Realtek re(4) driver

[Rodney W. Grimes]

> 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)
> 
> 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.

IIRC one of the "issues" with re type devies is that you can have
the exact same PCI vendor and device ID, but they are NOT the same
device.  You have to read some additional realtek specific hwrev
register to know which card you actuall have.  That is why another
person in this thread asked for dmesg output, as the driver decodes
these bits and spits out a proper info line.

Search for RL_HWREV in both if_rl.c and if_re.c, the re gets
this info from the if_rl.h header.

SO if you want to submit your pciconf -lv,
PLEASE include the dmesg output for the device.

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

-- 
Rod Grimes                                                 rgrimes at freebsd.org