Micah's Malwr Club
19 - Intel i226/i225 Firmware Update
This note is a little disjointed at the moment - but it has most of the info needed to go about updating your firmware drivers for the Intel i226/i225. These two controllers are widely known on the OPNSense forums to cause problems and I encourage reading about further tunables there if you continue to experience issues (see the resources at the bottom).
I will try and clean this post up later - but here it is for now …
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LAN MACs for the CWWK N305 (attempting to update them):
A8B8E007830B
A8B8E007830C
A8B8E007830D
A8B8E007830E
It worked! You can try updating a single NIC by MAC address with the 1MB, if the log shows that it failed you can try again with the 2MB.
In my instance, the 1MB failed but it worked when I tried again with the 2MB!
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Not sure if you are using i226-V NICs or lost your datasheet/specs?
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Run this command to check:
$> sysctl -a | grep -E ‘I226’
[1] igc0: <Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V> mem 0x80e00000-0x80efffff,0x80f00000-0x80f03fff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci2
[1] igc1: <Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V> mem 0x80b00000-0x80bfffff,0x80c00000-0x80c03fff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci3
[1] igc2: <Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V> mem 0x80800000-0x808fffff,0x80900000-0x80903fff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci4
[1] igc3: <Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V> mem 0x80500000-0x805fffff,0x80600000-0x80603fff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci5
dev.igc.3.%desc: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
dev.igc.2.%desc: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
dev.igc.1.%desc: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
dev.igc.0.%desc: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V#####################################################
nvm.cfg
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CURRENT FAMILY: 1.0.0
CONFIG VERSION: 1.20.0
; NIC device
BEGIN DEVICE
DEVICENAME: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
VENDOR: 8086
DEVICE: 125C
SUBVENDOR: 8086
SUBDEVICE: 0000
NVM IMAGE: FXVL_125C_V_2MB_2.32.bin ; EDIT - match this if a different version
EEPID: 80000422 ; EDIT - match the version you are updating to
RESET TYPE: REBOOT
REPLACES: 80000284 ; EDIT - match output from the inventory check
END DEVICE#####################################################
nvm.log
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$> ./nvmupdate64e -b -l nvm.log -m A8B8E007830E -f -u -c nvm.cfg
Intel(R) Ethernet NVM Update Tool
NVMUpdate version 1.43.28.0
Copyright(C) 2013 - 2025 Intel Corporation.
./nvmupdate64e -b -l nvm.log -m A8B8E007830E -f -u -c nvm.cfg
Config file read.
Inventory
[00:005:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Alternate MAC address is not set.
Flash inventory started.
Shadow RAM inventory started.
Shadow RAM inventory finished.
Flash inventory finished.
OROM inventory started.
OROM inventory finished.
Update
[00:005:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Creating backup images in directory: A8B8E007830E.
Backup images created.
Flash update started.
NVM verification started.
Shadow RAM verification started.
Shadow RAM verification finished.
Flash verification started.
Flash verification finished.
NVM verification finished.
Flash update successful.
Device update successful.
Update security revisions
[00:005:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Skipping update minimum security revisions.
Update VPD with VPD template
[00:005:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Skipping VPD update with VPD template.
Checking update availability for next tool run.
A reboot is required to complete the update process.#####################################################
output.txt
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You can get more information about your I226-V NICs with the following command:
$> ./nvmupdate64e -i -l output.txt
Intel(R) Ethernet NVM Update Tool
NVMUpdate version 1.43.28.0
Copyright(C) 2013 - 2025 Intel Corporation.
./nvmupdate64e -i -l output.txt
Config file will not be read.
Inventory
[00:001:00:00]: Intel(R) 82599 10 Gigabit Dual Port Network Connection
EEPROM inventory started.
EEPROM inventory finished.
[00:001:00:01]: Intel(R) 82599 10 Gigabit Dual Port Network Connection
Device already inventoried.
[00:002:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Alternate MAC address is not set.
Flash inventory started.
Shadow RAM inventory started.
Shadow RAM inventory finished.
Flash inventory finished.
OROM inventory started.
OROM inventory finished.
[00:003:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Alternate MAC address is not set.
Flash inventory started.
Shadow RAM inventory started.
Shadow RAM inventory finished.
Flash inventory finished.
OROM inventory started.
OROM inventory finished.
[00:004:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Alternate MAC address is not set.
Flash inventory started.
Shadow RAM inventory started.
Shadow RAM inventory finished.
Flash inventory finished.
OROM inventory started.
OROM inventory finished.
[00:005:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Alternate MAC address is not set.
Flash inventory started.
Shadow RAM inventory started.
Shadow RAM inventory finished.
Flash inventory finished.
OROM inventory started.
OROM inventory finished.
[00:001:00:00]: Intel(R) 82599 10 Gigabit Dual Port Network Connection
Vendor : 8086
Device : 10FB
Subvendor : FFFF
Subdevice : FFFF
Revision : 1
LAN MAC : A8B8E007893F
Alt MAC : A8B8E007893F
SAN MAC : FFFFFFFFFFFF
ETrackId : 800003DE
SerialNumber : A8B8E0FFFF07893F
EEPROM Version : 64.34(40.22)
PBA : N/A
VPD status : Not set
VPD size : 0
EEPROM update : No config file entry
checksum : Valid
[00:001:00:01]: Intel(R) 82599 10 Gigabit Dual Port Network Connection
Vendor : 8086
Device : 10FB
Subvendor : FFFF
Subdevice : FFFF
Revision : 1
LAN MAC : A8B8E0078940
Alt MAC : A8B8E0078940
SAN MAC : FFFFFFFFFFFF
ETrackId : 800003DE
SerialNumber : A8B8E0FFFF07893F
EEPROM Version : 64.34(40.22)
PBA : N/A
VPD status : Not set
VPD size : 0
EEPROM update : No config file entry
checksum : Valid
[00:002:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Vendor : 8086
Device : 125C
Subvendor : 8086
Subdevice : 0000
Revision : 4
LAN MAC : A8B8E007830B
Alt MAC : 000000000000
SAN MAC : 000000000000
ETrackId : 80000284
SerialNumber : A8B8E0FFFF07830B
NVM Version : 2.19(2.13)
PBA : G23456-000
VPD status : Not set
VPD size : 0
NVM update : No config file entry
checksum : Valid
OROM update : No config file entry
CIVD : 0.0.0
EFI : 0.1.1, checksum None
[00:003:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Vendor : 8086
Device : 125C
Subvendor : 8086
Subdevice : 0000
Revision : 4
LAN MAC : A8B8E007830C
Alt MAC : 000000000000
SAN MAC : 000000000000
ETrackId : 80000284
SerialNumber : A8B8E0FFFF07830C
NVM Version : 2.19(2.13)
PBA : G23456-000
VPD status : Not set
VPD size : 0
NVM update : No config file entry
checksum : Valid
OROM update : No config file entry
CIVD : 0.0.0
EFI : 0.1.1, checksum None
[00:004:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Vendor : 8086
Device : 125C
Subvendor : 8086
Subdevice : 0000
Revision : 4
LAN MAC : A8B8E007830D
Alt MAC : 000000000000
SAN MAC : 000000000000
ETrackId : 80000284
SerialNumber : A8B8E0FFFF07830D
NVM Version : 2.19(2.13)
PBA : G23456-000
VPD status : Not set
VPD size : 0
NVM update : No config file entry
checksum : Valid
OROM update : No config file entry
CIVD : 0.0.0
EFI : 0.1.1, checksum None
[00:005:00:00]: Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-V
Vendor : 8086
Device : 125C
Subvendor : 8086
Subdevice : 0000
Revision : 4
LAN MAC : A8B8E007830E
Alt MAC : 000000000000
SAN MAC : 000000000000
ETrackId : 80000284
SerialNumber : A8B8E0FFFF07830E
NVM Version : 2.19(2.13)
PBA : G23456-000
VPD status : Not set
VPD size : 0
NVM update : No config file entry
checksum : Valid
OROM update : No config file entry
CIVD : 0.0.0
EFI : 0.1.1, checksum None
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Enable intel microcode updates:
https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/cpu-microcode.html
The forum page where everyone tracked and documented the process:
https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=48695.30
The github repo with the driver updates by model and size:
https://github.com/BillyCurtis/Intel-i226-V-NVM-Firmware?tab=readme-ov-file#readme
The how-to guide for the updater:
http://tmei-net.com/technology-sharing/how-do-use-intel-ethernet-nvm-update-tool.html
The update tool download: