1G SFP on Intel X710 (pfSense, ixl) fails with unqualified module until the optic is recoded as Intel
2
On a Protectli Vault 6 with Intel X710 SFP+ ports (ixl0/ixl1) a 1G EZConn ETB43315-7S34-FR SFP showed no carrier. Logs contained Invalid advertised speed; valid flags are: 0x06, ixl1_set_link: Error getting phy capabilities -37, aq error: 8 and Link failed because an unqualified module was detected!. Forcing media (ifconfig ixl1 media 1000baseLX returned Operation not supported), sysctl advertise_speed tweaks, the hw.ixl.unsupported_sfp=1 tunable and several other 1G SFP brands all failed, while a 10G Cisco LR module linked fine. Upgrading the NIC firmware from 6.1.49420 to 9.40 made the module detected but still no link.
- Hardware: Protectli Vault 6, Intel X710
- Transceivers: EZConn ETB43315-7S34-FR 1G SFP, Cisco 10G LR SFP+
- Form factor: SFP, SFP+
Symptoms / messages:
Link failed because an unqualified module was detected!
Invalid advertised speed; valid flags are: 0x06
ixl1_set_link: Error getting phy capabilities -37, aq error: 8
no carrier
Comments 2
Recoding the SFPs to Intel vendor data with an FS Box made them link immediately on autoselect with no further configuration; X710 under FreeBSD strictly requires Intel-coded optics.
NIC firmware update to 9.40 helped detection but not the link; the i2c_access_method tunable and hw.ixl.unsupported_sfp had no effect.