Intel I226-v (igc) manually loading drivers

[acar]

Looking for process/recommendations for downloading and manually installing Intel I226-V (igc) drivers in NG Firewall latest (16.6.0)? Specifically, I'm looking for a download link for a driver package that Arista is comfortable with and any concerns, considerations, and/or recommendations for deploying on a fresh installation using the drivers.

There is a somewhat related thread, https://forums.edge.arista.com/forum...s-seem-to-work, that touches on what I'm seeing as the problem in that Debian Bullseye, which Untangle and the installer sit on, includes older drivers therefore does not detect the I226-V 'igc' NICS.

I'll take ownership of the fact that I should have done more homework before I bought the new hardware. Didn't think this would be quite so cutting edge given the I226 release date and solutions such as; Ubuntu, OPNsense, pfSense (beta), ProxMox, Synology, etc., having already updated. I'll also take ownership of the fact that I'm rolling the dice on the I226-V based NICs/drivers being better than all the I225 generations. Boy do I hope it is.

Not that it matters beyond the points above, but I'm looking at the following options;
- Continue using my current hardware. Not something I would like to do as the old system has been acting up.
- Locate and try to manually load drivers. The crux of this post.
- Use a competitor product. Other than the Wireguard licensing model, I'm pretty happy with Untangle and really don't want to shift off it.
- Put Untangle on top of ProxMox. ProxMox is a great product but not something I want to use on a device with an externally facing interface as it presents an additional layer of support, maintenance, and potential issues.

Any constructive input/feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks all.

[donhwyo]

If the new hardware is up to the task I would run it on proxmox. Would be less maintenance than loading drivers etc. I have been running untangle this way for a few years with no problems. Proxmox does stay current with debian and newer kernels from ubuntu. So it is probably more secure than untangle.

Your mileage may very.

[acar]

Appreciate the feedback donhwyo. I use PM and like it but my needs for it are limited and as such I only use a fraction of its potential. Are you doing anything special in your configuration beyond passing through the associated NICs?

[donhwyo]

I don't use pci pass threw if that is what you mean by pass threw. That may be a better option but I was not aware of it when I set things up. I installed openvswitch on proxmox to be able to learn some advanced networking. It is probably over kill but adds many options. Untangle should look at it.

That said I expect you could do what I did without OVS. I have four on board nics. I only use two, internal and external. I have three bridges. One for internal and one for external both assigned a nic. The other intermediate is not assigned a nic. This allows me to add or remove something between the modem and Untangle or after with a few clicks. Intermediate could be anything like openwrt or pfsence etc. Or something that needs a temporary direct connection like to get a letsencrypt cert.

Modem <> external <> Untangle <> internal
Modem <> external <> intermediate <> Untangle <> internal
Modem <> external <> Untangle <> intermediate <> internal

Is it secure? I am relying on updated debian and proxmox so I think so. Your mileage may very.

[sky-knight]

The instructions for compiling and installing your own drivers are on the wiki. Support however exits the chat if you do this. Untangle has historically never compiled updated drivers and stuck with what Debian provides. I do not expect this behavior to change now they are with Arista unless they need to do it to support their own hardware.

You have three choices that are "supported".

Abandon the platform.
Install vSphere.
Purchase supported hardware.

Note I did NOT put ProxMox here, I didn't do that because it's also "not supported". It will however solve the problem nicely and in a way you'll find vastly easier to manage. vSphere would too, but it's not an open solution.

But yeah this problem is going to be particularly thorny for NGFW specifically as time goes on because Intel has been making crap drivers for the last few years. You need current drivers for many cards to work well or at all. So we're down to using a hypervisor of some sort that has supported update processes for the hardware we need and stuffing NGFW into that to get it all to work.

I'd say that's silly... but there are huge advantages to this approach even with NGFW so I'm not complaining too loudly.

[[email protected]]

HI sky-knight

I have to add support for intel I225,
I try to find instructions for compiling and installing your own drivers on WIKI but no luck to find do you have link

[sky-knight]

It was here: https://wiki.edge.arista.com/index.p...Developer_Wiki

It's gone now. You might be able to dig the instructions out of the forums. If I get some time I'll see if I can look into it further.

[xeonzen]

any news on when Arista will add support for the I226-v?

[jcoehoorn]

any news on when Arista will add support for the I226-v?

The same answer we always give for this question: it will be supported when it's available with the underlying debian OS, and Untangle then updates to use that version of debian as it's base.

[RiccardoQuest]

Hi,

I'm also looking for I226-v Support - I will try the VSphere/Proxmox option for now...

[tim.lengert]

We are testing some new firewall hardware that has i226-V 2.5Gb network cards. These are needed here as Telus provides speeds from 1.5GB up/down to 3GB up/down.If there are any instructions on how to manually add the network card drivers it would be greatly appreciated!