Qotom Denverton fanless system with 4 SFP+

[blunden]

You can get drop-cable kits with one side pre-terminated and a field-spliceable (mechanical splicing; no polishing required) connector for the second end for much less than a copper cable would cost for that length. E.g. 50m are usually <20$; 100m <40$...
Those field-terminated connectors are perfectly fine for that last mile and usually have <0.3dB of insertion loss.

It's not the cost of the cable, it's the cost of the work and possibly having to widen holes between each floor, getting approval, etc. The ISP is willing to do it if I pay for it and get approval, but using existing cabeling is much easier.

 

[Urbaman]

Hi,

My system arrived today (3758R) , but I can't seem to be able to make it start, it stucks in BIOS with only a USB stick (pfsense install media) and a logitech usb stick for keyboard/mouse, and a vga monitor.

It seems to be full of parity memory errors.

How else can I think to test/install?

A pre-installed microsoft OS seems to be starting if permitted.
Did I probably get a failed, used item instead of a new one?

Thank you.

 

[SlowmoDK]

Hi,

My system arrived today (3758R) , but I can't seem to be able to make it start, it stucks in BIOS with only a USB stick (pfsense install media) and a logitech usb stick for keyboard/mouse, and a vga monitor.

It seems to be full of parity memory errors.

How else can I think to test/install?

A pre-installed microsoft OS seems to be starting if permitted.
Did I probably get a failed, used item instead of a new one?

Thank you.

Ram config.. this unit works better with 2400mhz rated ram than 3200mhz

 

[Urbaman]

Ram config.. this unit works better with 2400mhz rated ram than 3200mhz

Already set at 2400, 3200 do not even come up in BIOS setup.

Sometimes I can go on until I can map almost all NICS (pfsense 0-4 do not directly correlate to the phys 1-5), then it stucks as I check the n-th NIC.

I really think it's too unstable, at least in this configuration (but I just unpacked it without changing any conf).

PS: it's a 1U rack model

 

[blunden]

Already set at 2400, 3200 do not even come up in BIOS setup.

Sometimes I can go on until I can map almost all NICS (pfsense 0-4 do not directly correlate to the phys 1-5), then it stucks as I check the n-th NIC.

I really think it's too unstable, at least in this configuration (but I just unpacked it without changing any conf).

PS: it's a 1U rack model

What RAM sticks do you have installed in it? Perhaps there is a compatibility issue (possibly timings) or you might've gotten a faulty stick?

 

[Urbaman]

What RAM sticks do you have installed in it? Perhaps there is a compatibility issue (possibly timings) or you might've gotten a faulty stick?

Well I think it's default sticks, it's a newly unpacked system.
I'll check as soon as I can.

 

[SlowmoDK]

Well I think it's default sticks, it's a newly unpacked system.
I'll check as soon as I can.

I think the QC (Quality Control) might be lacking ... ie. Booting to desktop on a pre-installed image... passes

This does NOT prevent a faulty ram passing QC

 

[SlowmoDK]

Boot to memtest and run for 24+ hours for stability test

 

[blunden]

Well I think it's default sticks, it's a newly unpacked system.
I'll check as soon as I can.

Some of us bought ours as barebone systems so I don't know what RAM sticks they come with.

I would also try it would just one RAM stick to see if that makes a difference.

I think the QC (Quality Control) might be lacking ... ie. Booting to desktop on a pre-installed image... passes

This does NOT prevent a faulty ram passing QC

Yeah, that could certainly be the case.

 

[Urbaman]

Some of us bought ours as barebone systems so I don't know what RAM sticks they come with.

I would also try it would just one RAM stick to see if that makes a difference.

Yeah, that could certainly be the case.

Just trying with 2x8gb, 3200 crucial instead of 1x16gb, unbranded 2400.
Just a little better, no more memory errors it seams, still stucks while selecting/configuring nics in pfsense installation.

The nvme also is chinese unbranded.

 

[sko]

are you connecting via the serial console? make sure the settings are correct so it hands over the console to the OS after POST and disable all the windows-specific crap. Otherwise console forwarding will stop shortly after the bootloader of the OS (right when the OS initializes the com ports). I installed FreeBSD without any issues that way, but it's still highly possible the pfsense guys have (again) borked something - so maybe just try/use vanilla FreeBSD.

Also try using proper quality RAM like e.g. micron or at least something like kingston or crucial. I'm running 32GB 3200 micron without any issues in my unit.

 

[blunden]

Just trying with 2x8gb, 3200 crucial instead of 1x16gb, unbranded 2400.
Just a little better, no more memory errors it seams, still stucks while selecting/configuring nics in pfsense installation.

The nvme also is chinese unbranded.

Is it always at that particular point? What if you try to boot a different OS non-Windows OS? Linux? OPNsense? Regular FreeBSD? Do those also have problems with interface configuration? Just trying to figure out if it's something specific and not just general instability.

So it's not the name brand SSD covered by some black coating that STH got? Maybe those were reserved for the original fanless desktop units. Good to know.

 

[Urbaman]

Hi,

Thank you very much for support and insights, I'm making a lot of steps in the right direction.
I'm installing via USB, VGA monitor and Logitech USB receiver (keyboard and mouse). Did not try console yet.
Swapping the default RAM kit with Crucial 3200 made the trick to make it reliable.

Still having troubles mixing with NICs during pfSense install, and installation finished with a failed signal. Anyway, it seems rebooting into the freshly installed OS went smoothly (had to do it at least two times for it to get properly working).

Is there a how-to for the console (BIOS settings, connection), so that I can forget the VGA/keyboard/mouse thing?

 

[Urbaman]

So it's not the name brand SSD covered by some black coating that STH got? Maybe those were reserved for the original fanless desktop units. Good to know.

Will probably post a photo with both default RAM and SSD.

 

[sko]

Is there a how-to for the console (BIOS settings, connection), so that I can forget the VGA/keyboard/mouse thing?

Just use a standard "cisco-style" rollover cable. there's nothing special about the console of that unit.

And as already said: If you have problems with dropped connections during OS boot, check the console override setting and disable all the windows junk in the console settings...

 

[blunden]

Just use a standard "cisco-style" rollover cable. there's nothing special about the console of that unit.

And as already said: If you have problems with dropped connections during OS boot, check the console override setting and disable all the windows junk in the console settings...

What about console redirection UEFI/BIOS settings etc.?

I never got the console to work on mine neither (tried all normal baud rates), but I just used a VGA to HDMI adapter to install VyOS and then stick to SSH. Having working console would be a nice fallback though.

 

[sko]

just use the default settings. there's never any need to touch the serial parameters in console settings on any device (except to piss off everyone else that might want to use the console). the only thing you might want to change is setting the baud rate to 115200, but doesn't really matter for a text console and especially doesn't matter on the other side, as USB console adapters usually will just work with any baudrate on the other side.

maybe switch the console type from ASCII to a standard vt100 (but check if the BIOS is drawn correctly/usable - the N5105 units have some weird choice of text/background colors for the BIOS in vt100 mode; i.e. highlighted options are "black on black")

 

[Antioch]

I was able to get a 10G RJ45 SFP adapter working in the system and wanted to share what I've learned for the benefit of others.
(Please refer to earlier discussions in the thread about why many RJ45 SFP adapters don't work.)

• One user in this thread has told me they use this FlexOptix adapter and it works
• Another user has commented that this FS adapter should work as the specs say it uses lower power
• I have tried the 80m version of this "Xicom" adapter and it works (the 30m version will not; I have tried)
  • According to the manufacturer, the 30m version uses a Marvell chipset ("Aquantia 113C") which uses "up to 3W"
  • Whereas the 80m version uses a Broadcom chipset ("BCM84891LB") and consumes "less than 2W"

Interestingly, the RS adapter linked above also uses a Broadcom chip (not sure which) and claims to use "less than 1.8W". My guess is that it's the same as the one in the "80m" adapter I bought -- for 79% lower price. Mine seems to be working well so far and, according to ethtools, idles at ~47C while sitting in my closet. I'll try sticking a heatsink on it later, but I doubt it'll make much difference given the small size.

For the curious: the 30m version I tried was entirely unstable. I couldn't make connections through it and iperf3 results bounced up and down between 0 and 44mbps.

And, of course, YMMV.

 

[blunden]

I was able to get a 10G RJ45 SFP adapter working in the system and wanted to share what I've learned for the benefit of others.
(Please refer to earlier discussions in the thread about why many RJ45 SFP adapters don't work.)

• One user in this thread has told me they use this FlexOptix adapter and it works
• Another user has commented that this FS adapter should work as the specs say it uses lower power
• I have tried the 80m version of this "Xicom" adapter and it works (the 30m version will not; I have tried)
  • According to the manufacturer, the 30m version uses a Marvell chipset ("Aquantia 113C") which uses "up to 3W"
  • Whereas the 80m version uses a Broadcom chipset ("BCM84891LB") and consumes "less than 2W"

Interestingly, the RS adapter linked above also uses a Broadcom chip (not sure which) and claims to use "less than 1.8W". My guess is that it's the same as the one in the "80m" adapter I bought -- for 79% lower price. Mine seems to be working well so far and, according to ethtools, idles at ~47C while sitting in my closet. I'll try sticking a heatsink on it later, but I doubt it'll make much difference given the small size.

For the curious: the 30m version I tried was entirely unstable. I couldn't make connections through it and iperf3 results bounced up and down between 0 and 44mbps.

And, of course, YMMV.

That Xicom 80m module is a nice find. At that price, most people should just buy those instead of the power hungry 30m ones. The only exception are people who need the Aquantia's rate limiting to get 2.5 or 5 GBASE-T on a device that only supports 1/10 Gbps.

Would you mind posting the output from ethtool -m for it? I'm curious what the EEPROM data is set to.

Yeah, I'm using that FlexOptix module without issues so far, and so is one of my neighbors.

 

[blunden]

just use the default settings. there's never any need to touch the serial parameters in console settings on any device (except to piss off everyone else that might want to use the console). the only thing you might want to change is setting the baud rate to 115200, but doesn't really matter for a text console and especially doesn't matter on the other side, as USB console adapters usually will just work with any baudrate on the other side.

maybe switch the console type from ASCII to a standard vt100 (but check if the BIOS is drawn correctly/usable - the N5105 units have some weird choice of text/background colors for the BIOS in vt100 mode; i.e. highlighted options are "black on black")

Ok, so you haven't used the console on this device. The baud rate is 115200 already, I think. I think my settings are at default already, but it still didn't work.

I should probably test my cable on another device (like my previous router, the EdgeRouter 6P) just to make sure it's functional.