Realtek 8111C?

[Da Rock]

On Sat, 2008-09-20 at 09:18 -0700, Sebastian wrote:
> Oliver Fromme wrote:
> > Sebastian <sebastian at mindling.com> wrote:
> >  > I'd like to confirm my understanding of current status on this NIC. It 
> >  > seems, based on some searching, the current Realtek driver in FreeBSD 
> >  > doesn't support the 8111C, and that although the vendor-supplied driver 
> >  > _may_ work for older 5.x and 6.0 releases (if one can get it compiled, I 
> >  > couldn't), it doesn't work in 6.3 or 7. So the RTL8111C is effectively 
> >  > not supported. True?
> >  > 
> >  > I picked up a nice little Atom board to use as a low-power NAS, and 
> >  > unfortunately just assumed the onboard Realtek NIC was supported. 
> >  > Unfortunately I don't have a PCI slot on this mobo to use a different NIC.
> >
> > What vendor ID and product ID, exactly?
> > ("pciconf -lv" will tell.)
> >   
> Thanks for all the responses. I've made a little progress as a result.
> 
> The computer is an MSI Wind barebone unit with "MS-7418" on the mb.
> Link: <http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=Wind_PC&class=npc>
> 
> The NIC is an RTL8111C, and here's the output of `pciconf -lv` on FreeBSD 6.3:
> 
> none2 at pci0:1:0:0:     class=0x020000 card=0x41801462 chip=0x816810ec rev=0x02 hdr=0x00
>     class      = network
>     subclass   = ethernet
> 
> After reading the responses here, I tried the 7.1-beta live CD. It detects the
> NIC, and the output of the above is changed slightly (new name):
> 
> re0 at pci0:1:0:0:     class=0x020000 card=0x41801462 chip=0x816810ec rev=0x02 hdr=0x00
>     class      = network
>     subclass   = ethernet
> 
> I was able to bring up the interface using the live CD, and at first glance it
> seems to be working (pings ok), but I didn't stress-test it.
> 
> So if all else fails, I will continue using 7.1. But first, since I'm trying to
> use FreeNAS, which is FreeBSD 6.3, I thought I'd try copying the driver from 7.1.
> The module (if_re.ko) appears to load successfully at boot time, however the NIC
> is still not shown in dmesg and unavailable as re0. I admit I don't know if this
> should even work (7.1-compiled module on 6.3 kernel). I may be missing something.
> 
> This machine will run off a CF card, hence the desire to use flash-friendly
> FreeNAS. I do have some experience with NanoBSD, so if I can't get FreeNAS to
> work I'll pursue that with 7.1.
> 
> Thanks for any further insights you might have!

There is already a driver available for 6.3, but you need to compile it
yourself. Check the drivers list for details.