Hello! I am probably going about this entirely wrong, but I am attempting to set up a custom router on bare metal for my apartment. I am fairly certain the system I have selected can handle it (Intel i5 8500, 2x4gb ddr4) but have run into a bit of trouble with one of my NICs. Before I attempted to install OPNsense on the machine, I had tested the NICs for basic functionality in FreeBSD 14.3 and they all were working. Once I installed OPNsense though, my Marvel FastLinq QL41164hfrj would not show up in the interfaces section of the webui. Attempting to force load the driver resulted in an instant kernel panic, and I regrettably was not able to find any solutions online. I would love to be able to use this NIC in this system, but I do not think that OPNsense will work as a solution. Do any of you have experience with any of the Linux based firewall OSes? I would love to give one of those a shot so that I can salvage this NIC (4x10gbe ports using one pcie slot is just so handy).
My current network uses an Asus RT-BE92U as its "head". I wanted to try out Wi-Fi 7 and this model had alot of features for the money. I use its 10gbe port to connect to an Ubiquiti 24 Port PoE switch using an SFP+ to RJ45 transceiver that I snagged for free from an office closing down. I then use the Ubiquiti's other SFP+ port with another RJ45 transceiver to connect to my repurposed Datto server so that I can have a 10 gig link between my server all the way to my router. I plan on having 4x10gbe ports on my custom router so that I can still connect the Ubiquiti switch at 10 gig, use my Asus router as a 2.5gbe Switch/Access Point, and have my server connected to the router as well. I admittedly do not really need full 10 gigabit for my local network, but I would rather not bottleneck anything if I can avoid it.
As I said at the beginning, I am probably going about this completely wrong and causing more headaches for myself then I need to. I have already ordered 2x Intel X540-T2 10gbe NICs that will work in OPNsense, but if I could use the one Marvell Fastlinq and save myself a pcie slot for additional expansion I would greatly prefer that. Maybe throw one of the spare X540s in my main desktop for fun. So if anyone has any experience with Linux based Firewalls feel free to chime in!