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    Updated Realtek NIC drivers missing in PfSense 2.6.0

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    • A
      astronomik
      last edited by

      This drivers kills Wireguard performance. After entering those two lines:

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

      and validating that the driver was loaded my Wireguard speed decreases to 210 Mbps from 400 Mbps which is my ISP speed. When I remove those two lines and reboot the speed goes back to normal which is 400 Mbps. Open VPN appears to be unaffected at 400 Mbps.

      This is lab test while directly connected to router.

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      • T
        tomv @stephenw10
        last edited by tomv

        @stephenw10 said in Updated Realtek NIC drivers missing in PfSense 2.6.0:

        https://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/latest/All/realtek-re-kmod-196.04.pkg

        I can't retrieve this file but I did find a newer version.

        Has anyone tested this?

        https://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/latest/All/realtek-re-kmod-197.00.pkg

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          Not as far as I know. It's probably fine though.

          Use quarterly if you still want 196.04:
          https://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/quarterly/All/realtek-re-kmod-196.04.pkg

          Steve

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          • R
            richalgeni
            last edited by

            My experience with the Realtek Nics was not a good in regards to pfSense. I have 3 Realtek cards, 1-4 port, and 2-2 ports. While the driver reference above did allow pfSense to see the cards, that was about all it could do. Once I activated the interfaces, pfSense would hang hard. It might take a minute or two, but nothing would get pfSense to work. Even cold boots. This was not in virtual machines, but bare metal installs. I changed the cards out, same thing. I took the I350 card out of my workstation, and inserted into my pfSense box, and after reloading pfSense from scratch, it worked fine. I put the Realtek cards back in, and sure enough, nothing worked. Before activating the Realtek card, I could run web configuration fine. Once I activated even one interface, after a short period of time, nothing. Not even a ping. The Realtek cards work fine in Windows 10 Professional and Ubuntu 22.04, so I will use them in my client boxes. I purchased an additional I350 4 port card on EBay, and that works perfectly in pfSense.

            R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Hmm, that's odd. Most Realtek NICs, Gigabit, will be recognised and will work but might show connection issues or just stop passing traffic (watchdog timeouts). The newer 2.5G Realteks NICs will not be recognised at all without the alternative driver but mostly work fine with it.

              What chipset did those NICs have?

              Steve

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              • R
                RK0 @richalgeni
                last edited by RK0

                @richalgeni running PfSense 2.6.0 and two integrated Realtek RTL8111K and RTL8111H integrated ethernet adapters with the 196.04 drivers, I've had zero issues. (However, with the default PfSense RTL8111 drivers, there were plenty of issues)

                I did also put in that adjustment to the loader.conf.local file to limit memory, since I don't use jumbo frames on the network at all.

                Also...I found I had to have under System > Advanced > Networking the following settings...at one point I was experimenting with them, and the system did hard lock...so I don't touch them now:
                Hardware Checksum Offloading checked
                Hardware TCP Segmentation Offloading checked
                Hardware Large Receive Offloading checked
                hn ALTQ support unchecked

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                • R
                  richalgeni
                  last edited by

                  It's important to note that these were add-in cards. I will take a picture of them tomorrow, and post them.

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                  • ?
                    A Former User
                    last edited by

                    Here are the Realtek Chipsets that will be supported from the Driver 1.97.00

                    RTL8401-RTL8402
                    RTL8411-RTL8411B
                    RTL8125-RTL8125B(S)(G)
                    RTL8168B-RTL8168E-RTL8168H
                    RTL8111DP-RTL8111EP-RTL8111FP
                    RTL8101E-RTL8102E-RTL8103E-RTL8105E-RTL8106E-RTL8107E
                    RTL8111B-RTL8111C-RTL8111D-RTL8111E-RTL8111F-RTL8111G(S)-RTL8111H(S)-RTL8118(A)(S)-RTL8119i-RTL8111L-RTL8111K
                    
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                    • R
                      richalgeni
                      last edited by

                      https://photos.app.goo.gl/qKUNVuHkkMy8TNQF8
                      https://photos.app.goo.gl/6D8XTLtKi1MVxb6V9
                      https://photos.app.goo.gl/vSBrwxPYjisRqXvn9

                      Here are the three cards I tried. After they didn't work in pfSense, I loaded the 4 port card into a FreeNAS machine. One of the 2 port cards is in a machine in my office, replacing a 100 mb card. The other 2 port card is in my workstation, but is not currently connected to anything.

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        Hmm, well I would have expected those to work. And I certainly wouldn't expect it to hang the firewall. I suspect something else was in play there beyond just the NIC/driver. The multiport cards are far less common, something in the PCIe bridge ICs maybe? Complete speculation!

                        Steve

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                        • R
                          richalgeni
                          last edited by

                          I understand, and agree wholeheartedly! However, I don't have a spare LGA1151 motherboard and CPU for which to try.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • ?
                            A Former User
                            last edited by A Former User

                            @richalgeni said in Updated Realtek NIC drivers missing in PfSense 2.6.0:

                            https://photos.app.goo.gl/qKUNVuHkkMy8TNQF8

                            Is sorted with a RealTek RTL8125BG Chipsets

                            https://photos.app.goo.gl/6D8XTLtKi1MVxb6V9
                            https://photos.app.goo.gl/vSBrwxPYjisRqXvn9

                            Are both sorted with a RealTek RTL8125 Chipset
                            (2 of them on one card)

                            RTL8125-RTL8125B(S)(G)
                            So both cards should be all supported by the driver 1.97.00 for pfSense as shown above.

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                            • T
                              tgdsilva @RK0
                              last edited by

                              @rk0 can you point me to the manual steps you reference in this post to update Realtek drivers? I can't seem to find it. I recently bought a mini pc that as Realtek NICs. I am having the same problem other users are describing. Please point me to the manual steps.

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                              • R
                                RK0 @tgdsilva
                                last edited by

                                @tgdsilva this info I copied and edited from my post at https://forum.netgate.com/topic/166746/realtek-re-kmod-missing-in-pfsense-2-6-repository/29?_=1669636929416

                                I did a total PfSense reload/reformat of my Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n IoT system with version 2.6.0.

                                No errors on any adapters after I updated the Realtek drivers per the procedure below.

                                First, I made sure the BIOS level of the system was at the most current release per the Lenovo support site at pcsupport.lenovo.com. The system BIOS settings were put into pure UEFI mode, CSM enabled, Secure Boot disabled. I also disabled wifi on the M90n (PfSense can't "understand" the built in wifi card, and I have AP's anyway), disabled the serial ports on the unit, and set it to return to last power state if the power goes out. The file system was installed "fresh"...the ZFS file system and PfSense version 2.6.0, since ZFS will be the default file system going forward.

                                It took the backup XML file restore settings from my 2.5.2 installation with no issues.

                                I used SSH to log in and open a command prompt as admin.

                                I then issued the commands to download the revised Realtek drivers from freebsd

                                fetch -v https://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/latest/All/realtek-re-kmod-197.00.pkg
                                pkg install -f -y realtek-re-kmod-197.00.pkg
                                

                                I then loaded nano...just because it is easier than vi

                                pkg install nano
                                

                                I then created a /boot/loader.conf.local file with the entries

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

                                ...and then rebooted the system

                                Logged back in after the reboot, disabled ssh, and looked for errors....

                                There were none.

                                T D 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  You can just use pkg add dircetly:

                                  pkg add https://pkg.freebsd.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/latest/All/realtek-re-kmod-197.00.pkg
                                  

                                  You can append those lines with echo:

                                  echo 'if_re_load="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf.local
                                  echo 'if_re_name="/boot/modules/if_re.ko"' >> /boot/loader.conf.local
                                  

                                  Check the boot logs for the new driver version.

                                  Steve

                                  T I 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                  • T
                                    tgdsilva @RK0
                                    last edited by

                                    @rk0 Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I was able to follow and install the new drivers!

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                                    • T
                                      tgdsilva @stephenw10
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10 Thank you very much for these instructions. They make it very quick and easy!

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                                      • I
                                        ITWorxNZ @stephenw10
                                        last edited by ITWorxNZ

                                        @stephenw10 Thanks for the details, I also followed the instructions and the install worked with our PFSense box.

                                        However, the newer driver borked the re0: WAN pppoe0 interface, which according to the kernel logs is a RealTek 8169/8169S/8169SB(L)/8110S/8110SB(L) Gigabit Ethernet add-in card. The connection came up, but it didn't stay up.

                                        The re1: LAN interface (RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F/G PCIe Gigabit Ethernet) built-in port seemed to still work fine.

                                        As soon as I went back to the native FreeBSD driver, all was well again. Might there be a problem with different Realtek controllers on the same PFSense install? Would trying a slightly older version of the driver be any value?

                                        Edit: Just saw above that the 8169 chipset is not supported by the 197 driver. Well, ain't that just grand...

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          Hmm, well it must support it to some extent since it did attach and come up initially.

                                          At least it's an add-in card so you can replace it.

                                          Steve

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                                          • I
                                            ITWorxNZ @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10 True. But that entire box is meant to be a temporary replacement, until we can find another small low-power PC to take over running PFSense. Are Intel controllers preferable to Realtek ones, or is that no longer an issue?

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