Fwd: FBSD 7.1 BETA2 and RTL8168/8111 problem

[Pegasus Mc Cleaft]

On Friday 28 November 2008 17:14:33 Fernando Apesteguía wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I forward my orginal mail to freebsd-questions. I hope someone can
> shed some light here...
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Fernando Apesteguía <fernando.apesteguia at gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 9:33 AM
> Subject: FBSD 7.1 BETA2 and RTL8168/8111 problem
> To: FreeBSD <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I recently installed FreeBSD 7.1 BETA2 on my system. During
> installation using FTP option, I could notice the following:
>
> After some random time (two, five or six minutes, for instance) the
> installation stalled and sysinstall lost the connection. I was taken
> back to the "Select FTP site" screen, and I had to configure my NIC
> again. Then, the install resumed and I got a usable system (MINIMAL +
> docs + manpages)
>
> But the problem persists. From time to time, it seems the kernel can't
> see the NIC. It happens during normal operation and no message is
> shown in /var/log/messages. ifconfig doesn't show my 're0' device, so
> I can't run dhclient on it and I have to reboot. I have to say that
> sometimes, even when I reboot, the NIC (RTL8168/8111 PCI Express) is
> not present.
>
> This device works fine in the same computer with either Vista or
> Fedora 9, though I have to say I had similar problems with earlier
> versions of Fedora (device disappearing or not present after boot),
> but after a kernel upgrade everything run smoothly.
>
> Does FreeBSD use the same driver than Linux does? Anybody else with
> this problem?
>

Hi Fernando, 

	I have seen this problem on my machine as well with both 7.X and 8.0-current. 
I am using a RTL8111C chip on a ICH9 GigaByte GA-48X-DS5 motherboard. 

	If the problem you are experiencing is the same as mine, the clue will be in 
the dmesg. If you take a look, you may see an error message saying something 
about a MAC without a PHY (I cant remember the exact message). The motherboard 
I have has 2 ethernet ports on it, and randomly it would be missing one or 
both of them. 

	I gave up on trying to get mine to work and turned off the ethernet option in 
BIOS and installed an Intel Pro/1000 based card. I have found the em driver to 
be rock stable. 

Peg