realtek-re-kmod missing in pfSense 2.6 repository?

[RK0]

A system administrator posted info that the driver as part of 2.6.0 is more recent, but not AS recent as one Realtek made available to freebsd...as I asked a similar question (and referenced the information supplied by @w0w, thank you very much for the link!)

Based on the information below, when you use the updated drivers directly from freebsd.org, please let everyone know if you find they work well here on the forum.

From the post at https://forum.netgate.com/topic/169896/updated-realtek-nic-drivers-missing-in-pfsense-2-6-0/4?lang=en-US

@stephenw10 NETGATE ADMINISTRATOR
*The in kernel drivers in 2.6 are updated compared to the in kernel drivers in 2.5.2, they now support more devices.
Those are the FreeBSD drivers not Realtek's own driver which was relatively recently made available as a kmod pkg. That is not currently in the 2.6 repo because of build issues we hit.

You can still import the module from FreeBSD directly as referenced though I have not personally tested that in 2.6.

Steve*

(also, thank you Steve for clarifying this info)

[Gerard64]

@w0w I installed the driver in pfSense 2.5.2 then i upgrade to pfSense 2.6.0. Sadly the onboard RealTek Interface of the HP T730 is still not stable. Every several minutes i lose connection. In pfsense 2.5.2 it has no problems.

[w0w]

@gerard64
Do you have those lines in your loader.conf file?

if_re_load="YES"
if_re_name="/boot/modules/if_re.ko"

[Gerard64]

@w0w Yes i have.

[w0w]

@gerard64
Does kldstat command show module loaded?
Also my settings are tuned

[Gerard64]

@w0w yes it is in the list.
Also the 4 hardware offloading options are checked like you have.

[RK0]

@Gerard64 retest with "Enable the ALTQ support for hn NICs" Unchecked. For Network Interfaces, I've found these settings to be the most stable with the recent drivers.

However, I'm still on 2.5.2 but with the new drivers per @w0w on a Lenovo M90n, dual NIC system. Both are Realtek RTL8111K + RTL8111H. ALL traffic effectively goes through those two adapters, one WAN, one LAN with VLANs.

This weekend, I'll reformat the whole system and install 2.6.0 with zfs and the new drivers...and I'll let you know if it works.

[Gerard64]

@rk0 Thank you.
I unchecked "hn ALTQ support" sadly that changed nothing still unstable WAN.

I use a HP T730 system with a onboard RealTek nic as WAN. I added a broadcom quad port nic and configured a LAG on bge0 & bge1 with vlan trunk on top of that to my switch. Works really well or well till now this RealTek problem turned up.

I probably return to 2.5.2 tomorrow wen i wake up.

[RK0]

@gerard64 Out of curiosity, what is your CPU and memory utilization (roughly) when the worst of the packet loss occured? I'm just wondering how "stressed" the firewall was when you started to have issues....(probably unrelated, but wondering)

[Gerard64]

@rk0 The local side of my pfSense with 7 vlans over a 2 port LAG works very well, full 1gbit speed, no stuttering ever.

The CPU is normally, with 2.5.2, never higher then ~ 5% or so. Now with 2.6.0 CPU usage is higher sometimes as high as 45%. The RealTek is stuttering constantly very bad ping times.

It is a AMD RX-427BB CPU 4 cores 2.7ghz - 3.6ghz turbo with 8 GB ram memory. And a 32Gb SSD.

[skogs]

Curious. I did a 2.5.2 > 2.6.xRC > 2.6.0 > 22.01 and never lost my loader.conf.local file nor the modules themselves. kldstat confirms loaded. Several high bandwidth tests completed with no dropouts over several weeks (well on the RCs anyway).

Everything seems stable enough to me. Much better than a while back before the if_re.ko was made an easy install.

[w0w]

@gerard64
Do you mean you have all three first options checked already?

[w0w]

I have four realtek NICs, two embedded and two external

re3@pci0:6:0:0:	class=0x020000 card=0x012310ec chip=0x816810ec rev=0x0c hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.'
    device     = 'RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet
    bar   [10] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xb000, size 256, enabled
    bar   [18] = type Memory, range 64, base 0x81200000, size 4096, enabled
    bar   [20] = type Prefetchable Memory, range 64, base 0xa0000000, size 16384, enabled
    cap 01[40] = powerspec 3  supports D0 D1 D2 D3  current D0
    cap 05[50] = MSI supports 1 message, 64 bit
    cap 10[70] = PCI-Express 2 endpoint MSI 1 max data 128(128) RO
                 max read 4096
                 link x1(x1) speed 2.5(2.5) ASPM disabled(L0s/L1) ClockPM disabled
    cap 11[b0] = MSI-X supports 4 messages, enabled
                 Table in map 0x20[0x0], PBA in map 0x20[0x800]
    cap 03[d0] = VPD
    ecap 0001[100] = AER 1 0 fatal 0 non-fatal 0 corrected
    ecap 0002[140] = VC 1 max VC0
    ecap 0003[160] = Serial 1 01000000684ce000
    ecap 0018[170] = LTR 1

Currently I see no problem. I must check, did I tune anything else...

[Gerard64]

@w0w All four were already checked in 2.5.2 so yes.
I unchecked the 4th for a short while to test but that didn't change anything so i am back to all four checked again.

I upgraded twice to 2.6.0 to test all the above without success. At the moment i am back to 2.5.2 and the RealTek works 100% again.

If somebody has another idea i will try again to upgrade to 2.6.0 and test the RealTek.

[w0w]

@gerard64
The driver you are using in 2.5.2 is the same?

[Gerard64]

@w0w At the moment i have on 2.5.2 the driver installed as you advised for 2.6.0 which works. Without the installed RealTek driver the RealTek NIC works also. So in 2.5.2 it makes no difference with or without.

I don't know if the default RealTek driver of 2.5.2 is the same. I don't know how to check it. With what command?

I have little knowledge of Freebsd. I know some Linux CLI commands. In Freebsd some commands are different.

In 2.6.0 with or without the driver from your tip the RealTek NIC is very unstable.

[w0w]

@gerard64
I think there is no need to check the driver version, if you have it installed and module is loaded... it works. The question remains what has changed.
IDK...
This is last thing I can offer to try in 2.6. Just copy-paste into loader.conf

hw.re.msi_disable=1
hw.re.msix_disable=1
hw.re.eee_enable=0
hw.re.phy_power_saving=0
hw.re.phy_mdix_mode=0

[Gerard64]

@w0w Thank you!
I'l try this soon. "I am afraid my famlily is going to kill me" if i do it right now

[RK0]

@gerard64, one of @w0w 's post prompted a thought (the commands he pasted, some have to do with power)...

What are the power settings you have in System > Advanced> Miscellaneous? With the high CPU utilization, you may want to play with it a bit. How does the system CPU respond if Enable PowerD is checked, and all choices are set to Hiadaptive? (assuming it is not set that way already....)

Also, I would still use the package install command(s) @w0w recommended, even if you stay on 2.5.2 for a while...it does seem to be nicely stable, and "better" than the "built in" drivers.

[Jon8RFC]

Thank you for the updated instructions for the installation package.

This resolved my issue in 2.6.0 since I forgot to do it.

It reminded me to look at my "pfsense upgrade notes" text file, which had the drivers mentioned among other things I forgot to configure for my slow n3450 zotac with realtek nics.