per your instructions), and tried pinging again. Nothing.

Really - I appreciate your help. Any other ideas?

[raulfg3]

OK. I re-configured the interfaces - both ways,

do you use DHCP?

Please post a photo or someting like i see what you do, in the console menu, use option to open a shell and post result of ifconfig when you use DHCP and the same if you configure IP, gateway and DNS by hand (option 2 in menu)

[garyc57]

raulfg3,

Thanks for the help. I prefer my servers to have static IPs. However, at this point, I'm ready to try anything.

Here's the output from the ifconfig command in DHCP Mode

re0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
options=8209b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOLMAGIC,LINKSTATE>
ether c0:4a:00:02:44:6a
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 255.255.255.255
nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
media: Ethernet autoselect (1000bastT <full-duplex>)
status:active
ipfw0: flags=8801<UP,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 66536
nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 16384
options=600003<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
inet6 ::1 prefixlen128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen64 scopeid 0x5
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
ns6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>


Here's the output from the ifconfig command in Static IP Address

re0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
options=8209b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOLMAGIC,LINKSTATE>
ether c0:4a:00:02:44:6a
inet 192.168.1.89 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
media: Ethernet autoselect (1000bastT <full-duplex>)
status:active
ipfw0: flags=8801<UP,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 66536
nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 16384
options=600003<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
inet6 ::1 prefixlen128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen64 scopeid 0x5
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
ns6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>

Of course, since the N4F server can't see the DHCP server, booting in this mode takes a LONG time.

Either way, I still can't PING in or out.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Gary

[raulfg3]

Any other ideas?

No.

try to connect other PC/notebook in the same RJ-45 plug to be sure that is not a cable problem, if notebook LAN Works, my suggest is that use other LAN card, perhaps TPLink TG-3468 is broken.