Official Realtek Driver Binary 1.95 For 2.4.4 Release

nitewolfgtr

I have a Realtek 2.5G RTL8125B network card and after installing the 1.96 driver on my pfsense 2.4.5-p1, it recognized the card, however, I'm only getting about 500Mbps throughput on my WAN when I use it. I have a gigabit plan with Comcast and I should be getting roughly 1200Mbps but I'm getting nowhere near that. When I switch back over to my Intel gigabit NIC, I get about 950Mbps which tells me that the 1.96 driver isn't able to deliver on the full 2.5G speed.

is this what you are experiencing as well?

stephenw10

Does it link at 2.5Gbps? Can we see the ifconfig output?

What hardware are you using it in?

Steve

nitewolfgtr

@stephenw10
It does link at 2.5Gbps and my hardware is HP 290-p0043w w/ Celeron G4900 and 4GB of RAM.

I have Trendnet 2.5G network adapter installed in the PCIe x1 slot.

Here's the ifconfig output. The 2.5Gbps NIC is re1. When I set my WAN interface back to igb0, I get 950Mbps down on speedtest. I just ran another test on re1 and I'm getting 615Mbps down.

igb0: flags=8c02<BROADCAST,OACTIVE,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    options=6403bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,VLAN_HWTSO,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dc
    hwaddr ac:16:2d:95:08:dc
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect
    status: no carrier
igb1: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    options=500b8<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO>
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    hwaddr ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
    status: active
igb2: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    options=500b8<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO>
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    hwaddr ac:16:2d:95:08:de
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
    status: active
igb3: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    options=500b8<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO>
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    hwaddr ac:16:2d:95:08:df
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
    status: active
re0: flags=8803<UP,BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    options=2018<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,WOL_MAGIC>
    ether c4:65:16:30:2b:67
    hwaddr c4:65:16:30:2b:67
    inet 172.16.2.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.2.255
    inet6 fe80::1:1%re0 prefixlen 64 tentative scopeid 0x5
    inet6 2601:2c2:780:6919:c665:16ff:fe30:2b67 prefixlen 64 tentative
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect
    status: no carrier
re1: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    options=2018<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,WOL_MAGIC>
    ether 3c:8c:f8:f9:7b:30
    hwaddr 3c:8c:f8:f9:7b:30
    inet6 fe80::3e8c:f8ff:fef9:7b30%re1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x6
    inet6 2001:558:6022:76:cc0e:e073:c4d8:89b7 prefixlen 128
    inet <REDACTED> netmask 0xfffff800 broadcast 255.255.255.255
    nd6 options=23<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect (2500Base-T <full-duplex>)
    status: active
enc0: flags=0<> metric 0 mtu 1536
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    groups: enc
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 16384
    options=680003<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,LINKSTATE,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
    inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
    inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x8
    inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    groups: lo
pflog0: flags=100<PROMISC> metric 0 mtu 33160
    groups: pflog
pfsync0: flags=0<> metric 0 mtu 1500
    groups: pfsync
lagg0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    options=500b8<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO>
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    inet 172.16.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.1.255
    inet6 fe80::1:1%lagg0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xb
    inet6 2601:2c2:780:6910:ae16:2dff:fe95:8dd prefixlen 64
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect
    status: active
    groups: lagg
    laggproto lacp lagghash l2,l3,l4
    laggport: igb1 flags=1c<ACTIVE,COLLECTING,DISTRIBUTING>
    laggport: igb2 flags=1c<ACTIVE,COLLECTING,DISTRIBUTING>
    laggport: igb3 flags=1c<ACTIVE,COLLECTING,DISTRIBUTING>
lagg0.20: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    inet 172.16.20.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.20.255
    inet6 fe80::1:1%lagg0.20 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xc
    inet6 2601:2c2:780:6912:ae16:2dff:fe95:8dd prefixlen 64
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect
    status: active
    vlan: 20 vlanpcp: 4 parent interface: lagg0
    groups: vlan
lagg0.30: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    inet 172.16.30.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.30.255
    inet6 fe80::1:1%lagg0.30 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xd
    inet6 2601:2c2:780:6913:ae16:2dff:fe95:8dd prefixlen 64
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect
    status: active
    vlan: 30 vlanpcp: 0 parent interface: lagg0
    groups: vlan
lagg0.40: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    inet 172.16.40.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.40.255
    inet6 fe80::1:1%lagg0.40 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xe
    inet6 2601:2c2:780:6914:ae16:2dff:fe95:8dd prefixlen 64
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect
    status: active
    vlan: 40 vlanpcp: 2 parent interface: lagg0
    groups: vlan
lagg0.50: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    inet 172.16.50.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.50.255
    inet6 fe80::1:1%lagg0.50 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xf
    inet6 2601:2c2:780:6915:ae16:2dff:fe95:8dd prefixlen 64
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect
    status: active
    vlan: 50 vlanpcp: 4 parent interface: lagg0
    groups: vlan
lagg0.60: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    inet 172.16.60.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.60.255
    inet6 fe80::1:1%lagg0.60 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x10
    inet6 2601:2c2:780:6916:ae16:2dff:fe95:8dd prefixlen 64
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect
    status: active
    vlan: 60 vlanpcp: 1 parent interface: lagg0
    groups: vlan
lagg0.70: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    inet 172.16.70.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.70.255
    inet6 fe80::1:1%lagg0.70 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x11
    inet6 2601:2c2:780:6917:ae16:2dff:fe95:8dd prefixlen 64
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect
    status: active
    vlan: 70 vlanpcp: 5 parent interface: lagg0
    groups: vlan
lagg0.80: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    inet 172.16.80.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.80.255
    inet6 fe80::1:1%lagg0.80 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x12
    inet6 2601:2c2:780:6918:ae16:2dff:fe95:8dd prefixlen 64
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect
    status: active
    vlan: 80 vlanpcp: 1 parent interface: lagg0
    groups: vlan
lagg0.10: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    ether ac:16:2d:95:08:dd
    inet 172.16.10.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.10.255
    inet6 fe80::1:1%lagg0.10 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x13
    inet6 2601:2c2:780:6911:ae16:2dff:fe95:8dd prefixlen 64
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: Ethernet autoselect
    status: active
    vlan: 10 vlanpcp: 3 parent interface: lagg0
    groups: vlan

stephenw10

What if you use re0? What does the CPU load look like when you're testing? top -aSH

nitewolfgtr

@stephenw10 said in Official Realtek Driver Binary 1.95 For 2.4.4 Release:

top -aSH

re0 works great and I get the full 950Mbps during speedtest.

CPU load for re0 is around 20-25% during speedtest, whereas re1 is around 10-15%.

Also, does this mean anything?
Output of pciconfig -lv for re0 shows the correct controller, but re1 is missing the device attribute.

% pciconfig -lv re0

re0@pci0:2:0:0: class=0x020000 card=0x843f103c chip=0x816810ec rev=0x15 hdr=0x00
        vendor     = 'Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.'
        device     = 'RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller'
        class      = network
        subclass   = ethernet

% pciconfig -lv re1

re1@pci0:4:0:0: class=0x020000 card=0x012310ec chip=0x812510ec rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet

stephenw10

The missing description is unlikely to matter.

I was more interested in the queue or interrupt loads on your CPU cores while testing. igb will use multiple CPU cores by default. re usually isn't but this is new hardware so....

CPU usage between those NICs looks to be inline with the throughput at least.

Steve

pedropetz19

@breakaway Thanks, you save me!!!

spippo

@Rico

THANKS! it works (on Xigmanas 12.1)

Do you know if WOL works? I tried to activate it, but I wasn't been able to make it work. Not sure if it's something that I do or it's just that it's not implemented in the driver (or the board for that matters).

Thank you
Bye

Rico

Nope sorry, I don't own any Realtek Card.

-Rico

stephenw10

Now that there is a FreeBSD package for this I would use that over a, relatively, unknown binary source:

pkg add https://pkg.FreeBSD.org/FreeBSD:11:amd64/latest/All/realtek-re-kmod-v196.04_2.txz

That would be much easier if it was in our repo though. Let me see...

Steve

stephenw10

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/11079

Should be in snaphots soon.

stephenw10

Looks good:

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][admin@apu.stevew.lan]/root: pkg search realtek
realtek-re-kmod-v196.04_2      Kernel driver for Realtek PCIe Ethernet Controllers

So do:
pkg install realtek-re-kmod
then
echo 'if_re_load="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf.local

Then reboot and check the boot logs for:

re0: <Realtek PCIe GbE Family Controller> port 0x1000-0x10ff mem 0xf7a00000-0xf7a00fff,0xf7900000-0xf7903fff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1
re0: Using Memory Mapping!
re0: Using 1 MSI-X message
re0: ASPM disabled
re0: version:1.96.04
re0: Ethernet address: 00:0d:b9:37:30:10

Current version should be installed every time. It's built against our kernel source etc.

It's unlikely this will be backported to 2.4.5 but far easier (and probably safer) to use in 2.5 when it's released or in snapshots now.

Steve

Griffo

@stephenw10 For some reason I cannot seem to get this to load.
I had the previous driver loaded on 2.4.5 but have upgrade to 2.5.0-Development

I've followed your instructions, it appears to install OK, but I can't see it in kldstat nor does my log look like yours. Do you have any suggestions on what i might be doing wrong?

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@gw.griffo.co]/boot: cat loader.conf.local
if_re_load="YES"

My logs

Dec 12 13:04:04	kernel		re0: <RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F/G PCIe Gigabit Ethernet> port 0xe000-0xe0ff mem 0x81300000-0x81300fff,0xa0100000-0xa0103fff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1
Dec 12 13:04:04	kernel		re0: Using 1 MSI-X message
Dec 12 13:04:04	kernel		re0: Chip rev. 0x2c800000
Dec 12 13:04:04	kernel		re0: MAC rev. 0x00100000
Dec 12 13:04:04	kernel		miibus0: <MII bus> on re0

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@gw.griffo.co]/boot: kldstat
Id Refs Address                Size Name
 1   25 0xffffffff80200000  3ae7ee0 kernel
 2    1 0xffffffff846fa000     1000 cpuctl.ko
 3    1 0xffffffff846fb000     8c90 aesni.ko
 4    1 0xffffffff84704000     37f8 cryptodev.ko
 5    1 0xffffffff84708000      b28 coretemp.ko
 6    1 0xffffffff84709000    26fe8 ipfw.ko
 7    1 0xffffffff84730000    10e18 dummynet.ko

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@gw.griffo.co]/boot: pkg info | grep realtek
realtek-re-kmod-v196.04_2      Kernel driver for Realtek PCIe Ethernet Controllers
[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@gw.griffo.co]/boot:

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@gw.griffo.co]/boot/modules: ls -al
total 1300
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  wheel      512 Dec 12 13:42 .
drwxr-xr-x  10 root  wheel     1536 Dec 12 13:32 ..
-r-xr-xr-x   1 root  wheel   106328 Nov 11 13:23 bwi_v3_ucode.ko
-r-xr-xr-x   1 root  wheel  1168400 Nov 20 04:51 if_re.ko
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel      148 Dec 12 13:29 linker.hints
[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@gw.griffo.co]/boot/modules:

Griffo

Nevermind, I had so many other issues I've rolled back to 2.4.5 so it's probably moot.

stephenw10

Hmm, looks like you have everything right. You could try this additional line in loader.conf.local, though I did not need it here, the loader looks there anyway:

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

Steve

NetworkingMicrobe

Hi all,

New to the pfSense world but wanted to follow up on this discussion. I've successfully compiled & installed the latest if_re.ko drivers from Realtek, v1.96.04, for my RTL8111/8168/8411 Gigabit ethernet controller (re0 interface). They are loaded upon boot without issue, as per kldstat and looking at logs in the web UI (Status > System Logs > System > General).
This is an integrated controller on my motherboard (old P7H55-M PRO from Asus) which I'm testing for use as WAN in a homelab setup while I wait for my Intel NICs for LAN. The link is also recognized as 1Gbps as per ifconfig (1000Base-T <full-duplex>).

I am facing performance issues though when benchmarking with iperf3. Using Cat5e or Cat6 cabling all around, with short runs from the firewall to my client, and have tried new cables as well.

Using iperf3, when re0 is the SERVER, I get about 450Mbps. When re0 is the CLIENT, I get a big range, but about 450-600Mbps on average, sometimes peaking at 800Mbps for an entire run if I'm lucky. Retry (Retr column) is almost always all 0 or thereabouts.

The same client can easily get 900+ Mbps with another iperf3 server on the network.

I looked into CPU and memory usage during the tests, plenty of free memory on the system (8GB RAM on system), swap not in use at all. As for the CPU (Intel Core i3-530), usage looks something like this, with lots of idle room...

CPU:  0.7% user,  0.0% nice,  8.0% system, 16.7% interrupt, 74.6% idle

I was wondering if anyone faced similar performance issues, with lack of consistency seeming to occur as well (although never a steady 900Mbps+ or even 800Mbps+)? I saw that @nitewolfgtr and @stephenw10 spoke a bit about performance issues on a 2.5G card, but never came to any conclusions.

Thanks!

Griffo

@networkingmicrobe I had the same issue with my Qotom with the built in realteks. It seemed to have some magic stop around 450mbits, sometimes though it would go up to 600mbits. There appeared to be plenty of CPU left but it just maxed out. I replaced it with a new box with Intel NIC's and hit wire-speed gigabit easily.

stephenw10

@networkingmicrobe said in Official Realtek Driver Binary 1.95 For 2.4.4 Release:

i3-530

That's a 2 core 4 thread CPU so 74% idle could be 1 virtual core at 100%. Potentially the core running iperf.
Try running top -aSH while you test.

Better to test through the firewall rather than to or from it directly.

Steve

Napsterbater

@networkingmicrobe If you want to benchmark pfSense on a particular device and setup. run iperf through pfSense not on it.

It has been said MANY times on the fourms.

Using iperf on the pfsense system itself is not a valid gauge at routing performance.

Cybermaze

@networkingmicrobe I'm not entirely sure, but I suspect that the driver is limited in that one TCP/UDP stream can only utilize one core on the CPU, simply put, 450Mbps is what a single core on your CPU (Intel Core i3-530) can handle if you run iperf with one client thread (should be default).

You can test that by running iperf on the client side with more threads using -P (that's a capital P), something like:

iperf -c 192.168.0.1 -P 4

Will run the client with 4 threads, each opening their own TCP stream (adjust IP address to whatever you are using).