Sorry guys, but the new kernel module RTL8153 is unstable.
I own a Thinkpad USB adaptor and used it for months/years with the usual usbconfig & set_config line earlyshellcmd in config.xml. It was rocket stable to load standard ure driver and working several months without reboot (90 days before the latest upgrade!).
However, since upgrading to 2.5.2 the new kernel module, the network adaptor stops working after for 1 or 2 days. Link indicators are still blinking on the adaptor, but interface is down in the interface status page and console shoes no IP adress. The funny point is that existing TCP (VPN for example) connections are still working! If I unplug/plug RJ45 or USB, it doesn’t change anything and pfSense cannot reassign an DHCP IP adress.
After a reboot, network is back up and working fine... but stops working again after a few days without any reason. Honestly, I would really hope for the driver to be removed so that I can use again ure module manually without any issue.