Package realtek-re-kmod198 for pfSense 2.8.0 (amd64)

zeroepoch

That's right. There is no /boot/modules/if_re.ko without either of these packages being installed. It wouldn't print this message if you didn't have the driver I provided loaded, so indeed you're using the same driver as me.

zeroepoch

@stephenw10 any chance we can get realtek-re-kmod198 to be part of the official pfSense repo? FreeBSD made the decision to package these two versions separately because both 1.98 and 1.100 both have different bugs but each work best for different NICs.

stephenw10

I'll see what I can do.

Seeking Sense

@zeroepoch Thanks for the information and more importantly the warning.

Was contemplating upgrading my local instance of pfSense this weekend. I am using a dual port 2.5gb Realtek Nic and remembered that I had installed the realtek-re-kmod198-198.00.1400094 driver.

Thankfully I came across your post when searching the forum looking for information regarding an updated driver for pfSense 2.8

If you don't mind can you clarify the build process.

You list steps 1-11 but was wondering if step 1 is to create a FreeBSD 15 VM and then do all the within that VM.

Also in step 1 you say you installed some packages mentioned at https://github.com/nkbali/pfSense-Build. What packages?

Thank you for your efforts and your support of the community.

zeroepoch

@Seeking-Sense

Yes, this was all done in a FreeBSD 15 VM using VirtualBox. I had to change the default network card to VirtIO I believe since the performance with the other NICs was like dial-up modem speeds. I also had to install pkg manually using pkg-static since the auto installer when running pkg didn't work and just hung. I don't remember if I tried installing pkg before or after I fixed the slow network issue.

I just installed all the packages mentioned throughout the page since I wasn't trying to optimize size since I intended to throw away the VM when I was done.

Finding a working commit for the kernel was one of the main challenges. I looked for a commit right before a merge from main that was still 1500029.

rob_denver

thank you so much for this! I have been struggling with getting IPV6 working on my virtualized pfsense within Proxmox so I can have more reliable connections for tailscale. I could only get it to work by using PCI passthrough (vs using a bridge) but that of course required me to directly expose my Realtek ethernet controller which led to many lockups and crashes when IPV6 was enabled. I just installed this and -hopefully- this will give me a stable connection.

Seeking Sense

@zeroepoch Finding bits of time here and there to work on this.

I have FreeBSD 15 Current up and running, cloned and built pfSense src & ports.

My NOOB question relates to the following:

@zeroepoch said in Package realtek-re-kmod198 for pfSense 2.8.0 (amd64):

In FreeBSD-src checkout a new local branch using the commit c665fe00146 (for 2.8.0)

What does that mean? How? ( Looks away and hides in embarrassment.)

What I am asking as a NOOB is how do I get to the correct version so that I can make the correct driver.

Running make as is without selecting the correct branch produces:

realtek-re-kmod198-198.00.1500046

Furthermore when running MAKE in realtek-re-kmod198 I get the following warning:

pkg-static: Warning: Major OS version upgrade detected.  Running "pkg bootstrap -f" recommended

zeroepoch

@Seeking-Sense

I meant use a command like git checkout -b tmp c665fe00146 to create a local git branch named tmp for the commit c665fe00146, which I found best represents the 2.8.0 kernel source that I could infer. This was so my local checkout was at the right source. You don't technically need to name the branch but it made it easier for me to compare things with other commits. Sorry for the confusing directions.

Seeking Sense

@zeroepoch said in Package realtek-re-kmod198 for pfSense 2.8.0 (amd64):

Sorry for the confusing directions.

I'm sure they are not confusing for the non-NOOB. It great that you have provided the information and I am grateful for your effort and time.

Please check out my last comment as I made some edits.

Seeking Sense

@zeroepoch Thanks I think I have it worked out.

I have the following in work/pkg:

102K Jun 13 11:43 realtek-re-kmod198-198.00.1500029.pkg

I had skipped your step 10:

"To get the correct __FreeBSD_version I had to temporarily replace /usr/include/sys/param.h with FreeBSD-src/sys/sys/param.h"

zeroepoch

@Seeking-Sense Awesome! Glad to hear someone was able to reproduce my quickly written steps I did late at night

scoobay

@zeroepoch Thank you. That worked like a charm on a 2.5 GBE Realtek adapter. I had to modify the install command as the affected interface was the WAN-side, so I had no internet connection:

pkg install --no-repo-update ./realtek-re-kmod198-198.00.150029.pkg

Hope that Netgate will include this driver in future releases as it is a pain to get this running on a dedicated server at Hetzner.com when the have a 2.5 GBE as a default LAN adapter.