pfsense 2.0.1 dhcp not working?

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cyclone3d

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I am not able to get pfsense to get an IP from my modem (Motorola SB6120 - ISP is Comcast).

I am also not able to get pfsense to give out IP addresses to either of my computers.

I have tried going through a Netgear GS108 and I have also tried straight from the LAN port to the computer.

I have tried both the 32-bit and x64 releases of pfsense 2.0.1.

My NIC is a Intel Pro/1000 PT Dual Gigabit NIC (PCIe x4), which is verified working by testing it with the rig in sig - both ports work fine.

I have also tried using the onboard NIC which is Nvidia.

I have tried disabling the onboard NIC.

I have tried manually assigning an IP to my computer in order to see if I can get to the web interface for pfsense... no go, can't even ping the pfsense box. Pfsense box LAN port is set to 192.168.1.1 and tried setting computer to 192.168.1.2. Both are set to a mask of 255.255.255.0.

When setting up the NIC in pfsense, it detects the ports as becoming active (UP) when I plug a cable into a port on the NIC which is also hooked up to either the modem, switch, or computer.

I made sure that I am using the correct ports for WAN and LAN.. got the port numbers by watching what port goes up when I plug a cable into it.

Any ideas?
 
I'm not familiar with this NIC or have I ever used a dual port NIC, but is there a way for you to determine the MAC of each port? If you can, manually set the LAN port and the WAN port instead of using auto detect. Also, disable the onboard nic for now in the bios.

You shouldn't really need to re-install, use the console to assign the nics (option 1) then do option 2 and set interface IP's making sure you set them up for wan to use DHCP and turning on DHCP server for LAN.

I did a quick google check, looks like this NIC should work.
 
Try bringing down and back up the nics after it's been booted up. It's a known issue on some installs.
 
I can confirm that that Intel nic works perfectly with pfsense so your problem certainly isn't there.
 
+Eric said:
I'm not familiar with this NIC or have I ever used a dual port NIC, but is there a way for you to determine the MAC of each port? If you can, manually set the LAN port and the WAN port instead of using auto detect. Also, disable the onboard nic for now in the bios.

You shouldn't really need to re-install, use the console to assign the nics (option 1) then do option 2 and set interface IP's making sure you set them up for wan to use DHCP and turning on DHCP server for LAN.

I did a quick google check, looks like this NIC should work.
Click to expand...

Before I ordered the NIC, I had already verified that it is supported according to the supported HW doc.

I am not using auto-detect.. auto detect doesn't detect anything.

When I plug a cable in, it pops up saying that a port has gone up. I then used that port number respectively for WAN and LAN.

The onboard is disabled.

WAN is setup for DHCP.. maybe it is working, maybe not... can't really tell because the LAN port will not assign any IP addresses - DHCP server is enabled for the LAN port.

Even if I disable the DHCP server and manually set the IP address on my computer, I am still not able to even ping the pfsense box.
 
Yeah, most likely is interface mis-match. If I remember right, one port should be fe0 and the other fe1. I suggest placing a label or bit of painter's tape next to each port, labeled similar to 'fe0-WAN' and 'fe1-LAN' to avoid confusion. If the ports are numbered or marked as on servers, then I suggest '1-fe0-WAN'.
 
RocketTech said:
Yeah, most likely is interface mis-match. If I remember right, one port should be fe0 and the other fe1. I suggest placing a label or bit of painter's tape next to each port, labeled similar to 'fe0-WAN' and 'fe1-LAN' to avoid confusion. If the ports are numbered or marked as on servers, then I suggest '1-fe0-WAN'.
Click to expand...

For this controller, it is em0 and em1.

To get the port numbers, I first selected to configure the WAN. Then when it came up with the prompt to autodetect or manually enter it, I plugged in the cable to one of the ports that also goes to the modem.

Pfsense then came up with a message that said em1 was now UP. So I then entered
"em1" as the port I wanted to use for WAN.

I then did the same for the LAN port, and put in "em0".

I've also tried swapping the LAN and WAN cables back and forth just in case, rebooting, running from the Live CD... nothing helps.
 
Can you run through option 2 if you haven't already. I rarely deal with this since really I rarely install pfSense, but it seems to me like I've also had problems similar to yours. And it also seems to me I run through option 2.

Also you'll know if you got an IP from your ISP by looking at the main menu in the console -- It'll show the IP for wan and (DHCP) to indicate how it obtained it.
 
Did you power-cycle your cable modem? I've had that prevent a clean connection. For the LAN side, if you accept the defaults, it should enable DHCP on a 192.168.1.1/24 network.
The only other thing is if you are installing on multi-core/multi-processor hardware, you should be selecting advanced install and SMP option. I've had very wonky issues installing Uniprocessor build on SMP equipment.
 
Are you trying to get DHCP from the cable modem to pfsense or are you trying to get DHCP from the pfsense to your computer or router?

if your trying do DHCP to computer/router you have go to EM1 aka your lan and make your enable DHCP because by default DHCP server is turned off but if you want to do this you have go to advance and turn on DHCP server and make sure you enable for EM1/Lan then setup the IP address's and network/gateway.

now if your trying to do DHCP on WAN it might have a problem trying to connect since you have DHCP server already setup for LAN because LAN/WAN are like connected together some how and if I think correctly the surfboard dhcp gives off a 192.168.1.1 address for dhcp just like how the dhcp server does for pfsense so try change the dhcp ip of pfsense to like 192.168.88.x something for the dhcp.

Post up screen shots on what you got up so far if you could please.

I could fire up my pfsense on my firebox and show my settings what I got setup if that is going to help yea.
 
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+Eric said:
Can you run through option 2 if you haven't already. I rarely deal with this since really I rarely install pfSense, but it seems to me like I've also had problems similar to yours. And it also seems to me I run through option 2.

Also you'll know if you got an IP from your ISP by looking at the main menu in the console -- It'll show the IP for wan and (DHCP) to indicate how it obtained it.
Click to expand...

Tried option 2 (boot with ACPI disabled) - no dice.

the DHCP server on the LAN is not working (from pfsense), and still not getting an adress on the WAN port from the modem.
 
RocketTech said:
Did you power-cycle your cable modem? I've had that prevent a clean connection. For the LAN side, if you accept the defaults, it should enable DHCP on a 192.168.1.1/24 network.
The only other thing is if you are installing on multi-core/multi-processor hardware, you should be selecting advanced install and SMP option. I've had very wonky issues installing Uniprocessor build on SMP equipment.
Click to expand...

I've power cycled the modem at least 10 times now. I even did a factory reset to let it redownload the config from Comcast. Still no IP from the modem.

I've tried default for the LAN, going back and manually enabling DHCP. Tried multiple different IP adresses for the LAN port - 192.168.1.1, 192.168.2.1, 192.168.100.1, etc.. still no DHCP on the LAN port from pfsense.

And it still will not even work if I manually set the IP on my computer.. still not able to even ping the LAN port.

As for the install, it doesn't even give me an option for uniprocessor... only multi-core, no vga, or debug. Same for both 32-bit and x64.

The CPU is an AMD Sempron 2.0Ghz single core.

Other hardware is:
100GB sata laptop drive
1.5GB DDR RAM
onboard video

disabled onboard sound, serial, NIC, and parallel.
 
timreichhart said:
Are you trying to get DHCP from the cable modem to pfsense or are you trying to get DHCP from the pfsense to your computer or router?

if your trying do DHCP to computer/router you have go to EM1 aka your lan and make your enable DHCP because by default DHCP server is turned off but if you want to do this you have go to advance and turn on DHCP server and make sure you enable for EM1/Lan then setup the IP address's and network/gateway.

now if your trying to do DHCP on WAN it might have a problem trying to connect since you have DHCP server already setup for LAN because LAN/WAN are like connected together some how and if I think correctly the surfboard dhcp gives off a 192.168.1.1 address for dhcp just like how the dhcp server does for pfsense so try change the dhcp ip of pfsense to like 192.168.88.x something for the dhcp.

Post up screen shots on what you got up so far if you could please.

I could fire up my pfsense on my firebox and show my settings what I got setup if that is going to help yea.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to get the cable modem to give the WAN port an IP through DHCP and trying to get pfsense to give DHCP through the LAN port.

I've made sure to enable DHCP on the LAN port. No go.. nothing.. nada.

Also tried not even hooking up the LAN to see if pfsense would then get an IP from the modem on the WAN port... still nothing.

Tried different IP ranges for the LAN port as well.. didn't help.

The only thing I can even ping in pfsense is the LAN port.. because nothing else is working.
 
I am starting to think you might have the cables backwards like the lan is mixed up with wan and wan is mixed up with lan here what I did was I started out with the wan first to figured out what ethernet slot the wan port would go on and once that was up then I went ahead did the lan port with the cable to get the IP.

But go and start all over with clean install then do this:

power cycle your modem for 30secs then connect a ethernet cable to pfsense then do a new install then see if pfsense will pick up a IP address from the modem for wan. After the pfsense picks up a ip from modem then you can worry about the lan IP.

It could be also a firewall issue inside of pfsense.
 
timreichhart said:
I am starting to think you might have the cables backwards like the lan is mixed up with wan and wan is mixed up with lan here what I did was I started out with the wan first to figured out what ethernet slot the wan port would go on and once that was up then I went ahead did the lan port with the cable to get the IP.

But go and start all over with clean install then do this:

power cycle your modem for 30secs then connect a ethernet cable to pfsense then do a new install then see if pfsense will pick up a IP address from the modem for wan. After the pfsense picks up a ip from modem then you can worry about the lan IP.

It could be also a firewall issue inside of pfsense.
Click to expand...

I have already tried that like 10 times.

WAN first... tried both ports. Tried power cycling the modem. Tried rebooting the pfsense box. Tried wiping the pfsense box and starting from scratch.

Nothing works.

Starting to think it is a compatibiliy issue with the computer itself.. or maybe the fact that pfsense is using the FREEBSD 8.1 kernel while the drivers they have for this card were meant for the 9.x kernel.
 
timreichhart said:
what kind of motherboard are you using first of all? or the kind of computer your using?
Click to expand...

It is an eMachines t3418.
The chipset is Nvidia 6100.

Not using the stock power supply. Actually put a Rosewill 80+ 620w that I had laying around.

Already checked to see if there is a BIOS update. Apparently they never even released a single BIOS update for this model.

Going to burn and try the latest Beta build of 2.1.
 
2.1 beta doesn't work either.... grrrrrrr.

The NIC was used when I bought it. Is it possible that it has some weird configuration flashed to it and that is causing the problem with pfsense?
 
Ehren8879 said:
Wan and lan ports reversed?
Click to expand...

no no no no no no...

I have tried swapping them like 30 times.

Even tried ONLY using the WAN port to see if I could get pfsense to get an IP from the modem.

Again.. I will say how I set the ports up.

WAN
1. Make sure no cables are plugged into the card.
2. Go into port configuration.
3. Plug in the cable from the modem.
4. See that pfsense says what port has come online.
5. assign that port to be the WAN port.

LAN
1. Setup WAN - see above
2. plug in the LAN cable to the second port on the card
3. See that pfsense says that the other port is now online
4. assign that port to be the LAN port.
5. Hit enter to skip assigning any "optional ports".
6. Go into the "assign IP addresses" setup
7. Select the LAN port
8. Assign an IP to the LAN port.
9 Enable the DHCP server on the LAN port.

I've looked at multiple setup guides and from what I can tell, I am setting it up correctly.
 
Well, stuck the card back in my main rig and ran the ioutil from Intel to see if IO access was disabled by a previous owner.

IO is enabled so that isn't the problem. Here is the output of ioutil.

Code: 
IOUtil v1.19.44.2 - Intel(R) Network IO Mode Enable/Disable Utility
Copyright (C) 2012 by Intel (R) Corporation. All rights reserved.

Usage:
    Run with no arguments to list adapters and usage.
    /NIC=X  Adapter to modify
    /ALL    Modify all adapters
    /E      Enable IO mode
    /D      Disable IO mode

NIC B/D/F    Ven-Dev   MAC          IO  Branding string
=== ======== ========= ============ === =======================================
 1) 01/00/00 8086-105E 00151712C114 ENA Intel(R) PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server A
 2) 01/00/01 8086-105E 00151712C115 ENA Intel(R) PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server A
 
I assume you're doing this from the console?

If I recall, I had to select that I wanted to assign the WAN interface and THEN plug in the cable. Then the same thing for LAN. Doing it the other way around caused issues.
 
It sounds like an BIOS issue to me on that computer. mloiterman that is what I told him the last time what I had to do and it didnt work for him. If I remember correctly eMachines t3418 ran windows ME because I had same computer before and I swapped out the motherboard for a other motherboard with same issue.
 
timreichhart said:
It sounds like an BIOS issue to me on that computer. mloiterman that is what I told him the last time what I had to do and it didnt work for him. If I remember correctly eMachines t3418 ran windows ME because I had same computer before and I swapped out the motherboard for a other motherboard with same issue.
Click to expand...

hrmmm... very strange.
Maybe it is a BIOS issue.. but I would think that it wouldn't even detect the NIC properly if that was the case.

I was able to get it working by using the Live CD in not-ACPI mode on my main rig.

I noticed that when it configured the WAN connection, it set it to "promiscuous mode". It is not doing this on the eMachines computer.

Is there a way I can manually force it to "promiscuous mode"?

edit: found the command to set an interface to promiscuous mode.. gonna try that and see if it works.

edit 2: nope.. didn't help.

So will pfsense not work at all on an eMachine t3418? Or is it a compatibility issue with certain NICs?

Also, these machines ran XP Home or Pro by default.
 
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ummm.. I got it working. :D:confused:

Could be a BIOS setting I changed.. or it is because I started it up in safe mode.

Going to do some more testing to see if it will work in any other mode but safe mode.

Will post back when I find out for sure what makes it actually work on the Emachine T3418.

Edit: Safe mode is the key. Looks like it doesn't load some of the drivers in safe mode from what I was seeing on the console bootup screen.
 
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so was you able to get pfsense installed onto the hard drive on the emachine and get the nic card to registered to any ip's?
 
timreichhart said:
so was you able to get pfsense installed onto the hard drive on the emachine and get the nic card to registered to any ip's?
Click to expand...

Yep, soon as I started it up in "safe mode" it started working properly. Seems to me like it was some incompatibility between two or more drivers.

Posted on the pfsense forum about it, but haven't gotten any response.
 
So apparently the problem is with APIC on certain NVIDIA chipsets.

Had to make:
loader.conf.local

and add:
hint.apic.0.disabled=1

On reboot, it works fine in normal mode.

Safe mode disables a few more things like DMA, APCI, SMP, and hdd caching.

edit: had to do the digging and testing myself since I never got a response on the pfsense forums.
 
Thank you very much for posting the resolution. So many people run off and figure it out and never come back, or they come back and just say "I figured it out, close thread" :mad:
 
Well just remember some of these older machines like this and using newer nic cards like this will have some kind of bios issue. So this should be ticky at the top encase somebody else same problem.
 
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