Need help understanding FreeBSD HCL
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Hello,
I apologize if I'm asking dumb questions but I'm new to FreeBSD and I just want to make sure I buy the right thing. I'm trying to get a PCI gigabit ethernet card with VLAN support for my pfSense box. I'm looking at these 2 cards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833114004
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127134Someone mentioned that the StarTech ST1000BT32 installs as a RealTek 8169. The RealTek 8169S is on the drivers list - will it work? The D-Link is also on the list… should I just get that since it explicitly says it is compatible with FreeBSD?
Finally, do I have to install any drivers or anything, or is everything on that list already compatible (just plug and play)? If not, is installing drivers for FreeBSD difficult? I don't have any experience with it.
Thank you
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Someone mentioned that the StarTech ST1000BT32 installs as a RealTek 8169. The RealTek 8169S is on the drivers list - will it work?
Probably. Many of the Realtek NICs see to have a number of variants and they are not necessarily "compatible". Maybe you could ask Newegg if the card is supported on FreeBSD 7.2 (say) and then if you find it isn't they would take it back.
The D-Link is also on the list… should I just get that since it explicitly says it is compatible with FreeBSD?
I suspect you are less likely to have trouble.
Finally, do I have to install any drivers or anything, or is everything on that list already compatible (just plug and play)? If not, is installing drivers for FreeBSD difficult? I don't have any experience with it.
pfSense comes with drivers pre-installed in the kernel. In a small number of cases when the developers have upgraded to a newer version of FreeBSD they have omitted drivers for newly supported devices but they have quickly corrected that when it has been pointed out.
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Thank you for your help. I got the StarTech ST1000BT32 Gigabit Card and it worked fine - just plugged it in and I was good to go.