OpenWRT - Intel N5105 2.5GbE I225-V - Build Custom Firmware & Throughput Test

[@miroslavkrumov]

Thank you very much, keep thru.

[@VanTechCorner]

Thank you too!

[@GeniusFreak]

Could you please make a video on how to use Wi-Fi on this setup If I want to use it as a home router? Thank you!

[@dktol56]

Very odd. The kmod-igc module is unavailable - or broken - for the stable release with the later 5.4 kernel, but works with a release candidate with an earlier 5.1 kernel? Any reason for that?

[@VanTechCorner]

I have shared about this on the previous video with the Intel I225-V 2.5G Ethernet Adapter (kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXe1hGaLo5ahj68), "After sending inquiry to Intel, they stated that while kernel 5.15 is the official kernel containing igc driver module to support I225-IT Ethernet Controller, for any official Linux kernel between 5.8 to 5.14, manually adding these 2 patches will address the bug"...You can find out here bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1952606

[@JFinns]

OpenWrt 23.05 and newer has the kmod-igc driver built in no need to manually add it in firmware selector anymore. Works with i226-V too.

[@nohandleavails]

Van I need your advice brother. I currently use an all in one Asus AC88U router/AP but want a dedicated router which will handle Cake QOS with ~30 clients connected, stay cool, has reliable UPnP for gaming, and (most importantly) has a small form factor. I'm torn between getting something like the Nanopi R4S(E), building/buying a small X86 box or just buying something like the new Asus ROG AX6000. Do you have advice? I read on Openwrt forums that the Nanopi has weird latency issues (eg even just pinging localhost on the device shows that it adds latency of at least +1ms). Latency and bufferbloat are the most critical things for me. What would you recommend?

[@VanTechCorner]

Hi, do you mean after configured QoS, the latency when ping localhost increased? Also, what will be the throughput and budget?

[@nohandleavails]

@@VanTechCorner hey, I'm referring to the "High latency on NanoPi R4S" thread on Openwrt forums. It seems like the NanoPi has some latency issues in general. What would you recommend?

[@Matcc]

@@nohandleavails I would suggest going the DIY route where you have dedicated device for each task. In regards to your two options I think a mini pc like that Nanopi will suite better. Now about the 'latency part' I havent read posts about it but I dont think its that big of deal especially on that hardware unless its a specific issue to only R4S (due to lack of embedded storage). Hope this helps and goodluck.

[@gztzm]

Hi Van I also have this N5105 router pc my model is little different from yours. Mine is the third version from CW(Chang Wang: a DongGuan factory's model). Notheless I think no big deal. Bad thing is when I installed Router OS ver 7.5 stable to this machine router os could not support its 4X2.5Gbps ethernet adapters. I just watched your video about making openwrt to support these things. Are there any similar way to work around this to ROS too, I wonder?

[@VanTechCorner]

Hi, currently I have a RouterOS 5.25 SSD (can upgrade to ROS 6) but I am not sure about ROS 7. I will take a look with the trial version on Mikrotik website and update if it work.

[@gztzm]

@@VanTechCorner My model originally has a small adapter board connected to one mini pcie port to enable this machine a second slot for m.2 ssd. When I first found that ROS not support the 2.5gbps ethernet adapter I thought not of making software to support it what I thought was to find another ethernet adapter that could be supported by the software. So I bought another small board to connect to the mini pcie port then bought a 2Xmini ethernet adapter to connect to that port. The ROS actually support it. But it is not stable and it will loss connectivity once in a while. I don't even think my method is a solution.

[@DaleEarnhardtsSeatbelt]

great video! im looking at doing pfsense on one of these!

[@GTSpeac]

Btw - it's strange that you had to build - I used RC5 + 6 all worked out of the box no issues... Oh that's that what you did. I wonder when final release will be out for 22.03

[@VanTechCorner]

From what I remember, the OpenWRT is up but the network ports didn’t come up. Or maybe I wrongly used the OpenWRT 21 stable release instead … I will check again.

[@VanTechCorner]

Update - the kmod-igc package comes with OpenWRT x86 firmware. I must have used an older release.

[@oliviavalentine5294]

PFsense on this box is way superior, hope you test that.

[@VanTechCorner]

Hi, I will take a look and check it out (basic testing, since I don't use PFSense a lot).

[@oliviavalentine5294]

@@VanTechCorner Give it a shot. PFsense is much easier to setup than what you did in this video, you'll be surprised. As seen in this video, 2.5G doesn't even hit a dent to the CPU usage, max 15% I see. You'll be wasting its potential using openwrt. Using virtualization, you can allocate 1/4 cpu/ram usage to PFsense. Then for 3/4 you can use as NAS/plex/jellyfin server/ home assistant/ or a generic ubuntu image for testing purposes. Potential is limitless

[@VanTechCorner]

I got your mean, that is why I install 8GB of RAM. For now I will test out the maximum potential of the physical PC first. After that, it will be virtualized :D

[@AD34534]

@@VanTechCorner I'd say the virtualization route will make for good content so I'm looking forward to it. It's nice having a single box that does all your server-related tasks.

[@HHX_H]

@@VanTechCorner pfsense performance with pppoe will be worse, tested it and gives me up to 30% packet loss

[@andreyua2]

It's a pity that there are only 4 ports. I wish WAN was the fifth. But very interesting device/

[@VanTechCorner]

Hey, you can have more ports by ultilizing the Mini-PCIe and the M.2 PCIe slot :)

[@johndoe1047]

Hi, thanks for your videos, mate. But can you bring to us review for ikuai os? It looks very interesting

[@VanTechCorner]

Hi, I've never used ikuai before so I can't make it. I search the keyword "n5105 ikuai" on KZbin and found a lot of videos. Maybe you can take a look (just to see how it work and the performance)

[@JNET_Reloaded]

wheres best place to byt this hardware? amazon link please?

[@Matcc]

Amazon may not have the same hardware and its more expensive compared to Aliexpress or Taobao (where he bought from). Also be aware of what you buy on some of these sites, Goodluck.

[@VanTechCorner]

I get it from Taobao. If you are not living in APAC, most likely you will need a fowarding service or someone who can help to purchase from China and ship to your destination address. As Matc already said, the product is also available on AliExpress/Ebay with higher price. On AliExpress, you can search for "Topton PC Store" - a well know seller where ServeTheHome get the same router PC. Here is the link to the store on Taobao bit.ly/3RwSDyR

[@francocastilloAR]

The *luci* package is not required if you are also installing the *luci-ssl* package.

[@VanTechCorner]

Good to know that. Does it mean if I install the primary package, let's say "luci-app-sqm", other dependencies packages will also be installed? If not, do you know how to check what are the packages/dependencies I need to add to the list if I want to custom it

[@Matcc]

@@VanTechCorner I think if your on the Openwrt GUI in the packages section it allows for dependancies to auto install with a list of required ones but im not sure if this works within the new custom build installer perhaps its worth a try, Cheers.

[@VanTechCorner]

@Matc Yes if you are using LuCI it should install the dependancies. However, if you compile the firmware from source, you need to add the dependancies. But I am not sure about the firmware-selector tool because it doesn't come with the config.buildinfo

[@AA-kj4ic]

it seems 22.03.3 runs on kernel 5.10 and supports newer intel i226 correct?

[@essenzialdragon]

hi how do you use openspeedtest on luci?

[@TrevorEMPF]

Hi great work you do there. COuld I ask if possible? Vilfo OS is based on OpenWrt but I do not how to get it to be compatible with 2.5Gbe...

[@VanTechCorner]

Hi, as I checked, Vilfo OS is a paid OS. You can contact their support team and check if the OS supports Intel I225 network controller.

[@manleyjones9545]

kmod-igc is already included in the default packages...

[@VanTechCorner]

Do you know if it is in the snapshot or rc/stable release? Is it the same with firmware-selector tool? As you can see, once I click on the customize packages, the kmod-igc is not there.

[@abrarfaiyazkhan420]

Thank you for your superb videos. I wonder if you pronounce 's' a bit differently. Does your nation follow this accent? Asking from just curiosity.

[@VanTechCorner]

Hi, I live in Vietnam where the native language is Vietnamese and English is a compulsory subject in school. Sometime you will hear a mixture of Vietnamese, French and English in my pronunciation :D

[@abrarfaiyazkhan420]

@@VanTechCorner Thanks for your reply, guy. Recently I started watching your videos, and also those of onemarcfifty. I started loving OpenWRT. I fancy of building an enterprise-level wifi solution based on OpenWRT, though I think it'll not be that much feasible.

[@VanTechCorner]

Actually, Ubiquiti UniFi access points are based on QSDK/OpenWRT. GL-iNet routers also comes with stock firmware (based on QSDK/OpenWRT with proprietary/closed-source driver) and the open-source OpenWRT version. They also have a cloud (GoodCloud.xyz) too. If you have time, you can research OpenWISP, this will help deploy your plan (this is something I have in mind, but too busy to do).

[@dejede]

can LTE 4g and wifi networks be used on this device?

[@VanTechCorner]

Hi, with the Mini-PCIe connector, WiFi & LTE modules should be working. I am still testing and will have some videos for this.

[@dejede]

@@VanTechCorner I am very excited to hear it and I will wait for the video. and maybe you can also include the openwrt build link in the video description, thank you

[@74550nn]

Hi man, I have similar unit like yours, and I have installed opnsense bare metal on it. I want to install proxmox so that I can use it as my small home lab. However when I try to install proxmox the screen crashing and show acpi bug. I try to workaround with it but still can't install the proxmox. Is it okaay for me to contact you and discuss about it? Maybe you can help me with some troubleshooting. Thank you so much

[@VanTechCorner]

Hi there, I am not a proxmox expert. Perhaps you can post this question on the proxmox forum and the community there can help you. So far I only tried Vmware EXSI before (on another Dell SFF machine, not this N5105 with Intel I225-V).

[@mulyadiahyan4347]

Great work very informatif video thank you, but can you please test performance mikrowrt on this mechine? you can find the image installation in channel KZbin that call Indonesian Tech Channel, please make it happen🙏

[@SuperChopperpilot]

Please share the link for the router. I’d like to purchase one at 110 price including shipping.

[@VanTechCorner]

Hi, here is the link to Taobao (China local markplace). For now they only deliver to APAC countries. bit.ly/3RwSDyR

[@sukhdeepzz]

Plaese make a video on guest vlan and assign it to wireless

[@VanTechCorner]

Hi, this video is available for OpenWRT 19 and OpenWRT 21 (DSA). You can find in on the channel.

[@sukhdeepzz]

@@VanTechCorner I searched your channel and those guest setup is not on VLANS.

[@VanTechCorner]

You need to get the basic understanding about how a guest network before move further (by checking my video on Guest WiFi/Guest LAN and checking the official docs). The vlan will not come up until there is a network interface or bridge attached to it. You can follow my video with some changes (create vlan, and then create a bridge, after that add the wirrless interface and the vlan to the same bridge, finally create guest network and select the physical interface as the bridge). The configuration on firewall is still the same.

[@sukhdeepzz]

@@VanTechCorner Yeah i am running pfsense router alongwith openwrt access point

[@edwpat]

Link ?

[@khanhvan1124]

Bạn cho mình xin Facebook được không ạ. Mình muốn tự build bản openwrt có passwall bạn giúp mình với

[@VanTechCorner]

Với những package không có sẵn trong repo của openwrt.org bạn phải build thủ công. Bạn có thể học cách tự build firmware trước, sau đó học cách build firmware với custom package từ source khác. Source cài passwall có thể tìm thấy tại đây github.com/kenzok8/openwrt-packages.

[@VanTechCorner]

Update - kmod-igc driver for Intel I225-V 2.5GbE had been added to default package. You don't need to manually build the firmware More detail here github.com/openwrt/openwrt/commit/aae3a8a254275f8be5c45d766ac7b5afb82a9fe6