Deleted VM, Can't Access PCI NIC

[voicelex]

Howdy,

 

I am new to unRAID and just an amateur linux tinkerer but I've been enjoying learning so much since building an unRAID box this winter. I was recently excited about SpaceInvaderOne's youtube series on setting up pfSense as a VM on unRAID with a quad-port PCI NIC, so that I might use it between my WAN and router (which will act as my WiFi AP and Switch). Well, I got it working but in the process of fiddling with pfSense settings, I did something goofy, and could no longer access the config UI at all; so I figured I'd start from scratch. I deleted the VM and when I went to start the process over I found that I was unable to add the NIC to the new install of the new VM.

 

I've tried rebooting, removing and re-adding the "append vfio-pci.ids=xxxx"  from the Syslinux configuration and rebooting and plugging my LAN into the NIC to see if it would activate. When I use ethtool on eth1 through eth4 (the quad-nic) I get:

 

Settings for eth1:
        Supported ports: [ TP ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Full
        Supported pause frame use: No
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Supported FEC modes: Not reported
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Full
        Advertised pause frame use: No
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
        Speed: Unknown!
        Duplex: Unknown! (255)
        Port: Twisted Pair
        PHYAD: 1
        Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        MDI-X: Unknown (auto)
        Supports Wake-on: pumbg
        Wake-on: d
        Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
                               drv probe link
        Link detected: no

 

I read somewhere that deleting my network.cfg and rebooting may help but I'm a bit worried about deleting anything I'm not 100% on. Please let me know if there are any other logs I can provide that might help someone with greater experience solve this issue. FYI I do still have access to the motherboard's NIC, so I am still able to use the machine. 

 

Thank you kindly,

Edited September 18, 2018 by voicelex

[_0m0t3ur]

can you narrow down what you did?  because if it was only some changes in pfsense and you reinstalled pfsense, then you should be up and running.

 

i first ran pfsense as a vm in unraid, following Spaceinvader One's video.  it works.  but because rebooting the server reboots the network, it requires more patience to allow the network to catch up.  and it's especially important to avoid making impulsive and quick changes (not saying you did this), but ask me how I know.

 

if you take out the "append" statement from the syslinux config and reboot, does your quad nic show up under network settings?

[voicelex]

I attempted to change what I thought was the IP of pfSense because it was the same as my router. I later found our that my router dealt with it on it's own and swapped to another domain but whatever setting I changed made it so that anytime I tried to do anything but load the pfSense dashboard it would give me an error that would direct me to the settings page, which would also give the same error, so I was stuck in a loop.

 

I deleted the whole pfSense VM since I no longer had access to the config pages in the hopes of starting over. I actually had pfSense running with fully working internet both on my unRAID box and the machines that were connected via my router (using it as a switch) and WiFi AP on the same router. To clarify the setup was: WAN -> unRAID (pfSense VM) -> Router/AP -> Clients. I guess none of that matters for this issue but either way, it's the unRAID box that's not detecting/allowing a new VM iteration access to the PCI NIC even though unRAID seems to be detecting it (just lists it as "interface shutdown" with no way I can see to turn it on). 
 

So the quad nic was still showing under system devices before I tried deleting the append statement for the NIC, however, I did remove it and rebooted to no affect - the quad nic is/has been listed the whole time, it just can't be used by unRAID or a new VM.

 

Does that make sense? Thanks for the reply.

Edited September 19, 2018 by voicelex

[_0m0t3ur]

if you were seeing the quad nic under network settings, even with the "append" statement installed in syslinux config (and had previously rebooted to get the append to take effect), i venture to guess that you're logging into unraid by booting into GUI mode.  is that correct?

[voicelex]

Yup, not sure what happened. Tried twice last night, removing the statement, rebooting and adding it again - nothing. Did it again this morning and everything i working!

 

Not sure what it was.. but I'm back up and configuring pfSense. Thanks for helping me think things over.

[_0m0t3ur]

If you follow Spaceinvader One's guide, the "append" to the syslinux config is put in the spot for accessing unRAID via the default menu.  If on the other hand you boot into unRAID via the GUI mode, then you must also append that.  I found this out when configuring my pfsense vm and having to reboot multiple times, so I needed to login to the server directly via GUI mode, because the network would be down and not have access to unRAID to make changes, etc.

 

Here's how:

 

1.  From the "Main" tab, click on "Flash" as in Spaceinvader One's video.

2.  Click on "Advanced view".

 

 

3.  Notice the "Unraid OS" mode where you can see your previous append.

4.  Notice the "Unraid OS GUI Mode" just below.

 

 

5.  Append "Unraid OS GUI Mode" just like you did the standard mode.

 

 

6.  Click "Apply" and reboot.

[_0m0t3ur]

Getting back to your title of your post, I had a problem where I couldn't access the quad nic.  What I discovered was this: in "System Settings" - "Network Settings" under "interface Rules", the mac addresses got out of order.  I think this was a result of rebooting into GUI mode where the quad nic was not stubbed out, and me making changes and rebooting multiple times to 'fix' the problem.

 

At some point, I looked at this and thought that it looked disorderly, and I figured that it really should be in order.  It was more an intuition thing.  So, I reordered them, clicked apply, and rebooted.  I could then access the quad nic.