6100 lost its ix[0-3] interfaces

xtp237

After unplugging the 6100 (before the arrival of an oncoming storm) at the next reboot it seems to be missing all its ix interfaces. The relevant portion of the boot messages is:

pcib10: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 23.0 on pci0
pci10: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib10
ix0: <Intel(R) X553 L (1GbE)> mem 0x80400000-0x805fffff,0x80604000-0x80607fff at device 0.0 on pci10
ix0: Hardware initialization failed
ix0: IFDI_ATTACH_PRE failed 5
device_attach: ix0 attach returned 5
ix0: <Intel(R) X553 L (1GbE)> mem 0x80200000-0x803fffff,0x80600000-0x80603fff at device 0.1 on pci10
ix0: Hardware initialization failed
ix0: IFDI_ATTACH_PRE failed 5
device_attach: ix0 attach returned 5
pci0: <simple comms> at device 24.0 (no driver attached)
sdhci_pci0: <Intel Denverton eMMC 5.0 Controller> mem 0x815f6000-0x815f6fff,0x815f7000-0x815f7fff at device 28.0 on pci0
sdhci_pci0: 1 slot(s) allocated

and again, a few lines below:

ix0: <Intel(R) X553 L (1GbE)> mem 0x80400000-0x805fffff,0x80604000-0x80607fff at device 0.0 on pci10
ix0: Hardware initialization failed
ix0: IFDI_ATTACH_PRE failed 5
device_attach: ix0 attach returned 5
ix0: <Intel(R) X553 L (1GbE)> mem 0x80200000-0x803fffff,0x80600000-0x80603fff at device 0.1 on pci10
ix0: Hardware initialization failed
ix0: IFDI_ATTACH_PRE failed 5
device_attach: ix0 attach returned 5
ix0: <Intel(R) X553 L (1GbE)> mem 0x80400000-0x805fffff,0x80604000-0x80607fff at device 0.0 on pci10
ix0: Hardware initialization failed
ix0: IFDI_ATTACH_PRE failed 5
device_attach: ix0 attach returned 5
ix0: <Intel(R) X553 L (1GbE)> mem 0x80200000-0x803fffff,0x80600000-0x80603fff at device 0.1 on pci10
ix0: Hardware initialization failed
ix0: IFDI_ATTACH_PRE failed 5
device_attach: ix0 attach returned 5

no mention of ix[1-3]. The igc[0-3] interfaces are detected properly, so I was able to assign WAN to igc0 to get around this.

Running pciconf -lv shows "none". I'm including the output and that of dmesg below.

Searching the forum, the only post I found was an analogous situation involving the 5100, but it seems that is BIOS based and I can't use the attempted solution there on the 6100.

Is this a hardware failure? Any suggestion is appreciated.

--E

dmesg.txt
pciconf.txt

stephenw10

Hmm, I assume you've tried a full power cycle since?

Do you have any additional hardware in it?

xtp237

@stephenw10

Yes, and no, no additional hardware.

stephenw10

Hmm, never seen that before. Do you have a TAC ticket open for this? If not you should open one: https://www.netgate.com/tac-support-request

xtp237

@stephenw10

I don't have a support ticket open. I'll try to get one, not sure I still get support? The appliance is ~ 2 yrs. old.

stephenw10

You should still open one. I'm not aware of an issue there but someone in TAC may have seen it. You can still get hardware support but since it's outside warranty we can't replace it.

xtp237

@stephenw10

done

slackie

Similar issue for me. Any workaround?

stephenw10

The 6100 should never not see the ix NICs. They are in the SoC and cannot be disabled. What exactly are you seeing?

slackie

@stephenw10 I already raised a TAC. I basically get the same error as OP. Tried power cycling and boot from USB-installer.

They're not in the ifconfig output and bootup gives errors like this:

Feb  5 22:46:21 pfSense kernel: ix0: <Intel(R) X553 L (1GbE)> mem 0x80200000-0x803fffff,0x80600000-0x80603fff at device 0.1 on pci10

Feb  5 22:46:21 pfSense kernel: ix0: Hardware initialization failed

Feb  5 22:46:21 pfSense kernel: ix0: IFDI_ATTACH_PRE failed 5

Feb  5 22:46:21 pfSense kernel: device_attach: ix0 attach returned 5

They are present as PCI devices but either not in a usable state or the system doesn't know what they are:


none6@pci0:3:0:0: class=0x020000 rev=0x11 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0x1306 subvendor=0x8086 subdevice=0x0000

   vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'

   class      = network

   subclass   = ethernet

   bar   [10] = type Prefetchable Memory, range 64, base 0x80a00000, size 2097152, enabled

   bar   [20] = type Prefetchable Memory, range 64, base 0x80c04000, size 16384, enabled

none7@pci0:3:0:1: class=0x020000 rev=0x11 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0x1306 subvendor=0x8086 subdevice=0x0000

   vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'

   class      = network

   subclass   = ethernet

   bar   [10] = type Prefetchable Memory, range 64, base 0x80800000, size 2097152, enabled

   bar   [20] = type Prefetchable Memory, range 64, base 0x80c00000, size 16384, enabled

none8@pci0:2:0:0: class=0x020000 rev=0x11 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0x15e5 subvendor=0x8086 subdevice=0x0000

   vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'

   device     = 'Ethernet Connection X553 1GbE'

   class      = network

   subclass   = ethernet

   bar   [10] = type Prefetchable Memory, range 64, base 0x80400000, size 2097152, enabled

   bar   [20] = type Prefetchable Memory, range 64, base 0x80604000, size 16384, enabled

none9@pci0:2:0:1: class=0x020000 rev=0x11 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0x15e5 subvendor=0x8086 subdevice=0x0000

   vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'

   device     = 'Ethernet Connection X553 1GbE'

   class      = network

   subclass   = ethernet

   bar   [10] = type Prefetchable Memory, range 64, base 0x80200000, size 2097152, enabled

   bar   [20] = type Prefetchable Memory, range 64, base 0x80600000, size 16384, enabled

slackie

To me, after reading about others with similar issues (non netgate HW), this is a firmware glitch. In those cases this has been resolved through a forced NIC firmware upgrade.

stephenw10

Hmm. I assume it's out of warranty?

You could try booting Intel's firmware update tool and see if it sees the NICs or offers an available update. I've never tried that on a 6100 though.

luckman212

try booting Intel's firmware update tool

which tool is that @stephenw10 ? is it this? https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19358/non-volatile-memory-nvm-update-utility-for-intel-ethernet-network-adapter-x550-series.html

stephenw10

Hmm X553 is not X550. But I see it's in the release notes so might be worth trying. However I don't see it in the update itself so....

luckman212

Yeah not sure either. The Release Notes PDF has:

12618d69-6608-468b-b5c5-25d002944aa7-CleanShot 2026-02-09 at 11.01.55.png

and extracting X550_NVMUpdatePackage_v3_70_FreeBSD.tar.gz and executing strings ./X550/FreeBSDx64/nvmupdate64e | grep 553 yields some results:

X553
Intel(R) Ethernet Connection X553 1GbE
Intel(R) Ethernet Connection X553 10 GbE SFP+
Intel(R) Ethernet Connection X553 QSFP+
Intel(R) Ethernet Connection X553 Backplane
Intel(R) Ethernet Connection X553/X557-AT 10GBASE-T
Intel(R) X553 Virtual Function
Intel(R) Ethernet Connection X553 1 GbE

slackie

Ill give it a try later this evening. Thanks!

tedquade

@slackie Let us know how it goes. I've been sitting in the weeds watching this thread with interest.

Ted

stephenw10

There's no update cfg for the X553 PCI device ID in that file so something else is required....

luckman212

@stephenw10 Hmm. Yeah there's some further discussion about this over on r/Netgate, including comments from Jim Thompson (gonzopancho).

stephenw10

Ah right. Yup that's what I'm seeing. It wouldn't entirely surprise me to find there is no NVM update for X553 since its on-board the SoC. It's not a normal NIC in that sense.