Updated Realtek NIC drivers missing in PfSense 2.6.0

RK0

I learned the hard way on this one...first, if you are running 2.6CE, you ONLY want to use the 197 driver.

First, if you intend to upgrade to 23.01RC, you had better be on ver 197, as 197 (as @stephenw10 has told us) is the built in driver for 23.01RC. It aids in making the upgrade path a tad easier.

I did have problems with a 2.6CE to 23.01RC upgrade...first, having to go to 22.01, then having to modify a /usr/local/share/pfSense/pkg/repos/pfSense-repo.conf file as the system would throw an "Unable to check for updates" error. Then I made the error of thinking the 198 package MUST be better than the 197 package, right? (wrong!).

So, as usual, best to follow @stephenw10 's advice, stick with the 197 package. I ended up having to go back to 2.6CE with the 197 driver just to claw my way back to a stable router.

I'm going to try out 23.01RC again...but not during the work week.

stephenw10

Technically the 1.98 kmod pkg has some additional fixes that are not in either the 1.97 or 1.98 driver directly. So it could be 'better'. But until we resync the tree with upstream again and pull that in it will be much easier to use 1.97. And 1.97 covers all hardware you're likely to find AFAIK.

Steve

JimBob Indiana

@stephenw10

Its okay if not but is there some notification when 1.98 could be an option?

Or is it up to us, again that's fine, to periodically check for package update?

stephenw10

There's nothing in pfSense that would alert you to that. You could write a script to do it.

Unless there is some proven significant advantage to 1.98 it's unlikely we would update it in the 23.01 repo. It will be pulled into 2.7 and 23.05 when we next upstream sync though.

Steve

JimBob Indiana

@stephenw10 Manual it is....

chris-net

@stephenw10 I just did a new install of 23.01, running in VMware on my beelink with 2 x Realtek 8125 2.5gb onboard pci ports.

I installed Realtek 197 driver and the cards with

pkg install net/realtek-re-kmod

and added the detail to in /boot/loader.conf as per the instructions above & rebooted.

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

I'm using 1 Realtek port as a wan port the other is empty for the moment.
after 20 mins the Realtek port dies. toggling the interface in GUI or rebooting restores connectivity but it soon dies.

I've tried loading 198 but there is that kernel incompatibility error.

any suggestions for running Realtek pic interfaces pin pfsense plus 23.01?

stephenw10

Check the boot log to make sure the driver is loading. It will show the version as each Realtek device attaches.

richalgeni

I hate to say this, but the way I got my PFsense router to work is to replace the Realtek NICs with Intel. Since then, I honestly haven't had an issue.

DominikHoffmann

@richalgeni: I have a two-NIC NUC with built-in Realtek NICs. I would love for it to actually work as a pfSense box for the first time since purchasing it in 2017. When buying it, I had no idea that the brand of NIC was something to look out for.

chris-net

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

I hate to say this, but the way I got my PFsense router to work is to replace the Realtek NICs with Intel. Since then, I honestly haven't had an issue.

this thing is like a NUC, its small, no room for additional network cards.

That said I have got 2 1gb usb nics that I'm currently using but would like to use the onboard 2.5gb nics to connect to my 1gb internet.

I'm close....

chris-net

@stephenw10

I did see the 8125's listed under re0 / re1 in the logs and saw 1.97 listed under pci output.

the pci nics didn't work until I installed the driver.

I no longer have the screen images.

stephenw10

If they were throwing any sort of errors when they stopped we could look at it.

Otherwise you could try a 2.7 snapshot which has the 1.98 driver. Not much has changed there though.

Tassis

@stephenw10 Hi

I cant update the drivers, with fetch it said error 404 not found and with pkg add does not do anything

can u help me???

my best regards!

stephenw10

Which pfSense version are you trying to add it to?

JimBob Indiana

@tassis

There's no "fetch" required. This is all you need to run:

pkg install realtek-re-kmod

Tassis

@stephenw10 for pfsense 2.6.0 but it is a wireless card, yesterday I run the command from pfsense shell and download the drivers.

Tassis

@jimbob-indiana thanks Jim I run the command from the shell inside pfsense and works, but the driver does not work for a wireless card.

stephenw10

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

for pfsense 2.6.0 but it is a wireless card

The Realtek re(4) driver is not for wireless NICs. You should open a new thread in the Wireless sub.

skogs

I think we really need to add the realtek-re-kmod install to the 'patches' thing.
Just make it a single click. Load the driver, set the loader.conf.local ... could be so nice.

rflx1990

Hi,

I'm pretty novice as well and have been trying to install pfSense on my pc (Jetway mini-ITX).
First I found out my CPU was having difficult times installing pfSense 2.6, so tried it first with 2.3.4 which was supported. Worked out fine, speed was also good. This weekend tried to install 2.6 via subroute which also worked out, but it seemed my speed went down by 50-70%.

My NIC is a Realtek 8111. Also installed Realtek-re-kmod 197. Performance went up a little bit, but still 50% off. Now by coincidence, I had to start pfSense in safe mode. Whats seems... problems solved. Speed is the same as my ISP.

Would I notice anything in functionality using safe mode in this case?
Does anyone have experience with this behaviour?

Thanks!