Intel i350 dual NIC MiniPCIe adapters - legit/workable for TMM nodes?

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Aluminat

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Jul 5, 2019
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It’s the Dell Wyse 5070 that unceremoniously doesn’t recognize the NIC.
Wyse 5070 did have NIC that recognize in BIOS. Like i210/i211 and realtek (not remember specific model). I owned i211-AT and it's recognized in BIOS
All this leads me to believe that some BIOS blacklist is blocking the i350 NIC, even once booted into Linux, despite never receiving a message / error on POST nor in the BIOS logs (which otherwise track chassis intrusion, missing keyboard/mouse, etc.)
This is true for Lenovo m93p. Only some of WiFi card is whitelisted in BIOS.
 

WANg

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I’ve done all my testing with a MiniPCIe to M.2 A+E key adapter.

FWIW, this NIC does work for me in both a HP T730 thin client as well as a HP MP9 G2 when connected to the A+E key M.2 slot that normally accepts a WiFi card.

It’s the Dell Wyse 5070 that unceremoniously doesn’t recognize the NIC.

I’ve tinkered around with various BIOS settings (short of attempting a BIOS extraction/whitelist edit/reflash), and the machine thinks nothing is connected to the M.2 slot (either in the BIOS or when booted to an OS). I thought the M.2 slot on that board/chipset might be CNVi-only (which might explain why WiFi works but not this NIC); however, I did find a M.2 A+E key Realtek NIC that is recognized just fine.

All this leads me to believe that some BIOS blacklist is blocking the i350 NIC, even once booted into Linux, despite never receiving a message / error on POST nor in the BIOS logs (which otherwise track chassis intrusion, missing keyboard/mouse, etc.).
Well, I don't have a MiniPCIe to M.2 A+E adapter, so my testing are all done directly on MiniPCIe slots. The main issue here is that there really isn't anything written about card that would tell you how many watts it'll need, or if it require certain traits on the slot (which was never mentioned). Not that many generic hardware vendors implement hardware blacklists (and I am pretty sure that this Cisco/Moderro IEC4650 does not have one), and even if they do, they'll at least show an unauthorized device error (like what happens on ThinkPads and the infamous 1802 error or the error I got when I dropped the SATA card into my Sandy Bridge HP EliteBook).

The thing is that in most cases the card simply does not power up and enumerate itself, and the fact that the same slots reported the presence of PCIe SATA cards (Iocrest/Marvell 88E9215 based), Wifi cards and even a MiniPCIe WWAN modem makes me wonder just what the heck is up with the card itself. MiniPCIe means MiniPCIe, and as long as the slot meets established standards the card should work, right?
 

PD_ZFS-User

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Jul 13, 2018
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WANg,

If you can find a translation of standard PCIe pinouts to MiniPCIe pinouts, maybe you could try masking pins on the portion which plugs into the MiniPCIe port. No idea if this would work in your case, but perhaps it's worth a try before you return the NIC. An example link Anyone have Intel i350 NIC working in Z230?

solved

Masking B5 (SMCLK, SMBus clock) and B6 (SMDAT, SMBus data) on a Dell THGMP (Intel i350-T4, Intel P4 i350-T) worked. It now boots with more than 1 dimm, tested on 2 other PCs.
 

WANg

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Okay, let’s see - the missus stashed my Kapyon tape away but 3M Scotch tape is still available…

F41C09D6-2314-4E33-932C-E694C26FF95C.jpeg
Note that pin 30 and 32 is basically covering the 15th and 16th pin on the bottom (there is a mechanical key between 8th and 9th pin),. Taping it up isn’t hard, and it could be doubled up to make it thicker. Pin 30 and 32 are the SMBus/I2C clock and data pins.

So, did it work?

Nope! Note that 02:00.0 does not show up…

AC254E88-2198-4A81-A8BF-17B710A0864C.jpeg

and for the same MiniPCIe FFC slot extender, the Marvell SATA adapter works just fine…

B0EA0C88-3703-4800-B60A-644024C135B4.jpeg
Note that 02:00.0 shows up on lspci when it’s the SATA card, which tells me that the slot is working. I am not sure why we want to block the SMBus from the card…but I don’t think it does anything else.

Okay, I think I am done with this Hinsenyo.
One of the capacitor was so large that it jutted out and pushed up against the heatsink, which made it not fit correctly - you can actually see an airgap between the thermal compound and the i350 chip underneath…is the i350 simply not powering up due to lack of thermal headroom? Or is it something else? Which comedian ran quality control on this thing? It’s certainly cheaper than the real thing but the time wasted trying to get it to work is totally not worth the supposed savings.

I am almost tempted to pry the heatsink off to see if it’s actually an i350, but I would rather return this for a refund at this point. I am waiting for an M2 A+E adapter to show up just so I can test it against my t640, but I am not honestly not thrilled about spending this much time on something that should work right out of the box.

5DE0C4E8-BCED-4651-B426-3FDF5987919E.jpeg
Eh, does anyone know of a US based retailer for either the LR-link or the Jetway with decent reputation?
 
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PD_ZFS-User

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Okay, let’s see - the missus stashed my Kapyon tape away but 3M Scotch tape is still available…

Note that pin 30 and 32 is basically covering the 15th and 16th pin on the bottom (there is a mechanical key between 16th and 17th pin), so taping itup isn’t hard, and it could be doubled up to make it thicker.

So, did it work?

Nope! Note that 02:00.0 does not show up….


and for the same MiniPCIe FFC slot extender, the Marvell SATA adapter works just fine…


Note that 02:00.0 shows up on lspci when it’s the SATA card, which tells me that the slot is working.

Okay, I think I am done with this Hinsenyo.
Thanks for documenting the attempt. Now we all know to avoid the Hisenyo NIC. Well depending on what you think of Newegg's reputation these days, they do offer the LR-link NIC, but it does still ship from China with notes about four days processing and 6 to 18 days expected shipping times for ~$71+tax. Mini PCIe Single Port Copper Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter Intel 82574 Based - Newegg.com
 

WANg

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Again, it’s working for me but only in certain systems. Looks to be a YMMV situation
*sigh*. Do we have testimonials from any other owners? YMMV is not great when it comes to network cards.
 
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maes

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Nov 11, 2018
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One similar card I did use before is from Commell. They make m.2-2230 to GbE, m.2-2230 to 2.5GbE and miniPCIe to GbE, dual GbE and 2.5GbE.

I've been using their m.2-2230 GbE adapter in a Dell 5060 micro in place of the wifi card and it has been working impeccably. I'll have to look up where I got it from when I head back to work on Monday.
 

WANg

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One similar card I did use before is from Commell. They make m.2-2230 to GbE, m.2-2230 to 2.5GbE and miniPCIe to GbE, dual GbE and 2.5GbE.

I've been using their m.2-2230 GbE adapter in a Dell 5060 micro in place of the wifi card and it has been working impeccably. I'll have to look up where I got it from when I head back to work on Monday.
Yeah, their dual GbE is an i350 design, and is also rather similar to the Jetway (so I am not sure if one is copying the other). It's a bit different from the LR-Link (or its clones) in that the LR-Link uses a dualport mezzanine card that you reach with a standard MiiniSAS cable, while the Commell/Jetway uses dual 8(?) pin breakouts to individual PHY board. If implemented well the LR-Link would allow for more flexibility an a cleaner interface...while the Commell/Jetway would probably allow you to place the NIC ports anywhere you want as long as the breakout cable fit your needs.

I am familiar with Commell since they also make a Gigabit NIC for the Dell/Wyse 5070, which I came across on research. The issue here is that they are even more rare to buy than both the LR-Link and the Jetway (I did email their sales contact on eBay about the i350 dual port). I would of course

How's that i210 M2 board that you have, BTW? How much was it, what was the purchasing process and what's the verdict? Would you recommend it?
 

maes

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How's that i210 M2 board that you have, BTW? How much was it, what was the purchasing process and what's the verdict? Would you recommend it?
I'll have to look it up at work to dig out the original quote, but it's worked impeccably. 3d-printed a small bracket to mount the rj45 port where the optional accessory port on the 5060 micro is (where the vga/com port would be). It runs the downstream interface to a fibre optic converter, ~4000m of fibre and a deep-underwater ROV platform.

IIRC all I did when contacting Commell was ask for local distributors and they pointed me to the nearest ones, and I ordered the part through those. I'll get you the name and price tomorrow.
 

WANg

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I'll have to look it up at work to dig out the original quote, but it's worked impeccably. 3d-printed a small bracket to mount the rj45 port where the optional accessory port on the 5060 micro is (where the vga/com port would be). It runs the downstream interface to a fibre optic converter, ~4000m of fibre and a deep-underwater ROV platform.

IIRC all I did when contacting Commell was ask for local distributors and they pointed me to the nearest ones, and I ordered the part through those. I'll get you the name and price tomorrow.
Thanks! I pinged the reseller on eBay and they told me that the ETA on the NIC is...unknown due to the i350 network chips being backordered (yikes!)...so I guess buying directly from Commell is out for the time being. Would definitely appreciate the reseller info...
 
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WANg

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Oh boy, so I figure I’ll drop an update - I got my M.2 A+E to MiniPCIe adapter today and gave the Hinsenyo a try on the HP t640 thin client (M.2 adapter)…and to my surprise…it worked. Showed up, grabbed IP via DHCP and had no issues. And then to further pour salt onto my wounds, the card also started to work on my t520 thin client (native MiniPCIe) - might have helped with a higher wattage power brick I found. The t420 still refuses to work (although it was crashing back to HP BIOS screen so it could be the power rail complaining about something pulling 3w off the slot). Tried it again on my Cisco IEC4650 or my Brix5…nope, still no-go. AFAIK the only commonality is that both machines are Broadwell/DDR3L based. That being said, even if it worked it would probably be suboptimal - I didn’t see ACSCtl (PCIe Access Control Services) being advertised on the Cisco 4650 via lspci -vv, so creating more than 7 VFs might still be out of the question.

I would try it on my practically brand new Tiger Lake based laptop, but that’s a bit of a high risk, low reward target to mess around with.

So I am now perplexed - it only works as a MiniPCI card outside of a MiniPCIe slot, and there's no rhyme and reason as to why it simply does not work. The question now is...is it the card, or is it the machine that it is attached to, and is it merely a power delivery problem? Should I even keep this thing around or take a risk with the "official" card?
 
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