How to install 2.5G network card driver in TrueNAS core?

[yluo0]

I added an extral 2.5G network card in the motherboard, but the system didn't detect the card.
I'm currently using built-in network adapter on the motherboard.

The information of the network adapter is in this link below.
TPlink 2.5 Gigabit PCIe Network Adapter

I did some research on FreeBSD website, but the drivers they provid don't include TPlink 2.5G card.
TPLink offers driver for Linux system.

I would really appreciate if you can share your thoughts and experiences.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

You can't. The card is obviously not supported by FreeBSD. You need to check operating system support before buying hardware.

 

[yluo0]

You can't. The card is obviously not supported by FreeBSD. You need to check operating system support before buying hardware.

Thank you for the reply that provided me with a solution.

 

[artlessknave]

Thank you for the reply that provided me with a solution.

assuming that was intended to be sarcasm, the solution is "return the unsupported hardware and get supported hardware"

you cannot install drivers, by design, and freebsd generally only supports known good cards, not random iffy cards from cheap desktop vendors.

 

[yluo0]

assuming that was intended to be sarcasm, the solution is "return the unsupported hardware and get supported hardware"

you cannot install drivers, by design, and freebsd generally only supports known good cards, not random iffy cards from cheap desktop vendors.

Not at all, my expression might not be accurate. you guys had already saved me a lot of time in troubleshooting/configuration. It's much better than nothing.

 

[artlessknave]

much tone, in text, lost be. there are many resources for finding good hardware.

 

[bilson]

The info above is not entirely correct. The Realtek driver can be enabled with two tunable entries. I have been using a cheap ($17 gocoax one from amazon) realtek 2.5gb card with no problem for at least 3 months now on truenas 13. Data rate is 2.5gb as well, confirmed over numerous data transfers and link rate listed in the UI.
Here are the tunables. You omit the = and quotes when adding via the UI obviously. After a reboot nic should be up and running. I change the IP over console the first time (remove original IP from old nic and assign it to new one).

From <https://www.reddit.com/r/freenas/comments/nrail2/truenas_120u4_realtek_rtl8125_25gb_nic/>

Add via sytem > tunables

if_re_load="YES"
if_re_name="/boot/modules/if_re.ko"

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Realtek support was intentionally disabled because various customers suffered data loss.

 

[bilson]

That is interesting. My quick search finds mentions of iscsi issues or outright network drops. Do you have any references to those corruption issues. My main use case is smb share, and a jail running syncthing. I also have two proxmox VMs using truenas nfs storage backed by an ssd mirror pool and have not seen issues in the time I moved to the realtek nic. Maybe I got lucky so far but it will be interesting to know if I am in danger of data loss.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

That is interesting. My quick search finds mentions of iscsi issues or outright network drops. Do you have any references to those corruption issues.

Exactly. iSCSI issues leading to data loss. And since for practically all commercial customers reliable iSCSI is way more important than Realtek support, iX pulled the plug on the driver.

That happened in 13.0-U2 and the documentation about that can be found in the release notes and in this issue.

Edit: let me elaborate a bit ...

The seemingly "arrogant" stance of the FreeBSD community towards Realtek network interfaces is rooted in this situation:

• Realtek won't provide documentation for their hardware without developers signing an NDA.
• Therefore the FreeBSD native driver does not support current models and probably never will unless Realtek changes their policy.
• Realtek provides a vendor driver in binary form.
• Unfortunately this one does not adhere to current FreeBSD networking standards and architecture (iflib), so while it might work in specific situations, bugs and missing features are to be expected.
• This is not really the FreeBSD community's fault nor anything we could change on our own.

HTH to put things into perspective. Just stay away from vendors who do not support open source.

 

[artlessknave]

vendors who do not support open source.

realtek sounds worse than that; they barely support their drivers being used at all....

The Realtek driver can be enabled with two tunable entries.

sure. you can also disable MS defender when it warns you about malicious software and install it anyway.
the question isn't: can it be done?
the question is: Should it be done? ever?

trying to run reasonable reliability storage on shite its going to be a shite experience. I already experienced that when I was first exploring nas by buying what turned out to very likely be fake/counterfit LSI HBAs. that was a shite experience, and I was so tired of it that I bought a 1000$ HBA instead so i would never have that crap again. still 100% worth it, though I could have gotten a 500$ one instead (9305-24i vs 9305-16i).
my slightly rambling point is that most of us common posters in the forums HATE telling people their pool is dead, or their data is mangled, or spending hours of our own time (for free) trying to help someone troubleshoot, for reasons that could have been avoided simple by having reasonably reliable hardware. and realtek is not that.

 

[yluo0]

The info above is not entirely correct. The Realtek driver can be enabled with two tunable entries. I have been using a cheap ($17 gocoax one from amazon) realtek 2.5gb card with no problem for at least 3 months now on truenas 13. Data rate is 2.5gb as well, confirmed over numerous data transfers and link rate listed in the UI.
Here are the tunables. You omit the = and quotes when adding via the UI obviously. After a reboot nic should be up and running. I change the IP over console the first time (remove original IP from old nic and assign it to new one).

From <https://www.reddit.com/r/freenas/comments/nrail2/truenas_120u4_realtek_rtl8125_25gb_nic/>

Add via sytem > tunables

if_re_load="YES"
if_re_name="/boot/modules/if_re.ko"

View attachment 70643

Thanks for your help, it gives me another option. I was thinking to update my current TrueNAS Core to Scale version sometime.
Debian should support TPlink network card.

 

[Davvo]

Thanks for your help, it gives me another option. I was thinking to update my current TrueNAS Core to Scale version sometime.
Debian should support TPlink network card.

SCALE is neither Debian nor a Linux distro; generally hardware wise the same concerns of CORE apply to SCALE as well.

Is my Realtek ethernet really that bad?

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[ChrisRJ]

generally hardware wise the same concerns of CORE apply to SCALE as well.

To re-phrase @Davvo 's message, which I couldn't agree with more: The possible existence of a driver on a Debian-based system, as opposed to a FreeBSD-based one, will not make the NIC one inch better. It means taking a considerable risk for very little gain (meaning how much a better NIC costs used vs. spending endless hours).

 

[bilson]

Can you give some suggestions on used 2.5GB nics to buy?

 

[Davvo]

As far as I know 2.5Gbit is frowned upon due to past issues.

 

[danb35]

Agreed that 2.5 GbE is a crap technology. But AFAIK, the Intel 225V gen 3 and 226 chips are generally non-sucky.

 

[bilson]

Agreed that 2.5 GbE is a crap technology. But AFAIK, the Intel 225V gen 3 and 226 chips are generally non-sucky.

Thank you. I found intel based 225v options for just $10 more than the rtl. I wish I had done better research before buying.

 

[danb35]

Notice that I wrote "225V gen 3"--IIRC, the first two generations of that chip were problematic.

 

[jgreco]

Notice that I wrote "225V gen 3"--IIRC, the first two generations of that chip were problematic.

It's sayin' something when even the highly respected Intel driver and chipset teams can't get it working right until the THIRD revision. Skip 2.5G and go right to 10G. Faster, cheaper.

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