Realtek 8xxx based PCI-e NIC not recognized in pFsense 1.2.3

[xenonsky]

Hi All,
I'm a newbie here and looking thru the hardware compatibility list and seem that most Realtek 8xxx based NIC should by default be supported.

I'm putting together a pfsense firewall box for a small office and put together a system based on MSI H55M-E33 motherboard with Intel i3 540 CPU and 4GB of ram.
The pfsense install recognized the on-board Realtek PCI-E NIC card and I can set an IP address on it an able to ping out.

But when I try to assign my two additional Realtek based PCI-E NIC cards on plugged onto my two available PCI-E 1x slots, it's not taking it and so I'm unable to assign any IPs to them.

The NIC assignment did successfully pickup all three NIC MAC address thou, but it's not able to pick up any NIC in link up status (including the NIC I can successfully assign IP). But then I'm still able to assign the on-board Realtek NIC, but just not the two additional PCI-E Realteck NICs I plugged in.

Am I missing something here? Any pointer or hints much appreciated.

Cheers.