TrueNAS on Odroid H3 - RTL8125B 2.5Gbps nic

[h.intveen]

I am new to TruenNAS and new to the recently released energy efficient Odroid H3, so please bear with me.
Experimenting with the new Odroid I already succesfully installed Debian 11.5 and Ubuntu 22.4 OSses without issues.
I decided to move to TrueNAS because my primary use will be NAS server functionality and additional support for running VMs (currently on Proxmox VE).

Installing TrueNAS works OK, but the setup blocks with the message "The web interface could not be accessed. Please check network configration."
Choosing option 1) Configure Network Interfaces, results in "Select an interface (q to quit):" but there is nothing to select.
When I go to the shell and run: "ifconfig" there is no IP-address
So it looks like the RTL8125B nic is not (yet) supported?

On the the Realtek network driver site I find a Realtek FreeBSD 7.x and 8.0 driver version1.97.00 dated june 14th 2022.
How do I install that driver "rtl_bsd_drv_v197.00.tar" file in my Odroid H3 TrueNAS FreeBSD 13.1 OS?

Help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Ericloewe]

How do I install that driver

You don't. Not in general, and especially not in this case. The driver was semi-withdrawn due to serious data corruption bugs, which is hardly surprising from a Realtek NIC.

 

[Davvo]

I don't know if this stands true for SCALE as well, but on CORE you usually avoid realtek NICs like plague since they are known to cause issues (due to drivers).

 

[Ericloewe]

don't know if this stands true for SCALE as well

Definitely.

 

[Etorix]

I am new to TruenNAS and new to the recently released energy efficient Odroid H3, so please bear with me.

A link to your hardware would have helped. Is it this?

ODROID-H3+

ODROID-H3+ is the next step upgrade from the previous H2+ board

www.odroid.co.uk

If so, with NVMe for boot and 2 SATA ports for a HDD mirror it MIGHT make a minimal NAS but you won't go very far on it with TrueNAS.
I'd rather suggest to forget ZFS and go for OpenMediaVault.

 

[HoneyBadger]

The Realtek data-loss bug does appear to be limited to iSCSI based on the bug description.

[NAS-117663] - iXsystems TrueNAS Jira

ixsystems.atlassian.net

If you aren't using iSCSI, you can attempt to enable the NICs - but since you have no network access, you'll have to set it up via the command prompt or the shiny new TrueNAS CLI:

Code:

root@truenas[~]# cli

> system
system> tunable
system tunable> create var=if_re_load value=YES type=LOADER enabled=true
system tunable> create var=if_re_name value="/boot/modules/if_re.ko" type=LOADER enabled=true
system tunable>

Not sure if you still need to use Ctrl-D to exit it.

 

[h.intveen]

Is it this?

It is this: DROID-H3 with WD-Red 4 Tb drives
Goal is to have a small NAS supporting running VMs (currently using Proxmox VE)

 

[h.intveen]

The Realtek data-loss bug does appear to be limited to iSCSI based on the bug description.

[NAS-117663] - iXsystems TrueNAS Jira

ixsystems.atlassian.net

If you aren't using iSCSI, you can attempt to enable the NICs - but since you have no network access, you'll have to set it up via the command prompt or the shiny new TrueNAS CLI:

Code:

root@truenas[~]# cli

> system
system> tunable
system tunable> create var=if_re_load value=YES type=loader
system tunable> create var=if_re_name value=/boot/modules/if_re.ko type=loader
system tunable>

Not sure if you still need to use Ctrl-D to exit it.

It is just a minmi computer, so suppose I don't use iSCSI.
I indeed have no network access.
There is a file /boot/modules/if_re.ko on my Odroid, so do I just have to type the above to enable it?

 

[Davvo]

I don't know how many VMs you plan to set up, but do note that you are limited to a maximum of 64GB.

 

[Etorix]

It is this: DROID-H3 with WD-Red 4 Tb drives
Goal is to have a small NAS supporting running VMs (currently using Proxmox VE)

If using ZFS, make sure these WD Red are not SMR. But I still think that ZFS would best be avoided on such a small platform.

 

[h.intveen]

The Realtek data-loss bug does appear to be limited to iSCSI based on the bug description.

[NAS-117663] - iXsystems TrueNAS Jira

ixsystems.atlassian.net

If you aren't using iSCSI, you can attempt to enable the NICs - but since you have no network access, you'll have to set it up via the command prompt or the shiny new TrueNAS CLI:

Code:

root@truenas[~]# cli

> system
system> tunable
system tunable> create var=if_re_load value=YES type=loader
system tunable> create var=if_re_name value=/boot/modules/if_re.ko type=loader
system tunable>

Not sure if you still need to use Ctrl-D to exit it.

I typed:
truenas[] system
truenas[system]> tunable
truenas[system tunable]> create var=if_re_load value=YES type=loader

But this last line results in: [type] Invalid choice: loader

 

[HoneyBadger]

Sorry, it's case sensitive apparently (and requires quotes to avoid an issue with the / character)

Code:

root@truenas[~]# cli

> system
system> tunable
system tunable> create var=if_re_load value=YES type=LOADER enabled=true
system tunable> create var=if_re_name value="/boot/modules/if_re.ko" type=LOADER enabled=true
system tunable>

Apply these tunables, reboot the system, and you should have interfaces.

Again, Realtek has been discouraged by a few other users, and it will likely still perform below the expected level. Your system is also rather lightweight as described and may encounter a significant CPU bottleneck, especially if you hope to use this to also run virtual machines.

 

[Davvo]

I don't know how many VMs you plan to set up, but do note that you are limited to a maximum of 64GB.

Interestlingly, the CPU only seems to supports up to 16GB of RAM on Intel's site.

Intel® Celeron® Processor N5105 (4M Cache, up to 2.90 GHz) - Product Specifications | Intel

Intel® Celeron® Processor N5105 (4M Cache, up to 2.90 GHz) quick reference with specifications, features, and technologies.

www.intel.com

 

[Etorix]

Nice find! If it can drive 32-64 GB, NAS+VM is certainly doable (though perhaps best not with TrueNAS) but at 16 GB it would be very, very tight.

 

[Davvo]

I run an Ubuntu VM with 2GB of RAM having 16GB in total. It's not a pleasant experience, but it does its single thing well.
I do suggest at least 32GB if you want to use VMs to do anything but a simple (and not stressful) task.

 

[h.intveen]

Sorry, it's case sensitive apparently.

Code:

root@truenas[~]# cli

> system
system> tunable
system tunable> create var=if_re_load value=YES type=LOADER enabled=true
system tunable> create var=if_re_namc value=/boot/modules/if_re.ko type=LOADER enabled=true
system tunable>

Apply these tunables, reboot the system, and you should have interfaces.

Again, Realtek has been discouraged by a few other users, and it will likely still perform below the expected level. Your system is also rather lightweight as described and may encounter a significant CPU bottleneck, especially if you hope to use this to also run virtual machines.

Thanks HoneyBadger your solution worked file with value="/boot/modules/if_re.ko"
Now at least I can experiment further!

I have 32 Gb memory installed in my Odroid, but the link Davvo mentioned above shows the N5105 supports only 16Gb Memory.
Will ask Hardkernel what this means...

 

[h.intveen]

Interestlingly, the CPU only seems to supports up to 16GB of RAM on Intel's site.

Intel® Celeron® Processor N5105 (4M Cache, up to 2.90 GHz) - Product Specifications | Intel

Intel® Celeron® Processor N5105 (4M Cache, up to 2.90 GHz) quick reference with specifications, features, and technologies.

www.intel.com

When I go to the TrueNAS web interface and look at Virtual Machines the Available Memory is: 26.62 GiB

 

[Davvo]

That's why I said it was interesting. In the link you posted earlier it says the CPU is a Intel® Quad-Core Processor Jasper Lake N5105, which on Intel's own website should, unless I'm missing something, be the Intel® Celeron® Processor N5105.
In that CPU specs, on Intel's own website, it is stated the max memory size is 16GB.
Doing a google search validates this RAM cap and excludes an error in Intel's website.

So either I am seeing things or something doesn't match.

 

[Etorix]

Or the 16 GB limit was valid at the time of release but RAM chips with double the capacity are now available, the Celeron is able to address them and Intel cannot be bothered to update its Arc listing.

 

[h.intveen]

The Odroid Forum site admin reports: The actual maximum memory address space is 64GB on the Jasper Lake platform (N5105/N6005 on H3/H3+) while their document says it is 16GB. My personal opinion is that Intel has a (bad?) habit of deliberately understating the specs to prevent their low-power processors from impacting the mainstream processors market.