New 2.0.2 install– interfaces don't work until tcpdump is running on them

[jmyers]

Hi All!

I have a new install of pfsense on a P4 with 2Gb of RAM and two identical StarTech RealTek based NICs .  The hardware worked fine on an UBUNTU 12.04 server build that was a console only iptables router/firewall box.  I've recently switched over to pfsense and am having some strange problems.

What happens is that usually, but not always, the interfaces will not work untill I've issued a tcpdump -i on each interface.  They stop working when the command is killed.

Here's the dmesg output related to one of the cards:

re0 <realtek 16="" 8169="" 8169s="" 8169sb(l)="" gigabit="" ethernet="" port="" 0xdd00-0xddff="" mem="" 0xfe9fde0-0xfe9fddff="" irq="" at="" device="" 4.0="" on="" pci1<br="">re0 Chip rev. 0x18000000
re0: MAC rev. 0x00000000
miibus0: <mii bus="">on re0
rgephy0: <rtl8169s 1="" 8110s="" 8211b="" media="" interface="" phy="" on="" miibus0<br="">rgephy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-FDX, auto
re0: [FILTER]

Any ideas?

UPDATE
This post sounds identical –
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=3085

The fix there was to swap out the NICs, I guess I'll try that unless anyone has any other ideas --?</rtl8169s></mii></realtek>

[wallabybob]

@jmyers:

I have a new install of pfsense

If you haven't already tried a snapshot build of pfSense 2.1 I suggest you do so because it contains more up to date device drivers than the pfSense 2.0.x builds.

[jmyers]

@wallabybob:

@jmyers:

I have a new install of pfsense

If you haven't already tried a snapshot build of pfSense 2.1 I suggest you do so because it contains more up to date device drivers than the pfSense 2.0.x builds.

Thanks!!  I tried 2.1 but with no improvement.  Same behavior.  I have replacement Intel 8390MT Pro/1000MT Gigabit PCI Ethernet Network PCI Adapter Cards on the way so hopefully they'll do the trick.

[jmyers]

Intel NICs did the trick!  I'm up and running with no problems.

[jimp]

You're much better off with Intel. Though the Realtek's could probably be coaxed into working by placing them in promiscuous mode (which is what tcpdump does), by setting up a shellcmd to run "ifconfig re0 promisc" (and another command for each additional re-based NIC in that box)

We've seen that before with certain Realtek chips, especially in combination with other features such as VLANs, but it hasn't been common enough to warrant any kind of "official" workaround. If the NICs are that crummy, it's best to avoid using them entirely by swapping them out.

[jmyers]

The WAN interface would fail to get an address often as well, with the Intel cards it's been smooth straight away.  Thanks again for the help all!