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    Realtek 8111G Support

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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      The most recent re(4) source doesn't appear to support this yet:

      { RT_VENDORID, RT_DEVICEID_8168, 0,
      "RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F PCIe Gigabit Ethernet" },
      

      Steve

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      • E
        Ecnerwal
        last edited by

        @tguldener:

        I have a Shuttle DS47 with 2 Realtek 8111G Gigabit Cards. This will not woking in 2.0, and 2.1RC1
        …It will be nice when the pfSense 2.1 will support this Network Modules

        It would be nice if Realtek started making network chips that were not junk. Until then, buying a device that has Intel network chips or a PCIe slot to take an Intel card is going to beat Realtek 7 days a week in any application where the network working counts. Been there, done that, won't go back. Have a pile of ethernet cards, some claiming to be gigabit, that won't run anywhere near their claimed speeds. Don't have a lot of use for them…

        pfSense on i5 3470/DQ77MK/16GB/500GB

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        • M
          marrold
          last edited by

          @Ecnerwal:

          Been there, done that, won't go back. Have a pile of ethernet cards.

          Yup, Im the same. When I was a newbie I read the hate towards Realtek cards and thought they cant be that bad.

          They are that bad. They are junk..

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            A lot of the bad rep Realtek suffers is due to their 10/100 cards which were indeed junk. Their gigabit cards are far better. That's not to say they're particularly good just that you can at least expect them to continue functioning even if not at full line speed.

            Steve

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            • K
              kejianshi
              last edited by

              I've noticed no problems with nvidia and I've never had a problem with a realtek (if they had working drivers - can be big if).

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              • T
                tguldener
                last edited by

                @stephenw10:

                { RT_VENDORID, RT_DEVICEID_8168, 0,
                "RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F PCIe Gigabit Ethernet" },
                

                Steve

                Realtek send me a new driver:

                After consulting with SW Engineers, we have different driver version for inbox drivers and Realtek drivers.
                The Driver on Realtek website is supported  8111G.
                And the message you show on mail that is inbox Driver, have you installed the driver?

                { RT_VENDORID, RT_DEVICEID_8168, 0,
                "RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F PCIe Gigabit Ethernet" },

                But I don't know how to integrate and test this driver on a pfsense installation:

                The main steps you have to do:(FreeBSDSrcDir means the directory of FreeBSD source code
                and it may be "/usr/src/sys")

                1. keep the orginal driver source code:

                cd /usr/src/sys/dev/re

                cp if_re.c if_re.c.org

                cd /usr/src/sys/modules

                cp Makefile Makefile.org

                cd /usr/src/sys/modules/re

                cp Makefile Makefile.org

                cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/

                cp GENERIC GENERIC.org

                2. recompile your kernel (you must install your FreeBSD source code first !!)

                vim /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC and delete re

                vim /usr/src/sys/modules/Makefile and delete re

                cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf

                /usr/sbin/config GENERIC

                (for FreeBSD 5.x/6.x/7.x/8.x/9.x)

                cd ../compile/GENERIC

                (for FreeBSD 4.x)

                cd ../../compile/GENERIC

                make cleandepend

                make depend

                make

                make install

                reboot

                3. update the driver source code:
                    Copy the dirver source code( if_re.c and if_rereg.h) into /usr/src/sys/dev/re
                    Copy the Makefile into /usr/src/sys/modules/re
                   
                4. build the driver:

                cd /usr/src/sys/modules/re

                make clean

                make

                5. install the driver

                cd /usr/src/sys/modules/re

                kldload ./if_re.ko

                I'm just a advanced user and not a developer.

                g.
                Thomas

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  You would have to do that from a full FreeBSD 8.1 install as pfSense doesn't have any build tools or source included.
                  You could try the kernel linked in this thread which has updated Realtek drivers. I don't know if they're new enough though.
                  http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,62032.msg342520.html#msg342520

                  Steve

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                  • X
                    xtra-james1
                    last edited by

                    Are there any other solutions for this problem for basic users like me?  :o

                    Do you see any possibilities to include a working driver directly in the 2.1-RELEASE iso somehow?

                    Or can we use some 2.2-ALPHA which includes the missing driver?

                    Any help / information on this would be great  :)

                    Не знаю, но да

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                    • T
                      tguldener
                      last edited by

                      Bad news - also in the Alpha Release of FreeBSD10 is the 8111G Support missing  :'(

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                      • X
                        xtra-james1
                        last edited by

                        well … then I will use the unit as a Linux server if we can't get working this network adapters in 2013 ... really awesome.

                        I don't understand why this network adapter is so different compared to the RTL8111E.

                        Не знаю, но да

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                        • T
                          tguldener
                          last edited by

                          It looks like that it will work in the next FreeBSD 10 Version:

                          Index: sys/dev/re/if_re.c

                          –- sys/dev/re/if_re.c (revision 255582)
                          +++ sys/dev/re/if_re.c (working copy)
                          @@ -234,6 +234,10 @@
                          { RL_HWREV_8168E_VL, RL_8169, "8168E/8111E-VL", RL_JUMBO_MTU_6K},
                          { RL_HWREV_8168F, RL_8169, "8168F/8111F", RL_JUMBO_MTU_9K},
                          { RL_HWREV_8411, RL_8169, "8411", RL_JUMBO_MTU_9K},

                          • { RL_HWREV_8168_0, RL_8169, "8168G/8111G", RL_JUMBO_MTU_9K},
                          • { RL_HWREV_8168_1, RL_8169, "8168G/8111G", RL_JUMBO_MTU_9K},
                          • { RL_HWREV_8168_2, RL_8169, "8168G/8111G", RL_JUMBO_MTU_9K},
                          • { RL_HWREV_8168_4, RL_8169, "8411", RL_JUMBO_MTU_9K},
                            { 0, 0, NULL, 0 }
                            };

                          @@ -1457,6 +1461,10 @@
                          case RL_HWREV_8168E_VL:
                          case RL_HWREV_8168F:
                          case RL_HWREV_8411:

                          • case RL_HWREV_8168G_0:
                          • case RL_HWREV_8168G_1:
                          • case RL_HWREV_8168G_2:
                          • case RL_HWREV_8168G_4:
                            sc->rl_flags |= RL_FLAG_PHYWAKE | RL_FLAG_PAR |
                                RL_FLAG_DESCV2 | RL_FLAG_MACSTAT | RL_FLAG_CMDSTOP |
                                RL_FLAG_AUTOPAD | RL_FLAG_JUMBOV2 |
                            Index: sys/pci/if_rlreg.h
                            ===================================================================
                            --- sys/pci/if_rlreg.h (revision 255582)
                            +++ sys/pci/if_rlreg.h (working copy)
                            @@ -191,6 +191,10 @@
                            #define RL_HWREV_8402 0x44000000
                            #define RL_HWREV_8168F 0x48000000
                            #define RL_HWREV_8411 0x48800000
                            +#define RL_HWREV_8168G_0 0x4c000000
                            +#define RL_HWREV_8168G_1 0x4c100000
                            +#define RL_HWREV_8168G_2 0x50900000
                            +#define RL_HWREV_8168G_4 0x5c800000
                            #define RL_HWREV_8139 0x60000000
                            #define RL_HWREV_8139A 0x70000000
                            #define RL_HWREV_8139AG 0x70800000
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                          • X
                            xtra-james1
                            last edited by

                            great, at least with FreeBSD 10.

                            they won't merge it to the FreeBSD 8 I suppose?

                            What about a Debian installation with a pfSense installation running in VirtualBox? Beside the performance it may work good enough until we get a better solution..  :D

                            Не знаю, но да

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                            • T
                              tguldener
                              last edited by

                              @kushtrim:

                              they won't merge it to the FreeBSD 8 I suppose?

                              I ask for FreeBSD 8 Support, but I don't think that someone is willing to work again on FreeBSD8. The corrent Version is 9 and the next Version is 10. So soon is FreeBSD 8 not anymore supportet. PFSense is still on FreeBSD 8.3 and the FreeBSD 8.4 is already listet as legacy release. So I hope, that PFSense will push the change to FreeBSD 9 or 10. On FreeBSD 9 or 10 it's possible to get the new drivers directly into the kernel.

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                              • T
                                tguldener
                                last edited by

                                So, the discussion is back on PFSense developers ;-)

                                Hi Thomas,

                                I recommend getting ahold of the pfsense guys with this question.

                                Scott

                                On Sep 15, 2013, at 2:35 AM, wrote:

                                Is it also possible to get a working kernel in FreeBSD 8.3 for PFSense support?

                                g.
                                Thomas

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                                • M
                                  miloman
                                  last edited by

                                  I also have a ds47. Nice little device.

                                  I installed debian/kvm on it. I have a running virtual pfsense on it. Throughput around 110mbit.

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                                  • T
                                    tguldener
                                    last edited by

                                    @miloman:

                                    I also have a ds47. Nice little device.

                                    I installed debian/kvm on it. I have a running virtual pfsense on it. Throughput around 110mbit.

                                    i'd like to have a working version without virtual pfsense  ;)

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      You could attempt to cherry pick the code that added 'G' support and insert it into the 8.3 driver. I imagine it's not a straight forward copy and paste job though. The surrounding code may have changed substantially between 8.3 and 10.

                                      Steve

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                                      • T
                                        tguldener
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10:

                                        You could attempt to cherry pick the code that added 'G' support and insert it into the 8.3 driver. I imagine it's not a straight forward copy and paste job though. The surrounding code may have changed substantially between 8.3 and 10.

                                        Steve

                                        Right Steve, but it's not impossible to get the "G" support also in 8.3. The problem is, in PFSense is no FreeBSD sources and i'm not a developer. I have the files from Realtek to build the driver for "G" support in FreeBSD but I don't now, how I can build it for PFsense.

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                                        • K
                                          kejianshi
                                          last edited by

                                          I'm liking the VM idea more and more - Or maybe use as a small workstation.

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                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            You need to build it in a standard FreeBSD 8.3 install and then move it across to pfSense. The instructions all talk about building a completely new kernel but I would first attempt to build the driver as a kernel module and load it as that's much easier. I have done that succefully with the msk(4) driver and I know it's been done with em(4) too.
                                            It has been done for re(4) aswell to support slightly newer 8111: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,58150.0.html
                                            I don't know how new the driver has to be to support G.

                                            Steve

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