Realtek RTL8169 on FreeBSD 5.4: no carrier.

[Julien Gabel]

> I recently installed FreeBSD 5.4 on an ABIT AA-8 DuraMax and all went
> well.  All hardware detected properly and everything was running great,
> until I got to configuring my network.  ifconfig shows my onboard
> gigabit LAN as "status: no carrier"
>
> I can successfully ping localhost and the IP that was assigned to re0
> (192.168.1.31).
>
> when I plug an ethernet cable from my FreeBSD box to my router, I get
> "status: no carrier."  Oddly, when I plug an ethernet cable from my
> FreeBSD box to my laptop's LAN port, I get "status: active".  The lights
> on the ethernet jack indicate the same.
>
> Additionally, if I manually set the media with the following command:
> # ifconfig re0 media 10baseT/UTP mediaopt full-duplex
> The status magically switches to "active" and I can use my ethernet!
>
> I know that there are known problems with RealTek chipsets, but it is
> listed in the 5.4 supported hardware list.
>
> Bottom line is that the onboard LAN is detected, installed, and working
> properly, but it seems as if the driver can't properly detect when a
> cable is plugged into the jack.
>
> I was hoping someone could help.
>
> uname -a:
> --------------------------------------
> FreeBSD db.domain.com 5.4-RELEASE FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE #0: Sun May 8
> 10:21:06 UTC 2005
> root at harlow.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386
>
> ifconfig:
> --------------------------------------
> re0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
> options=18<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAAGGING>
> inet 192.168.1.31 netmast 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
> inet6 ...
> ether 00:50:8d:eb:e5:be
> media: Ethernet autoselect (none)
> status: no carrier
> lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
> inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
> inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
> inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
>
>
> Relevant dmesg:
> --------------------------------------
> re0: <RealTek 8169S Single-chip Gigabit Ethernet> port 0xee00-0xeeff mem
> 0xfbfff000-0xfbfff0ff irc 16 at device 1.0 on pci1
> miibus0: <MII bus> on re0
> rgephy0: <RTL8169S/8110S media interface> on miibus0
> rgephy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseTX,
> 1000baseTX-FDX, auto
> re0: Ethernet address: 00:50:8d:eb:e5:be
>
>
> pciconf -lv:
> --------------------------------------
> re0 at pci1:1:0: class=0x020000 card=0x1039147b chip=0x816910ec rev=0x10
> hdr=0x00
> vendor = 'Realtek Semiconductor'
> device = 'RTL8169 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
> class = network
> subclass = ethernet
>
> pciconf -r pci1:1:0 0:0xff
> --------------------------------------
> 816910ec 02b00007 02000010 00002008
> 0000ee01 fbfff000 00000000 00000000
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 1039147b
> 00000000 000000dc 00000000 40200110
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 f7c20001
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000


Regrettably, i always encountered this problem.  I spoke about that since
the middle of 2004, and didn't really receive feedback on this.  I try a
lot of things but none worked better than the other.

To not forget about it, i filled a bug report on this particular problem,
see PR kern/80005 for more details.

The last thing i want to give another try is to upgrade to RELENG_6,
since i currently follow the RELENG_5 branch.  But i am not *very*
confident about that...

Sorry not to have better answer to give you.

-- 
-jpeg.