Finding whether there is support or planned support for Marvell® AQtion AQC113C 10GbE LAN chip

[Dravinian]

Is there a place to see whether your LAN chip is supported, or a list of items that might see support in the future?

I updated my MB and have come to realise that this is not being recognised in TrueNAS (it works fine in Mint - just nothing in TrueNAS) so was wondering whether there was a list to check against?

 

[HoneyBadger]

Hardware support in TrueNAS is determined by the underlying OS - FreeBSD for CORE, and Debian Linux for SCALE.

I believe the version numbers of TrueNAS align with FreeBSD, so for the current CORE release you'd want to check the 13.0 hardware compatibility list:

FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE Hardware Notes

FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms.

www.freebsd.org

Similarly for SCALE, look for Debian compatibility:

Hardware - Debian Wiki

wiki.debian.org

With all that said, there's a difference between hardware being "supported" by the underlying OS, and being "encouraged" for use with either ZFS or a "reliable" system - things like Realtek network cards and HP SmartArray storage adapters come to mind as devices that are "supported, but not encouraged"

 

[Dravinian]

Thanks for taking the time to post that.

Always odd looking at these websites takes me back like 30 years....

 

[vvuong]

Just got this 10gb NIC working in TryeNAS Scale. Core did not recognize it, but upgrading to Scale was painless and this NIC was recognized right away.

Paired with a Trendnet 10gb switch and iperf3 is showinf about 450 MB/s connection speed between my TrueNAS and desktop machine with the same NIC. Thought when doing file transfers, I only get about 230 MB/s... which may be limited by my drives (Seagate Exos X16 16TB).

Can't complain I guess since this is all over Cat 6 copper at about 90 feet distance.

 

[jgreco]

The Aqtion is a relatively crappy (think: Realtek-class) ethernet controller. It will probably be fine for very basic use, but don't expect too much out of it. Recommended ethernet controllers are discussed over in the 10 Gig Networking Primer.

 

[vvuong]

The Aqtion is a relatively crappy (think: Realtek-class) ethernet controller. It will probably be fine for very basic use, but don't expect too much out of it. Recommended ethernet controllers are discussed over in the 10 Gig Networking Primer.

I read the primer... which mostly recommended the SFP+ connectors. I have a long run of Cat6 already and was not looking to rewire. I know you can get SFP+ transceivers that convert to RJ45, but I read they are very specific/finicky to vendor compatibility. which puts everything at a much higher price tier.

I found this thread when researching the AQtion AQC113C and wanted to update others who may in my boat. This card isn't on the hardware list for Dibian or FreeBSD, so wanted to provide feeback to the community.

 

[jgreco]

You can get copper Intel cards fairly easily. The main problem with copper is that there's poor compatibility. If you have a "long run of Cat6" beyond thirty or forty meters, it may not actually be in spec and can cause problems. Same goes for copper SFP+ adapters. One of the big reasons for advocating SFP+ and fiber is the problem-free experience for beginners.