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    24.03 and Realtek NICs

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    18 Posts 3 Posters 1.3k Views
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    • patient0P
      patient0 @monstafish
      last edited by

      @monstafish what is the device you're running pfSense on and what RealTek NIC is used in it?

      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • M
        monstafish @patient0
        last edited by

        @patient0 Hi, its a Zimboard

        Details of NICs as follows:

        re0@pci0:2:0:0: class=0x020000 rev=0x15 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x10ec device=0x8168 subvendor=0x10ec subdevice=0x0123
            vendor     = 'Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.'
            device     = 'RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller'
            class      = network
            subclass   = ethernet
        re1@pci0:3:0:0: class=0x020000 rev=0x15 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x10ec device=0x8168 subvendor=0x10ec subdevice=0x0123
            vendor     = 'Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.'
            device     = 'RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller'
            class      = network
            subclass   = ethernet
        
        patient0P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • patient0P
          patient0 @monstafish
          last edited by

          @monstafish There seem to be a few unhappy user of Realtek NIC out there. See FreeBSD forum.

          It is suggested that it may is related to https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=275882.

          The proposed solution is to install version 198 of the realtek driver (net/realtek-re-kmod198).

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          • M
            monstafish @patient0
            last edited by

            @patient0 Bummer - not ideal!

            Stupid question, but how would I go about reverting to the the 198 version?

            Thanks

            patient0P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • patient0P
              patient0 @monstafish
              last edited by

              @monstafish since quite a few people seem to run into it the maintainer created an extra package until the issue is resolved:

              https://www.freshports.org/net/realtek-re-kmod198/

              I'm not sure if it is available on pfSense+ (my SG-1100 is in the lab but I'm not), it's available on FreeBSD 15.

              Running pkg search realtek on FreeBSD 15 show:

              # pkg search realtek
              realtek-re-kmod-199.00_1 ...
              realtek-re-kmod198-198.00 ...
              
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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                There is only one version the realtek kmod pkg in out repo and that's the one you should use.

                You need those loader variables to actually load the module at boot. If it is loaded you will see the driver version reported in the boot log like:

                re0: <Realtek PCIe GbE Family Controller> port 0x1000-0x10ff mem 0xf7900000-0xf7900fff,0xf7800000-0xf7803fff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1
                re0: Using Memory Mapping!
                re0: Using 1 MSI-X message
                re0: ASPM disabled
                re0: version:1.99.04
                re0: Ethernet address: 00:0d:b9:37:30:10
                

                Steve

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  Though I have not tested it with an RTL8125 based card. Is that what you're using?

                  M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • patient0P
                    patient0 @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10

                    There is only one version the realtek kmod pkg in out repo and that's the one you should use.

                    The Realtek kmod198 is in the pfSense repo (https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-ports/tree/devel/net/realtek-re-kmod198) but that doesn't mean it's available in pfSense+ then?

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      If you compile it for the pfSense kernel it will work but that's.... non-trivial! You can't just install the FreeBSD port, the module won't load.

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                      • M
                        monstafish @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10

                        This is what gets reported from the console:

                        re0@pci0:2:0:0: class=0x020000 rev=0x15 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x10ec device=0x8168 subvendor=0x10ec subdevice=0x0123
                            vendor     = 'Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.'
                            device     = 'RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller'
                            class      = network
                            subclass   = ethernet
                        

                        Searching for the drivers, this is what I can see:

                        [24.03-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.home.arpa]/root: pkg version | grep realtek
                        realtek-re-kmod-199.00_1           =
                        

                        Whats the best way to revert to the appropriate driver as the 199 driver seems to be buggy!

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          If you have removed the two loader values and rebooted it will not be loading the kmod driver.

                          If it is loaded it will show in the boot log:

                          [24.03-RELEASE][admin@apu.stevew.lan]/root: grep version:1 /var/log/dmesg.boot
                          re0: version:1.99.04
                          re1: version:1.99.04
                          re2: version:1.99.04
                          
                          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • M
                            monstafish @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10 Thanks - I remove the loader values because I could not get my WAN connection up and no devices on my LAN were getting a DHCP address.

                            Commenting out the loader values and rebooting was the only way I could get a connection but now my firewall seems to lock up when under load (server backups to cloud).

                            Thanks

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                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Hmm, but not using 2.5G NICs for either interface?

                              Your output above shows the same NICs I have in this APU with the driver loaded:

                              [24.03-RELEASE][admin@apu.stevew.lan]/root: pciconf -lv re0
                              re0@pci0:1:0:0:	class=0x020000 rev=0x06 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x10ec device=0x8168 subvendor=0x10ec subdevice=0x0123
                                  vendor     = 'Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.'
                                  device     = 'RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller'
                                  class      = network
                                  subclass   = ethernet
                              
                              M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • M
                                monstafish @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10 Nope, just 1Gbe NICs connected to a 1GB internet link.

                                Happy to re-enable and share any logs if you let me know what type of logs you’re looking for?

                                Cheers

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  Yes I would try it. First check the boot logs where is shows the output from the driver when it attaches (or fails to).

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