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    Yea yea I know, RealTek isn't reliable on PFSense..

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • G
      gbitglenn
      last edited by gbitglenn

      Just curious if the reason why RealTek cards are officially considered to be "unreliable" on PFSense is because no one is compiling and including proper driver support into PFSense?

      Seems the "simple" fixes when there are problems with RE cards flapping is to just download and install the latest driver package from FreeBSD into your PFSense.

      Which begs the question: Would this even be an issue if PFSense just updated the RE drivers and supported them?

      This isn't intended as a criticism - just asking. Seems it would solve the issues to just support them?

      RealTek is FAR more available than Intel cards at the moment. And seems most OEM hardware/motherboards use RealTek chipsets. So why not just build the drivers in and include updates when you update PFSense? And add the /boot/loader.conf lines?

      Dobby_D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Dobby_D
        Dobby_ @gbitglenn
        last edited by

        @gbitglenn said in Yea yea I know, RealTek isn't reliable on PFSense..:

        Just curious if the reason why RealTek cards are officially considered to be "unreliable" on PFSense is

        It all depends also on the support from the company
        that is producing that card and how open they are to the open source community, or how much they are willing
        that others write drivers for their devices.

        because no one is compiling and including proper driver > support into PFSense?

        Writing code for a driver may be one of the most difficult things as I am informed. And it also depends on how much
        reverse engineering must be done on top of all.

        Seems the "simple" fixes when there are problems
        with RE cards flapping is to just download and install
        the latest driver package from FreeBSD into your
        PFSense.

        Not all devices (hardware) are offering the same functions
        and comes sorted with the same options, so the driver will also be able to use what is given by the hardware first.

        Which begs the question: Would this even be an
        issue if PFSense just updated the RE drivers and
        supported them?

        If the code is from RE this might be not so easy as you think and if the drivers are from the FreeBSD team it
        might be also not so easy to write them even all new.

        And with a point of view there are many other things
        like open tickets, failures or misfunctions or plain other
        "more" interesting drivers such as WiFi ones that will be
        more getting priority from the FreeBSD or pfSense team.

        This isn't intended as a criticism - just asking. Seems it
        would solve the issues to just support them?

        They are supported well as I am informed and the 1.97.00
        pkg is supporting also new cards.

        RealTek is FAR more available than Intel cards at
        the moment.

        If Intel is offering more details to the open source
        community and RE is not really interested in to do so,
        it is not really important how much devices are sorted
        with their eth ports.

        And seems most OEM hardware/motherboards use
        RealTek chipsets. So why not just build the drivers in
        and include updates when you update PFSense?

        pfSense is using as a underlying basis FreeBSD and
        and they are jumping from version 12.3 to 14.0 and
        on top of all they jump also on PHP 8.1, that is hard
        and much work for them, but for us all they do it.

        And add the /boot/loader.conf lines?

        Add there lines may be only nice if you get problems
        or you has to adjust your hardware matching to your
        needs and software usage.

        Feel free to have a look on that list what all is to do
        on top of changing to FreeBSD 14.0 and PHP 8.1
        pfSense roadmap

        #~. @Dobby

        Turris Omnia - 4 Ports - 2 GB RAM / TurrisOS 7 Release (Btrfs)
        PC Engines APU4D4 - 4 Ports - 4 GB RAM / pfSense CE 2.7.2 Release (ZFS)
        PC Engines APU6B4 - 4 Ports - 4 GB RAM / pfSense+ (Plus) 24.03_1 Release (ZFS)

        G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • G
          gbitglenn @Dobby_
          last edited by

          @dobby_ said in Yea yea I know, RealTek isn't reliable on PFSense..:

          It all depends also on the support from the company
          that is producing that card and how open they are to the open source community, or how much they are willing
          that others write drivers for their devices.

          RealTek has drivers for FreeBSD - that are updated - here: https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zoo/category/network-interface-controllers-10-100-1000m-gigabit-ethernet-pci-express-software

          So they are available for compiling and inclusion into FreeBSD and therefore should be part of PFSense updates, no?

          NB: OPNSense provides updated drivers. There is also a plug-in that you can install for RealTek support.

          To solve my problem I downloaded the RealTek kernel module from OPNSense and installed it. I mean, if they can do it.. ?

          https://pkg.opnsense.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/snapshots/latest/All/realtek-re-kmod-196.04.txz ; pkg install -f -y realtek-re-kmod-196.04.txz

          Maybe the answer is for the vast number of RealTek cards out there and the people using them, to just use OPNSense.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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