H3/H2 Net Card – ODROID – wonder how well pfSense supports it
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/04/18
I wonder how well [Wayback/Archive] H3/H2 Net Card – ODROID is supported by pfSense. It is an M.2 based PCIe network card that adds 4 ethernet ports of 2.5 gigabit each to an ODROID H2 or H3 series (so you have 6 ports total), ideal for some hefty router.
Pictures (from the above link) of the board, cases and mainboard below.
But first: Realtek NICs is not vendor supported on FreeBSD (which pfSense and OPNsense are based on).
That poses a problem, as you need to rely on workarounds because Intel NICs are only available at the parallel market like described in [Wayback/Archive] PC Engines apu lead times
Intel has quietly changed the EOL date for the i211at NIC from 2029 to 2022. The more expensive i210at NIC remains in production (but is on allocation through end of 2023).
…
Difference between the NICs: i210at supports 4 receive queues, i211at only 2. This may make a slight difference on performance at heavy packet loads.
It means that for almost all hardware, using Realtek NICs is the only way to go.
A few posts mention that pfSense does not even ship with Realtek NIC drivers and that you need to build them by hand. Since the Net Card for the H3/H3+ has not changed from the H2H2+ days, here are some links from people that got pfSense working in on the H2/H2+ via [Wayback/Archive] odroid net card pfsense – Google Search:
- [Wayback/Archive] Pfsense + Snort + Net Card – ODROID using the H2+
Figured I’d post a quick summary of what I spent the weekend on since we are still in the early days of the Net Card being available for the H2+. TL:DR is the H2+ with a net card can successfully be setup with a full pfsense + snort + pfblockerNG setup including LAGGs to both the LAN and the NAS on a home network.
- [Wayback/Archive] ODROID-H2+ for pfSense? – Builds / pfSense – serverbuilds.net Forums
Bought one for testing.Riggi also has this guide for using Realtek NICs.…
It’s not actually that cheap when factoring in the power adapter, storage, RAM, case, and shipping. You’re looking at around $250 for a modest setup.
…
Also, TrueNAS Core 12 Beta 2 doesn’t recognize the NICs.
- [Wayback/Archive] @JDM_WAAAT H2 – Twitter Search / Twitter
- [Wayback/Archive] Logie-Tech on Twitter: “New video! Checking out the new Odroid H2+ https://t.co/bu6z0aXQ69” / Twitter
- [Wayback/Archive] Logie-Tech on Twitter: “@ChrisLAS @bartonm09 Guess we will find out when I get mine! Ordered today, will test pfSense/OpenSense, Plex HW Transcoding, and more on it.”
- [Wayback/Archive] NEW Odroid H2+ overview | neat, but a little expensive… #serverbuilds #homelab – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] @JDM_WAAAT H3 – Twitter Search / Twitter
- [Wayback/Archive] [Official] Odroid H2+ Owner’s Thread – Builds / SBC (RPi & others) – serverbuilds.net Forums
Just got two of these in today, going to drop some pictures and reserve some space for future testing and results.
(more information from JDM_WAAAT than the Tweets and Video that he posted)
- [Wayback/Archive] [Guide] Resolve Realtek NIC Stability Issues on FreeBSD – FreeNAS/TrueNAS, pfSense (2.4.4, 2.4.5, 2.5.0) + OPNSense, use 2.5Gb Realtek – Self-Hosted & Services / pfSense/Opensense – serverbuilds.net Forums
As of November 19th, 2020: pfSense 2.5.0+ has a package in the repo for the driver module:
realtek-re-kmod(os-realtek-reon OPNsense). You will still have to perform the/boot/loader.confsteps, but the instructions are given in the shell after you runpkg install realtek-re-kmod. - [Wayback/Archive] ODROID-H2+ with H2 Net Card Cheap 6x 2.5GbE – Page 2 of 3 – ServeTheHome
One may expect that since this is an x86 box, the OS support is easy. It is, with a major caveat, the 2.5GbE NICs which are at the heart of the machine are also not very well supported. So we have an OS testing section of this article.
…
This was a fairly similar story without installing a NIC first. pfSense 2.5 nightly up to 31 January 2021 would not install on the system
…
You can use the same 10/100 USB NIC trick, and Realtek NIC support is in a new package one can install with pfSense 2.5 that will be released soon. This may be one we revisit in the future. FreeBSD RTL8125 support is frankly not great. Realtek has good support in Windows. Linux support is OK. FreeBSD is one where you wonder if anyone at Realtek has heard of the OS.
…
One can get this working, but it makes us slightly nervous to run a WAN connectivity solution on NICs that basically do not have vendor OS support. After having enough of these types of solutions break and being stuck without Internet access to get to fixes, this is going to be a “possible” but one we would urge our readers to think about.
Via
- [Wayback/Archive] ODROID-H3 and ODROID-H3+ SBC’s feature Intel Celeron N5105, Pentium N6005 processor – CNX Software (a long preview ending with “Both boards can be purchased now with the ODROID-H3 SBC going for $129 and the ODROID-H3+ model selling for $165.”).
- [Wayback/Archive] odroid-h3:start [ODROID Wiki] product page including any accessories (be sure to order any you might need as when you order later you have to pay shipping costs again).
- The [Wayback] H3_H3+_Introduction.pdf has all of the below forum message, plus detailed performance tables in addition to the performance graphs from forum message.
- [Wayback/Archive] The ODROID H-series is back – ODROID – huge forum message basically with even more specs than the product page, followed by interesting user comments.
…
H-series Net Card
Using the NVMe port, provides 4 additional 2.5 GbE ports, thus tripling the number of 2.5 GbE ports to 6 ports.…
The important point is that with active cooling you get the increased performance you aim at while the CPU stays just comfortably warm while turbo boosting indefinitely, way below temperatures close to Tj. In other words the fan active cooling brings you the best of both worlds. This is what we witnessed and validated while performing many tests in different locations.
Last point: In Unlimited Performance mode, the CPU (and the fan) use more power than they do in Balanced mode, easily reaching 20+ Watts. However this happens only when the CPU is indeed turbo boosting. When idle, the system will use the same power as in Balanced mode. If your goal is to minimize energy consumption, use Balanced mode. If your goal is to maximize performance, use Unlimited Performance mode and again use active cooling with a fan to avoid the CPU to constantly throttle down.
…
…
Board Description
- CPU (Intel Celeron N5105(H3+: N6005) )
- 2 x DDR4 SO-DIMM slots (Dual channel memory support)
- 1 x M.2 PCI Express Module Socket (NGFF-2280)
- 1 x eMMC (Embedded Multimedia-Card) Socket
- 2 x SATA Power Connectors (2.5mm pitch, JST-XH compatible connector)
- 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Data Connectors
- 1 x DC Power Jack
- 2 x USB 3.0
- 2 x USB 2.0
- 1 x HDMI 2.0
- 1 x DisplayPort 1.2
- 2 x RJ45 Ethernet Ports (10/100/1000/2500)
- 5 x System LED Indicators
- 1 x Peripheral Expansion Header (24-pin)
- 1 x Power Switch
- 1 x Reset Switch
- 1 x Backup Battery Connector (2-pin)
- 1 x Active Cooling Fan Connector (4-pin)
- 1 x Audio out, 1 x Audio in, 1 x SPDIF out
On the H3+ board, a yellow round sticker is attached on the product serial label, and on the H3 board, a green round sticker is attached.
…
- [Wayback/Archive] accessory:connectivity:h2_net_card [ODROID Wiki]: ESF BIOS
The H2 Net Card connects to the H2/H2+ board using the M.2 slot to leverage the PCIe Gen2 x4 lanes. The H2 Net Card expects the M.2 slot to provide 4 bifurcated x1 lanes. However, the default M.2 slot configuration provides 1 non-bifurcated x4 lane by default.The M.2/PCIe Gen 2 slot lanes bifurcation is configured in the ESF BIOS itself.Starting with version 1.22 of the H2/H2+ ESF BIOS, we provide and will provide two versions:-
First one with the M.2 slot configured as 1 non-bifurcated x4 lane (for SSD or 3r party PCIe cards)
-
Second one with the M.2 slot configured as 4 bifurcated x1 lanes for the H2 Net Card.
To use the H2 Net Card you MUST flash the H2/H2+ BIOS with the second version.My guess is that for the H3/H3+ the BIOS change is similar, though at the time of writing there was no confirmation on this. -
More pictures and case-links
- [Wayback/Archive] ODROID-H3 Case Type 5 – ODROID (~USD 20 excluding tax and shipping): Space for Net card and 2 x 3.5” SATA drives.
- [Wayback/Archive] ODROID-H3 Case Type 6 – ODROID (~USD 16 excluding tax and shipping): Space for Net card, no space for SATA storage.
- [Wayback/Archive] ODROID-H3 Case Type 7 – ODROID (~USD 20 excluding shipping and taxes): Space for Net card and 2 x 2.5” SATA drives (max. 15mm thick).
- .
--jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
Leave a comment