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

zeroepoch

I wonder if this is fixed or improved upstream in the latest Realtek driver release 1.102.01? I see a potentially relevant fix. I haven't tried this version myself since it's just been updated in the last few weeks. I'll search for any reports online to see anyone else is showing success.

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

Driver versions before 1102.01 could hang the
RTL8125 transmitter when sending small UDP
packets (e.g. IPv6 DNS queries).  This is fixed,
but if you still experience network hangs with
IPv6 enabled, you can disable the checksum
offloading by adding the following parameters to
the related ifconfig line in your /etc/rc.conf
file, and please report the issue:

-rxcsum -txcsum -rxcsum6 -txcsum6

stephenw10

I've forgotten the details! Would that fix negate the need for separate drivers? It will be in 26.07.

zeroepoch

@stephenw10 if it indeed fixes the hang with checksum offloading and IPv6 then yes we wouldn't need the realtek-re-kmod198 package. I can work on building another package for pfSense 2.8.1 based on this newer driver, but won't be in a position to test it for a while.

stephenw10

Is there a definitive test for it?

zeroepoch

@stephenw10, I don't believe there is a 100% instant reproducible test. I think the best confirmation is to enable IPv6 and run some periodic speed tests. If you don't see packet loss or the interface hang after a few days then you can say it's fixed.

Quickly scanning the source code changes, I see some TSO flag changes, so I wonder if segmentation offloading can be properly disabled now if the issue isn't really fixed.

stephenw10

Hmm. And that's on an rtl8125 NIC?

zeroepoch

@stephenw10 said in Package realtek-re-kmod198 for pfSense 2.8.0 (amd64):

Hmm. And that's on an rtl8125 NIC?

Yep. This thread is originally about RTL8125. The 2.5g NIC from Realtek.

zeroepoch

I've added two new driver packages to the Google Drive folder and updated the Readme reflecting the following additions.

realtek-re-kmod-1102.01.1500029.pkg: This is the new 1.102.01 Realtek driver mentioned earlier that may fix hangs when IPv6 is enabled for RTL8125 devices.
realtek-rge-kmod-20260222.1500029.pkg: An updated version of the realtek-rge-kmod driver, but I haven't looked into what's changed since 20260112.

WARNING: I haven't tested either of these drivers yet on real devices. I've only confirmed the packages install without errors and the kernel modules load successfully using a pfSense 2.8.1 VM. I'll report back when I get an opportunity to test these new drivers when I have physical access to the router with RTL8125 NICs.

NOTE: I took a risk and swapped the drivers remotely. Everything appears to be working as expected (same as before). I removed the previously installed realtek-re-kmod198 package, installed the new package realtek-re-kmod-1102.01.1500029.pkg, and then rebooted. No other configuration changes were made. I ran some iperf3 tests using IPv4 and IPv6 and also tried unsetting the checksum flags on the NICs. No performance issues or intermittence were observed. I noticed the RXCSUM flag was still set after running "ifconfig reX -rxcsum -txcsum -rxcsum6 -txcsum6" and only after running the command a second time did it remove the flag from the NIC. However, checksum offloading appears to be working (not causing any issues), so I don't think it needs to be disabled.

For anyone curious how I built these driver packages, I followed the steps I mentioned earlier in comment 49 for building the realtek-rge-kmod package, but I made the following changes.

Replace the last command in step 3 with:

git remote add upstream https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-ports.git
git fetch upstream
rm -rf net/realtek-re-kmod
git checkout upstream/main net/realtek-re-kmod
git checkout upstream/main net/realtek-rge-kmod
# upstream/main = 3eee3a94c52006bf82ed7fc55fd0ee08be7260ff

Add the following command after step 5:

cd /usr/ports/net/realtek-re-kmod; make package OSVERSION=1500029

zeroepoch

@stephenw10 You could wait for reports from other users, but I believe the latest realtek-re-kmod driver is working, so realtek-re-kmod198 doesn't need to be added. I would guess as a CE user we won't see this available in the pfSense repo until 2.9.0? At least users like myself who install this updated realtek-re-kmod package will have a smooth upgrade path for the next CE release. With the inclusion of realtek-rge-kmod in FreeBSD 16 base (which appears to be the plan) it might just work out of the box without any additional drivers.

stephenw10

Yes it's unlikely we would see that in the 2.8.1 branch.

That will be good if it proves two versions are no longer needed.