Intel ethernet I219-V - no driver attached

semada

Cadet
Joined
May 11, 2021
Messages
3
Hi,

I have problem with the onboard ethernet controller (Intel i219-V) on MB ASUS PRIME B560M-A on a fresh TrueNAS installation (12.0-U3.1).

pciconf -lv shows:
Code:
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = 'Etnernet Connection (14) I219-V'


dmesg:
Code:
pci0: <network, ethernet> at device 31.6 (no driver attached)


I read some older forum topics, but have not found an answer. It seems to me like the controoler should be supported in FreeBSD.

Any ideas?

Thanks David
 
Joined
May 18, 2021
Messages
1
I’m having the same issue where it won’t see the Realtek LAN port.

I was having all kinds of odd issues on my old hardware with TrueNAS, had hoped to be able to use my old MB, Ram and AMD CPU instead of throwing it all out

Ended up having to splurge and buy all new hardware.

ASUS TUF B460M MB
32gb DDR4
Intel i5-16000k (3.9/4.9ghz)
LSI 9211-8i Controller HBA ((IT Mode)
Solarflare Dual Port 10ge Fiber
512gb NVME Boot/OS
512gb NVME for ZFS Cache
7 x 4tb HGST 7200 drives

It sees my Solar Flare card but I want to make my Mgmt connection the wired ethernet and data/shares over the fiber.
 

KDallas

Cadet
Joined
May 21, 2021
Messages
7
Same issue with Intel Ethernet chipset I219-V. I thought this had been patched about 5 years ago. Any chance it was removed from TrueNAS Core 12?
Motherboard is: ASRock B560M-ITX/ac

pciconf -lv

Code:
none6@pci0:0:31:6:    class=0x020000 card=0x86721043 chip=0x15fa8086 rev=0x11 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Ethernet Connection (14) I219-V'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet


At this point I'd be willing to do a compile build from source if there's a known working source/fork for I219-V? Amazed this is still a problem in 2021.
 

jgreco

Resident Grinch
Joined
May 29, 2011
Messages
18,681
According to this thread the device should be supported now - https://forum.netgate.com/topic/162355/having-trouble-getting-my-intel-i219-v-attached-to-a-driver/5

I am a new to TrueNAS / FreeBSD and don't know how to try it.

That thread is for pfSense. FreeNAS and TrueNAS are not based on pfSense. pfSense has a tighter focus on bringing in the latest ethernet stuff, whereas FreeNAS typically uses the upstream FreeBSD driver set, so support for the very latest stuff tends to lag a bit. I believe that I219-V support is available in FreeBSD 13, so it could be a little bit.
 

KDallas

Cadet
Joined
May 21, 2021
Messages
7
Decided to abandon the Intel I219-V after trying everything to get TrueNAS Core & XigmaNAS working with this hardware. In its place we bought an Asus ROG B560-I motherboard (twice the price of the ASRock board, but the only one available close to that price point with a Realtek chip).
Sad to say, this gear is just too damn modern to work with TrueNAS... same problem:

Code:
none7@pci0:2:0:0:    class=0x020000 card=0x87d71043 chip=0x812510ec rev=0x04 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.'
    device     = 'RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet


On both motherboards, we tested a gigabit USB to Ethernet adapter (both with on-board Ethernet enabled and disabled), and the results were simply awful. Like less than 2MB/s transfers, as if the dongle was behaving like a 10Mbit card, even though it detected as 1000Mbit full duplex.

Seems our only recourse now is to run Windows 10 Pro with an NTFS storage space instead of ZFS pool.

Would love to know of other options (even alternative NAS OS's or NAS-like Linux distros)... if someone is brave enough on a TrueNAS community forum :wink:.
 

semada

Cadet
Joined
May 11, 2021
Messages
3
On both motherboards, we tested a gigabit USB to Ethernet adapter (both with on-board Ethernet enabled and disabled), and the results were simply awful. Like less than 2MB/s transfers, as if the dongle was behaving like a 10Mbit card, even though it detected as 1000Mbit full duplex.

I have also tried an USB gigabit Ethernet adapter (Realtek chipset) and even it was detected as 1 Gbps adapter the speed was like 100 Mbps or less. I ended up buing etnernet card with Intel 82574L chipset and everything works fine. I am waiting for the I219-V to be supported.
 

KDallas

Cadet
Joined
May 21, 2021
Messages
7
So I found a guide that assisted me in compiling the Realtek 2.5Gbe driver for TrueNAS running FreeBSD 12.2:

Yes, it is in Japanese... but was fairly coherent using Google Translate!

I ran into a few problems, but ultimately just couldn't get the final "make" step to complete under TrueNAS itself (despite multiple attempts). However what I did to solve this was run Oracle VirtualBox and install FreeBSD 12.2 in a VM. I downloaded the Realtek driver source from here: https://www.realtek.com/en/componen...0-1000m-gigabit-ethernet-pci-express-software

Then after successfully compiling the kernel (without the "re" driver), I was able to then compile the "if_re.ko" driver. The readme that comes with this driver has all the correct steps however you need to supplement them with some added steps from the Japanese article, such as installing clang and binutils.

Once I had the driver ready, I tar gzipped it and rsynced it to the NAS.

After that it is simply a matter of copying the driver into /boot/kernel/ and editing /boot/loader.conf with:
if_re_load="YES"

I put it under the line that reads: 'if_qlxgbe_load="YES"'.

So in summary, the steps are:
- Install a clean FreeBSD with the source code included
- Delete the "re" driver lines from the kernel source code (explained in the readme)
- Recompile the kernel
- Compile the driver
- Copy the driver over to your NAS under /boot/ and update the loader

Hope this helps someone else. It's been a learning experience over a week for me having never compiled anything on FreeBSD before.
I'm sure it's possible to do all of this on TrueNAS directly, but to be honest it was ultimately quicker and easier doing on a VM.
 

c77dk

Patron
Joined
Nov 27, 2019
Messages
467
Which version did you compile for? The RTL8125 should be included in 12.0-U4
 

KDallas

Cadet
Joined
May 21, 2021
Messages
7
Which version did you compile for? The RTL8125 should be included in 12.0-U4

12.0-U3.1 -- I'll try updating and see how it goes! Kind of a bummer if I did all that for nothing, LOL.. but awesome if it works out of the box afterwards in any case.
 

KDallas

Cadet
Joined
May 21, 2021
Messages
7
Hi @c77dk

No dice with U4... The 8125 chipset wasn't detected after updating so had to edit the loader.conf and load the driver I compiled. Incidentally I don't expect to be able to go above 1000Mbps full-duplex with that driver, so if that support gets baked into the kernel at some point it would still be a hell of a leg up over other 2.5Gbe chipsets. As in support for those (like the OP's Intel one) are further lacking.
 

sretalla

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Hi @c77dk

No dice with U4... The 8125 chipset wasn't detected after updating so had to edit the loader.conf and load the driver I compiled. Incidentally I don't expect to be able to go above 1000Mbps full-duplex with that driver, so if that support gets baked into the kernel at some point it would still be a hell of a leg up over other 2.5Gbe chipsets. As in support for those (like the OP's Intel one) are further lacking.
Did you read the notes in the jira ticket which added that driver?

Look closely at the last line...

And also for interest the note about full speed.

Permalink

amezin Aleksandr Mezin added a comment - 19/Apr/21 2:21 AM - edited

It is supported by current realtek-re-kmod https://www.freshports.org/net/realtek-re-kmod/
pfSense now includes it (since 2.5.0): https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/11079
I've manually installed it on TrueNAS CORE 12.0-U3, RTL8125 works at full speed, haven't noticed any issues, at least for home nas use case (works even in a bridge, with VMs attached to it).
The package is small, and only is used when explicitly enabled through tunables (`if_re_load`, `if_re_name`). So it would be nice if the package was included in TrueNAS.
 

KDallas

Cadet
Joined
May 21, 2021
Messages
7
Did you read the notes in the jira ticket which added that driver?
Look closely at the last line...

I did not, only because I didn't feel any impetus to look further as 1Gbe serves my purpose. Not sure how I would have found my way to that Jira ticket in the first place TBH.

It is supported by current realtek-re-kmod https://www.freshports.org/net/realtek-re-kmod/

Cool story bro. Wasn't aware of this "kmod" port until now, but if I ever get a 2.5Gbe switch and companion device -- I'll know where to look, cheers for that!

In any case the previous statement "The RTL8125 should be included in 12.0-U4 " proved to be erroneous, at least in my brief experience of U4.
 

sretalla

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In any case the previous statement "The RTL8125 should be included in 12.0-U4 " proved to be erroneous, at least in my brief experience of U4.
Since U4 included the commit of that jira ticket content, I'd be surprised if it wasn't there... the last line of the ticket quote indicates why you probably didn't see anything happen... since it seems you didn't know about those necessary tunables to enable the driver.
 

Constantin

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May 19, 2017
Messages
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As I mentioned in the other thread on this Realtek chipset, I would consider it a bug to on the one hand claim that support for this driver was included in 12.u4 yet on the other hand require the use of a tunable to enable it.

my suggestion is twofold. Confirm if the tunable does the trick. Then report the issue as a bug via Jira (see report a bug above)
 

leonardorame

Contributor
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Messages
106
I stumpled upon the same issue with TrueNAS 12-U5 and an Asus Prime motherboard. I'm buying a Realtek PCIe nic for this machine, but hopefully the next version of TrueNAS Core bring support for modern Intel nics, like i219 and i225.
 

NugentS

MVP
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Apr 16, 2020
Messages
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Do not buy a realtek. Buy a proper Intel NIC
 

Constantin

Vampire Pig
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May 19, 2017
Messages
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I’d second the Intel NIC and add buying it from a respected source. A lot of counterfeit stuff floating around. Same thing for LSI HBA cards.
 
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