On 03/11/2025 20:42, Frederick D Ullman wrote:
I own a Gigabyte X870 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 motherboard which was intended
when purchased to dual boot Windows 11 and FreeBSD 14.3. Th windows
side is already installed and fully functional. My understanding is
that there are two major compatibility issues between this motherboard
and FreeBSD: graphics and the included ethernet lan interface.
Graphics is not a current concern. But access to the Internet is
vital. The workaround I’ve seen suggested is to add a PCIe network
card supported by FreeBSD. I’d prefer a 1GB card to match what my ISP
provides but even a lower speed card will do to give me Internet
access from FreeBSD. I freely admit my FreeBSD experience is quite old
and rusty. I’ve just spent almost a full day going back and forth
between the FreeBSD 14.3 release notes, Nic cards available for retail
purchase online, and trying to determine the underlying chips of what
I find available. I have absolutely nothing to show for my efforts
other than the realization that many cards listed as compatible with
some release of FreeBSD are many years obsolete. If memory serves, I
don’t recall having to even think about Nic drivers the last time I
installed FreeBSD. I’m recently retired and hoping someone will take
pity on a struggling senior citizen by recommending a specific pcie
Nic card or two that are known to be compatible with FreeBSD 14.3,
stable, reliable and currently available, for example, on Amazon..
Quick answer is Intel for 1Gb and Chelsio for 10Gb. They're very well
supported 'cos the manufacturers make sure they are. I believe 10Gb
Intel chips are well supported now but I've been doing this a while.
There are a lot of other perfectly good NICs that are supported, but as
you get a more capable chip (and therefore more expensive) it's a bit of
a waste if that particular feature isn't used. I'm talking about the CPU
offloading work to the NIC. the higher the price, the more the NIC _can_
do. The better supported, the more the NIC _will_ do. Other perfectly
good chips makers like Broadcom have some variants that are better
supported than others and you want an straightforward answer.
But I guess you're not running a server here, because you can spend a
lot of money. How about something with an Intel i226? 2.5Gbps, single
port, not silly money. Older 1Gb chips like 82576 are also fine for what
you need. Don't forget to make sure it comes with a low/high profile
bracket as needed!
These are fine:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dual-Port-Gigabit-Network-Express-Ethernet/dp/B09D3JL14S/
Twin port 1Gbps, older chip. Never had a problem with the chip, and not
a lot of money. They're all cheaper in the USA.
Regards, Frank.
