[Plugin] Realtek R8125 R8168 and R8152\6 drivers

[jinlife]

Here is the support thread for the Realtek R8125, R8168\R8111 and R8152\6 drivers plugins.

If you have any questions, please ask in this thread.

 

Thanks to @ich777, we can bring this plugin to the community. It is fully open source and free.

The repo is: https://github.com/jinlife/unraid-r8125-r8152-driver

 

Precaution:

• Please be carefull about these drivers. You may lose the network if the driver is wrong.
• If you have no idea what type of chip your network card is, please do NOT install this plugin. There are supported chips listed in the description of the plugin.
• If you have no issues with Unraid built-in drivers, please ignore the nofitication from Fix Common Problems and keep using built-in drivers.

 

Instructions:

1.  Navigate to Tools -> System Devices  in the Unraid.
2.  If you see: Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller
3. Then you will probably benefit from the "RTL8125" plugin
4. Same step goes to R8156 and R8168\R8111 plugins.

 

Scenario:

• It is the driver for PCI 2.5G Realtek RTL8125 chip, PCI 1G Realtek RTL8168\8111 and for USB 2.5G Realtek RTL8152\6 chip network card.
• If you have one of those network card and it is not working properly and is not full speed, you can try this plugin.
• If you think the driver isn't good with your hardware, uninstallation can clean it completely.

 

Note:

Please only install the plugin for RTL8125, R8168\R8111 and RTL8152\6 chips.

Especially, if you have both RTL8168\8111 and RTL8125 network card, please install RTL8168\8111 and RTL8125 plugin together.

 

Please feel free to share your comments here.

 

Please search key word realtek in CA App and you can find them. Thanks to @Squid

Note:

1.  The R8125 or R8168 plugin will blacklist R8169 automatically, and uninstall them all will remove the blacklist.

2. The R8152\6 plugin will blacklist cdc_ncm automatically, and uninstall it will remove the blacklist.

 

 

Original source code:

R8125 v9.013.02 and R8168 v8.053.00

https://www.realtek.com/Download/List?cate_id=584

R8152(6) v2.17.1

https://www.realtek.com/Download/List?cate_id=585

 

Edited Tuesday at 11:06 AM by jinlife
update R8168 and R8125

[JorgeB]

Thanks for the plugins, looks like they are working fine both for the 8152 and 8125.

 

FYI, if with the 8152 you don't get 2.5GbE advertised link speed try adding to the go file:

 

ethtool -s eth0 autoneg on advertise 0x80000000002f

Replace eth0 with correct one.

 

Before:

Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                        1000baseT/Full

After:

Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                        1000baseT/Full
                        2500baseT/Full

 

[Squid]

These are now available within the Apps tab.

 

However, if you installed them manually before they were available, I would suggest to uninstall and then reinstall via Apps.  An issue with the plugins if installed prior would prevent them from finding out and installing if an update was available...

[Wizard_]

Does the driver offered any performance improvement than original one? My server can work properly with motherboard onboard 8125b

[JorgeB]

Some users report that the stock 8169 driver used with a 8125 NIC doesn't perform as well, especially in one direction, for me both drivers give identical performance, I basically get line speed in both directions, but worth trying for anyone having performance issues. 

[miles2023]

I have installed this plugin, but now the network configuration is lost and I cannot access the server. In the local terminal, I can see the previously set static address for the server, and it seems that there is also a network card in the PCI device. However, I don't know how to restore the network connection. Can anyone help me?

[JorgeB]

31 minutes ago, miles2023 said:

Can anyone help me?

Please post the diagnostics, you can get them form the CLI, see link.

[miles2023]

I can't access this file now. The array is not started, so I can't enter the folder where the file is stored.

BTW

I cannot find the file "network-rules.cfg" under the "/boot/config" folder, but there is a file named "network.cfg". When I try to search for the "eth0" device, it shows that the device does not exist. However, I can see my network card in the "lspci" command.

Edited July 6, 2023 by miles2023

[JorgeB]

53 minutes ago, miles2023 said:

I can't access this file now. The array is not started

Diags from the CLI are stored in the flash drive, array does not need to be started.

[Nofences]

I installed the driver and restarted, however performance is not good, when connected to my gigabit switch, I am seeing 100+ mbps transferring to and from the Unraid server, when connected to my 10gbe switch, I am getting 217 mbps FROM my Unraid server, but only 18 mbps TO the Unraid server. Cache drive on the server is functioning normally, so it is not a write speed issue. I have not removed the driver yet, but I did put my connection back on the gigabit switch until I can determine why.

[miles2023]

1 hour ago, JorgeB said:

Diags from the CLI are stored in the flash drive, array does not need to be started.

I am coming

tower-diagnostics-20230706-2135.zip

[JorgeB]

36 minutes ago, miles2023 said:

I am coming

Your NICs are not RTL8125:

 

Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:0123]
    Kernel modules: r8169

 

Since installing the plugin blacklists the stock r8169 that driver will no longer load, and the r8125 also doesn't work because it's not for those NICs, if you can boot using the GUI mode just uninstall the plugin and reboot, if not manually delete it and also remove /boot/config/modprobe.d/r8169.conf

[jinlife]

1 hour ago, Nofences said:

I installed the driver and restarted, however performance is not good, when connected to my gigabit switch, I am seeing 100+ mbps transferring to and from the Unraid server, when connected to my 10gbe switch, I am getting 217 mbps FROM my Unraid server, but only 18 mbps TO the Unraid server. Cache drive on the server is functioning normally, so it is not a write speed issue. I have not removed the driver yet, but I did put my connection back on the gigabit switch until I can determine why.

Do you have any other 2.5G card to test? Maybe a R8156 USB network card?

Some old 10Gbe chips do not support negotiate with 2.5G speed.

Edited July 6, 2023 by jinlife

[Nofences]

13 hours ago, jinlife said:

Do you have any other 2.5G card to test? Maybe a R8156 USB network card?

Some old 10Gbe chips do not support negotiate with 2.5G speed.

This card is built on to my mobo, MSI H510I Pro WiFi I do have a Plugable USBC-E2500 that uses the R8156 chipset. I included a diagnostic file this time, sorry for omitting it the first time around.

unraid-diagnostics-20230705-0607.zip

[JorgeB]

1 hour ago, Nofences said:

This card is built on to my mobo,

Please do a single stream iperf test in both directions, with this driver and the stock one.

[jinlife]

4 hours ago, Nofences said:

This card is built on to my mobo, MSI H510I Pro WiFi I do have a Plugable USBC-E2500 that uses the R8156 chipset. I included a diagnostic file this time, sorry for omitting it the first time around.

unraid-diagnostics-20230705-0607.zip 103.51 kB · 0 downloads

The diagnostic shows that you are still using R8169 to drive R8125 chips.  The rtl8125 plugin driver isn't working yet. Have you reboot unraid after install the plugin?

[ich777]

2 minutes ago, jinlife said:

The rtl8125 plugin driver isn't working yet. Have you reboot unraid after install the plugin?

4 hours ago, Nofences said:

I included a diagnostic file this time, sorry for omitting it the first time around.

In these Diagnostics the plugin isn't even installed, please install this plugin:

...reboot and then post the new Diagnostcis.

 

Please also be aware that maybe the IP address from Unraid can/will change after installing this plugin.

[miles2023]

22 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Your NICs are not RTL8125:

 

Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:0123]
    Kernel modules: r8169

 

Since installing the plugin blacklists the stock r8169 that driver will no longer load, and the r8125 also doesn't work because it's not for those NICs, if you can boot using the GUI mode just uninstall the plugin and reboot, if not manually delete it and also remove /boot/config/modprobe.d/r8169.conf

I tried everything to eliminate the "macvlan call traces found" issue, but couldn't get rid of it. So, I decided to try a different driver, but the result was even worse.

[JorgeB]

4 minutes ago, miles2023 said:

So, I decided to try a different driver, but the result was even worse.

Driver/NIC is unlikely to help with that.

[Nofences]

4 hours ago, ich777 said:

In these Diagnostics the plugin isn't even installed, please install this plugin:

...reboot and then post the new Diagnostcis.

 

Please also be aware that maybe the IP address from Unraid can/will change after installing this plugin.

CA showed the driver plugin was already installed, I went ahead and removed it, rebooted, then reinstalled from CA and then rebooted again. Performance is still the same, new diagnostic file is attached.

unraid-diagnostics-20230707-0801.zip

[Nofences]

7 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Please do a single stream iperf test in both directions, with this driver and the stock one.

Here are the results of the iperf tests with the driver installed.

I neglected to test before reinstalling the driver.

[JorgeB]

28 minutes ago, Nofences said:

Here are the results of the iperf tests with the driver installed.

Driver is installed now, I get line speed in both directions with mine, with both this and the stock driver, so other things may be involved.

[jinlife]

Someone found that disable the bridge can fix the speed issue. But there is no network available in VM after that, you have to use macvtap to connect VM.

You can disable bridge and do the iperf test. If the speed is normal, then unfotunately, you are encountering the same issue. I'm afraid we can't solve it from driver pespective, it might be caused by other reasons..

 

Please take a look at page 3, there is an English version: 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by jinlife

[ParHelia]

For the sake of info, the rtl8156 plugin "revived" my Sabrent USB 2.5gbit NIC.

By "revived", I mean that I had stopped using it due to the fact that it was not being recognized by Unraid any longer.

 

I did configure an MTU of 9000 but the transfers were fine at the default setting already.

 

[Graxo]

EDIT: I have removed the plugin(s) and its working again. But the pci adapter doesnt work in my OPNSense vm. I can passthrough the adapter to the VM, but it doenst get recionized as valid adapters.

IOMMU group 20:[10ec:8125] 06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller (rev 05)

IOMMU group 21:[10ec:8125] 09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller (rev 05)

----

Hi,

 

I installed this driver for my unraid installation, but now none of my nic's work anymore..

eth0 was my managment nic for the unraid GUI. The ethernet port on the motherboard.

I am also using a 2.5 gig pci network adapter, i installed the driver to use these because they dont seem to work in my OPNSense vm.

 

How do i uninstall these drivers again? or how to make eth0 to work again?

 

Kind regrads,

Graxo

Edited July 9, 2023 by Graxo