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    Official Realtek Driver Binary 1.95 For 2.4.4 Release

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    • L
      Love.IT.Again
      last edited by

      @TheNarc Thanks for the compiled driver. I will be using it with my resurrected C1323 box (currently running on 32GB USB thumb drive). But before patching the compiled driver, I have to try iperf if it can trigger the problem.

      What I remember (a year ago), after updating pfsense to this box, I noticed that the ethernet slowly becoming unusable. it will be good again after a reboot, but it will go back to the same problem after several minutes.

      Thanks again.

      T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • T
        TheNarc @Love.IT.Again
        last edited by

        @love-it-again No problem, I'm glad to hear it's useful. I run two CI323-based pfSense boxes and your memory syncs with mine. Without the official Realtek driver, it will eventually get watchdog timeouts and the NICs go down until a reboot. I remember that being easy to trigger with iperf to stress them too. I haven't had any issues since using the official driver though.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • B
          breakaway
          last edited by

          I’ve just (in the last 2 days) applied this patch to two pfSense machines. One is a Intel N3150-based machine with dual Realtek NICs and another is a Intel J1800 with dual Realtek NICs.

          Both used to crash and go unresponsive a lot since upgrading to 2.4.4 but now they’ve been up for over 24 hours. One has been syncing off-site backups for over 12 hours at 600 mbps over our 1gbps symmetric fiber internet connection, no issue.

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          • L
            lovingHDTV
            last edited by

            How do I update my Pfsense box with this driver?

            Do I just copy it to /boot/kernel?

            thanks
            david

            B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • B
              breakaway @lovingHDTV
              last edited by breakaway

              @lovinghdtv

              Unzip & Place "if_re.ko" file at "/boot/kernel"

              Change ownership and permissions on the if_re.ko file

              chown root:wheel if_re.ko
              chmod 0555 if_re.ko

              Then edit "/boot/loader.conf” to add this line:

              if_re_load=“YES”

              Reboot.

              Then go to diagnostics > command prompt in the WebGUI

              Run the command

              kldstat

              If you did everything properly you’ll see “if_re.ko” in the list that comes up. If not, the driver isn’t loaded.

              L N P 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • L
                lovingHDTV @breakaway
                last edited by

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

                @lovinghdtv

                Unzip & Place "if_re.ko" file at "/boot/kernel"

                Change ownership and permissions on the if_re.ko file

                chown root:wheel if_re.ko
                chmod 0555 if_re.ko

                Then edit "/boot/loader.conf” to add this line:

                if_re_load=“YES"

                Reboot.

                Then go to diagnostics > command prompt in the WebGUI

                Run the command

                kldstat

                If you did everything properly you’ll see “if_re.ko” in the list that comes up. If not, the driver isn’t loaded.

                Thanks that worked like a charm.

                Now hopefully it fixed my issue.

                david

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • DerelictD
                  Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                  last edited by

                  I would put it in /boot/loader.conf.local

                  Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                  A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                  DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                  Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • N
                    Napsterbater @breakaway
                    last edited by

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

                    @lovinghdtv

                    Unzip & Place "if_re.ko" file at "/boot/kernel"

                    Change ownership and permissions on the if_re.ko file

                    chown root:wheel if_re.ko
                    chmod 0555 if_re.ko

                    Then edit "/boot/loader.conf” to add this line:

                    if_re_load=“YES"

                    Reboot.

                    Then go to diagnostics > command prompt in the WebGUI

                    Run the command

                    kldstat

                    If you did everything properly you’ll see “if_re.ko” in the list that comes up. If not, the driver isn’t loaded.

                    Tip for anyone having a issue, If you copied and pasted the if_re_load=“YES" line fix the first “ and make it " yes there is a difference. /facedesk

                    Works like a charm, once I found that =P

                    Thanks for the updated driver and taking the time to compile, I have a ZOTAC ZBOX CI323 Nano with dual Realtek and a 2nd Generic system with a single Realtek (router on a Stick).

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                    • B
                      breakaway
                      last edited by breakaway

                      Odd - looks like the double quotes are messed up. You can thank my Phone for that! I’ll update it.

                      Always use kldstat to verify if the driver if_re.ko is loaded!

                      Shell Output - cat /boot/loader.conf

                      kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
                      kern.ipc.nmbclusters="1000000"
                      kern.ipc.nmbjumbop="524288"
                      kern.ipc.nmbjumbo9="524288"
                      kern.geom.label.disk_ident.enable="0"
                      kern.geom.label.gptid.enable="0"
                      zfs_load="YES"
                      if_re_load=“YES”
                      autoboot_delay="3"
                      hw.usb.no_pf="1”

                      Shell Output - kldstat

                      Id Refs Address Size Name
                      1 20 0xffffffff80200000 2d9a7d0 kernel
                      2 1 0xffffffff82f9c000 381f00 zfs.ko
                      3 2 0xffffffff8331e000 a3a0 opensolaris.ko
                      4 1 0xffffffff83329000 7d2c0 if_re.ko
                      5 1 0xffffffff83911000 10a0 cpuctl.ko
                      6 1 0xffffffff83913000 2ec0 cryptodev.ko
                      7 1 0xffffffff83916000 c80 coretemp.ko

                      N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • N
                        Napsterbater @breakaway
                        last edited by

                        @breakaway upper case is fine, it is the left/backwards/upside down quotation mark that if copy pasted makes the loader throw a syntax error and not load the driver.

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                        • P
                          penetal
                          last edited by

                          Could you post a guide on how to compile the driver? Would be nice to know what is needed from pfsense sources etc and if any configs is needed.

                          L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • L
                            Love.IT.Again @penetal
                            last edited by

                            @penetal

                            Here's a link of the guide. The files are a little bit old so use the newer version (Realtek driver v1.95 and FreeBSD 11.2), but the process is still the same.

                            https://gist.github.com/jovimon/524e116471f249626fd2ccd141f3fe05

                            P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • B
                              breakaway
                              last edited by

                              Also, is there any way to “slipstream” the driver and the modification to the loader.conf so that it will automatically include this driver when installing from media?

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • C
                                coreybrett
                                last edited by

                                would it be possible to put driver into a pfS package?

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • P
                                  penetal @Love.IT.Again
                                  last edited by

                                  @love-it-again thanks a ton

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

                                    It's very unlikely this could ever be added as an official package. Is it even using a license that would allow it?

                                    The correct way to resolve this would be to fix the upstream FreeBSD driver. I've never looked to see what the differences are there.

                                    Steve

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                                    • BiloxiGeekB
                                      BiloxiGeek
                                      last edited by

                                      Just got finished putting this driver on my Odroid H2. This SBC has been nice but the NIC's seem to drop connection about a once a day.

                                      Is there something I can do to track the state of the NIC's and the drivers to see what's happening when they lock up? I'd be willing to revert to the stock drivers just to find out why a daily reboot has been necessary.

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

                                        Not easily. You'd probably need to add debug messages to the driver for example. Maybe recompile it.

                                        Are you (were you) seeing the watchdog timeouts?

                                        Steve

                                        BiloxiGeekB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • BiloxiGeekB
                                          BiloxiGeek @stephenw10
                                          last edited by

                                          @stephenw10 I hadn't been seeing the watchdog timeouts but I hadn't been looking for them either. What's the best way to look for them?

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

                                            They would be in the system log if you are hitting that issue.

                                            Steve

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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