Trying to setup a HPE ProLient MS10 Gen 9 system. -- NIC failing

[rtwingfieldaven]

Trying to setup a HPE ProLient MS10 Gen 9 system.  The AMI Aptio (UEFI) Setup Utility, v2.17.1254, is configured as follows:

Advanced
    Network Stack Configuration (UEFI)
        disabled
        enabled (Preboot Execution Environment  - followingnot optioned if disabled)
            Ipv4 PXE support (enable/disable)
            Ipv6 PXE support (enable/disable)
            PXE boot wait time
            Media detect count

    CMS Configuration (Compatibility Support Module Configuration)
        CMS Support (enable/disable)
        CMS16 module version 07.79 (static)
        Boot option filter
            Legacy only
            UEIF only

    WHEA (Windows Hardware Error Architecture Support) disabled
    
    CPU configuration (many options here)
        Hyper-threading disabled

OS is FreeBSD v10.1 (and previous versions). . .have been working for 15 years+ on BIOS booting system.  OS does boot under CMS legacy mode.  Problem is ifconfig (FreeBSD command line utility)does NOT recognize and/or report the onboard NIC.  All services that require ethernet interface will not/can not communicate via the NIC -- no DNS, NTP, SMTP/POP3,  SSH, etc. 

I have read from other HP web pages that this is because a "driver" is not installed.   Well, Drivers are installed in the FreeBSD kernel, so where else should such a dirver be installed?   AMI is no help . . ."not my problem, contact HP".  HP is virtually impossible to contact. 

System is unsuable.  What to do?

[Jimmy Vance]

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@rtwingfieldaven wrote:

I have read from other HP web pages that this is because a "driver" is not installed.   Well, Drivers are installed in the FreeBSD kernel, so where else should such a dirver be installed?   AMI is no help . . ."not my problem, contact HP".  HP is virtually impossible to contact. 

System is unsuable.  What to do?

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The kernel may have drivers, but it would appear that the kernel does not have a driver that recognizes the PCI ID of this NIC. If there isn't an updated driver for FreeBSD your only option is to try and get the source and compile a driver yourself, or install an additional NIC that works with FreeBSD

[rtwingfieldaven]

Apparently, HP product documentation does not identify the on-board NIC. On another "web-help" site post, I have read, "It's an embedded NC105i PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter as HP calls it. Around the internet people identify it as a Broadcom BCM5722 card.", but I don't know for sure. It is not an actual physical PCIe card, but rather an on-board embedded chip system.

Can you tell me what the "NIC" is on-board the HPE ProLiant ML10 GEN9 . . .is?   . . .so I can load an appropriate driver.

[Jimmy Vance]

According to the Quickspecs it is an Intel® Ethernet Connection I219-LM

https://www.hpe.com/h20195/V2/Getdocument.aspx?docname=c04922941

[rtwingfieldaven]

Never been able to find (recognize)  and use the on-board NIC . . .so have installed (tried) two different PCIe NIC's, Rosewill (Realtek), and an Intel brand.  OS (FreeBSD v10.1) can then see either of the devices.   The ifconfig display and netstat status looks correct, but cannot interface with other public addresses on the WAN.  Cannot ping or otherwise communicate with other servers on the LAN or WAN.  Very disappointed with the limited options of the AMI "bios", and the HP product in general.  Seems that there is something firewall-like inside the ProLiant ML10 box that is choking the system.

[Jimmy Vance]

I asked a colleague what driver loads on the ML10 Gen9 and here is the output from RHEL 7.3 ethtool. Hopethis helps