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

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
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    • J
      jmyers
      last edited by

      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>

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      • W
        wallabybob
        last edited by

        @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.

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        • J
          jmyers
          last edited by

          @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.

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          • J
            jmyers
            last edited by

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

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            • jimpJ
              jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
              last edited by

              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.

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              • J
                jmyers
                last edited by

                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!

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