Realtek RTL8125/8126/8127 new driver 2.5/5/10GBE

brnrd

brnrd

Developer
Hi all,

Work is underway to add the OpenBSD driver for Realtek RTL8125/8126/8127 to FreeBSD base (in -HEAD).
See thread in https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-current/2025-November/009481.html

This new driver works for me (both versions of realtek-re-kmod repeatedly crash my system) and some other people.
With sufficient testing in 15.0 (and perhaps 14.3) we may get the driver backported to these versions.

For testing, I created the net/realtek-rge-kmod port.

https://www.freshports.org/net/realtek-rge-kmod/

Feedback that it works is helpful, as is reporting issues with the if_rge driver.
The port should show up in the FreeBSD-ports-kmod pkg repo for 14 and 15 soon.

Cheers, Bernard.
 
Don't have that hardware myself, so cannot test. But this is going to make a whole bunch of people very happy.

brnrd said:
With sufficient testing in 15.0 (and perhaps 14.3) we may get the driver backported to these versions.
Click to expand...
By that I presume you mean backported to stable/14 and stable/15, so they'll be included in 14.4 and 15.1 when the time comes.

(Moving this to "Networking", I've put other network driver issues there too, can't do much networking without a working driver)
(Edit: stickied the post too)
 
Seems to work on the ASROCK TRX50 motherboard. using 15-stable
with 1 x 2.5 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000/2500 Mb/s (Dragon RTL8125BG) chipset.
Switch is Cisco 1 Gbit so no high 2.5 Gbit test possible

Code: 
rge0: flags=1008843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> metric 0 mtu 1500
        options=9b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM>
        ether 9c:6b:00:a8:af:18
        inet 192.168.XXX.XXX  netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.XXX.255
        media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
        status: active
        nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
 
SirDice said:
Don't have that hardware myself, so cannot test. But this is going to make a whole bunch of people very happy.


By that I presume you mean backported to stable/14 and stable/15, so they'll be included in 14.4 and 15.1 when the time comes.

(Moving this to "Networking", I've put other network driver issues there too, can't do much networking without a working driver)
(Edit: stickied the post too)
Click to expand...
Thanks!

Not sure what Adrian's plans are. He mentioned "short lived port" which I'm very much in favor of! Please check mailinglist thread for more info.
 
Note that FreshPorts' /net/realtek-rge-kmod will not display packages in the 'kmods' repositories, only the 'default' ones. (dvl@ , Dan Langille has that in the works, I don't know its current status.)

With respect to the 'kmods', when having been build remotely sucessfully and distributed, I'll be expecting it to appear in the repositories of the ports tree:
  1. FreeBSD-kmods for stable/14 and 14.3-RELEASE
  2. FreeBSD-ports-kmods for stable/15 and 15.0-RELEASE

However, if past is prologue, it may well appear too (and possibly even sooner) in the 'default' repositories of the ports tree:
  1. FreeBSD for stable/14 and 14.3-RELEASE
  2. FreeBSD-ports for stable/15 and 15.0-RELEASE
Such as is the case with the 'established' realtek drivers:
Rich (BB code): 
[1-0] # pkg rquery -e '%n~realtek-r*' '[%R] %n %v' | column -t
[FreeBSD-ports]        realtek-re-kmod     1101.00.1500068
[FreeBSD-ports]        realtek-re-kmod198  198.00.1500068
[FreeBSD-ports-kmods]  realtek-re-kmod     1101.00.1500068
[FreeBSD-ports-kmods]  realtek-re-kmod198  198.00.1500068

Edit: given the normal practices, the package will not appear in quarterly, only in latest for now. With a new quarter, in about a month, I'm expecting it to appear in quarterly too.
 
brnrd said:
Not sure what Adrian's plans are.
Click to expand...
Us dyed-in-the-wool FreeBSD users and developers will know, but new users regularly have trouble understanding how the FreeBSD development process works. I was trying to say it won't be added to the existing releases. Once a version has been released (X.Y-RELEASE) responsibility is handed over to the security officer. And they only accept security or errata (significant breakages), never new features, drivers or anything of that order.
 
Now available as a package.

This is 14.3-RELEASE using "latest":
Rich (BB code): 
[0-0] # date -u
Wed Dec  3 18:35:57 UTC 2025
[1-0] # pkg rquery -e '%n~realtek-r*' '[%R] %n %v' | column -t
[FreeBSD]        realtek-re-kmod     1101.00.1403000
[FreeBSD]        realtek-re-kmod198  198.00.1403000
[FreeBSD-kmods]  realtek-re-kmod     1101.00.1403000
[FreeBSD-kmods]  realtek-re-kmod198  198.00.1403000
[FreeBSD-kmods]  realtek-rge-kmod    20251129.1403000

This is on 15.0-RELEASE using "latest"
Rich (BB code): 
[1-0] # pkg rquery -e '%n~realtek-r*' '[%R] %n %v'|column -t
[FreeBSD-ports]        realtek-re-kmod     1101.00.1500068
[FreeBSD-ports]        realtek-re-kmod198  198.00.1500068
[FreeBSD-ports-kmods]  realtek-re-kmod     1101.00.1500068
[FreeBSD-ports-kmods]  realtek-re-kmod198  198.00.1500068
[FreeBSD-ports-kmods]  realtek-rge-kmod    20251129.1500068
 
brnrd said:
With sufficient testing in 15.0 (and perhaps 14.3) [...]
Click to expand...
Is this experimental version not capable or not intended to be run on a 13 branch?

I'm not an expert in Makefiles and therefore I might very well be overlooking the obvious, but in the Makefile and in its package description I don't see it specifically being specified or mentioned that it is not for the 13 branch:
Code: 
 # pkg inf -D realtek-rge-kmod
realtek-rge-kmod-20251129.1403000:
On install:
!!! This port is EXPERIMENTAL !!!

Add the following lines to your /boot/loader.conf
to load the FreeBSD rge(4) driver.

if_rge_load="YES"

On upgrade:
!!! This port is EXPERIMENTAL !!!

Add the following lines to your /boot/loader.conf
to load the FreeBSD rge(4) driver.

if_rge_load="YES"

Also users might try to build it when running a 13 branch version.

Note that allthough this is a 'kmods' driver package, as you can see abvove the 'established' realtek 'kmods' driver packages do also appear in the 'default' package repository, i.e. FreeBSD and FreeBSD-ports.
 
Likewise, both work fine for me, re and rge. Freebsd 15-stable. In terms of preformance for general desktop usage I don't notice any difference but my link is limited to 200mbps on average.
 
What a day to read this. I published an article about the driver(s) issue with Realtek RTL8125 exactly on this day a year ago. Back then, it was necessary to fetch an alternative driver and rename it, so it could be loaded during boot.
 
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