Realtek re(4) driver

[Allan Jude]

On 2018-04-10 18:50, Dieter BSD wrote:
> Multiple people have found that FreeBSD's re(4) driver for Realtek
> Ethernet chips has problems.  Something like a rcp(1) with another
> FreeBSD box merely runs slower due to the stalls, but if the other end
> has buggy network code and/or if the transfer is forced to use UDP
> (Unreliable Data Protocol) data is lost.  :-(
> 
> Rumor has it that Realtek has a driver that works properly with FreeBSD.
> 
> FreeBSD's developers are apparently unable to:
> a) Fix the existing FreeBSD re(4) device driver so that it works correctly.
> b) Replace the existing FreeBSD re(4) device driver with Realtek's driver.
> c) Make Realtek's driver into a port/pkg.
> d) At least add a warning to the re(4) man page, with the URL for
>    Realtek's driver.
> 
> Therefore every user with Realtek Ethernet chips are forced to somehow
> discover that Realtek has a working driver, then somehow obtain a copy
> of this mythical driver, get it to compile and build a custom kernel.
> They then need to write a test suite and verify that Realtek's driver
> does in fact work properly for their applications.
> 
> I am currently suffering data loss due to this.  Therefore I am
> attempting to obtain a copy of the mythical Realtek device driver.
> I managed to find
> 
>> http://www.realtek.com.tw/Downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=4&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
> 
> But it does not work for me.  It has a listing for
> 
>> Description         Version Update Time File Size Download Site 1
>> FreeBSD 7.x and 8.0 1.94    2017/9/15   93k       Global
> 
> The machine with the re ports is running 10.3, hopefully the 7&8 code
> will compile and work on 10.  But the real problem is that clicking on
> "Global" does not work.  Some browsers do nothing.  Firefox creates
> a new window with http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/
> which is going backwards.  I was expecting something like a tar file
> containing the source code.
> 
> I also tried google, and emailing a FreeBSD user that runs the Realtek
> driver, but both pointed me to the above non-working URL.  I'm
> told that seamonkey works, but...
> 
> So my question is: could someone please tell me the URL that points
> *directly* to the mythical Realtek device driver?  (without
> the broken javascheist garbage)
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I think it would be useful to collect the 'pciconf -lv' output of the
re(4) devices that have issues, so they can be differentiated from the
ones that work fine.

This would be the first step to getting a developer setup with a
reliable reproduction platform, so the bug could be tracked down.

-- 
Allan Jude

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