From dfa30671227dd52201615d4914397a3e849d9d23 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Eli Kaplan Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2018 18:11:45 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Update README.md --- README.md | 19 ++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 17125b6..07b3584 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,2 +1,19 @@ -# Mellanox-ConnectX-2-pfSense +# Mellanox ConnectX-2 pfSense Drivers Pre-Compiled Kernel Modules for Mellanox ConnectX-2 / pfSense 2.4.4 + +For whatever reason, the drivers for this (very cost-effective) 10GBit SFP+ expansion card are not included in pfSense. Additionally, pfSense does not include the necessary compiler to build these modules from source. + +To get the ConnectX-2 working under pfSense, I had to build the kernel modules for it from source on a separate FreeBSD 11 machine. To potentially save someone else this hassle, I've decided to upload these pre-compiled kernel modules to GitHub. + +# Instructions: +- Unzip the `Mellanox.zip` file (under Releases) somewhere on your pfSense host. +- Copy all of the `*.ko` files within to /boot/kernel/ +- `chmod 555 /boot/kernel/ml*.ko` and `chmod 555 /boot/kernel/linuxkpi.ko` to ensure the new modules have the proper permissons. +- `kldload mlx4en` to load the module - after doing this, pfSense should detect the card as a new interface +- After making sure the driver works properly, edit `/boot/loader.conf` and append `mlx4en_load="YES"` to load the driver on boot. +- Success! + +# Compatibility +- Tested on pfSense 2.4.4 (FreeBSD 11.2-RELEASE-p3) amd64 +- I cannot guarantee this will be compatible with your system, but it _should_ work on any pfSense release based on FreeBSD 11 +- Tested with Mellanox ConnectX-2 but this set of kernel modules should also support the ConnectX-3 and ConnectX-4. To enable ConnectX-4 support, you'll probably have to change `mlx4en_load` to `mlx5en_load`.