Install RTL8125 NIC driver on CORE

Hi,

is some way to install RTL8125 driver on CORE version 13 ?

Also, what are native supported NICs for CORE ?

No. TrueNAS is an appliance OS; there’s no way to install drivers for other hardware. Moreover, Realtek are garbage network interfaces in any event, and 2.5 GbE is a garbage technology. You might find that this interface is “supported” (i.e., recognized) in SCALE, but it still isn’t a good choice.

The recommended NICs are pretty much anything Intel. If you insist on 2.5 GbE, the 226 chips suck least. But really, if you need faster than GbE, the next good step is to 10 GbE. More information about that here:

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Recommendation would be an Intel NIC.

The specified model is a 2.5G NIC? This is generally to avoid, stay 1G or go 10g.

Old but gold:

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If you ask Is my Realtek ethernet really that bad? | TrueNAS Community the answer is ususally yes.

To be fair, the experience is repeated every time someone tries a “new” Realtek chipset and was promised that it’ll work “this time”. :smiley:

Fast forward to yours truly who was convinced by copious positive Amazon reviews to try out the plugable USB-C 2.5GbE adapter in his MBPro and after about 2 min of hot and heavy Time Machine backup, the adapter would go dark, reset, and restart.

Keep in mind that TimeMachine, by design, is not that network-intensive.

Now, is it possible that the switch the thing was plugged into was the real culprit? Sure, but it doesn’t explain why the thing kept going dark and resetting. No oinks from my laptop re: USB power going bad either.

So, no, while Realtek Ethernet can work for some people some of the time, the collective experience here is that it should be avoided. Even the first generation mini from iXsystems featured an Intel Ethernet chipset while engineers likely spent a lot of time making the Marvell SATA drivers reliable.

Given how inexpensive and reliable fiber is these days, I would look to fiber @10GbE first and consider 2.5 copper only as a very last resort. Fast copper runs hot, has very little range, and the standard is still seemingly being worked out. 10GbE fiber has been around for over a decade, and other than a little extra work re: what type of fiber to use and potential vendor locks, just works.

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Moreover, in the product description there is a clear “Not recommended for use with FreeBSD or pfSense”.

What, it's kinda hidden? And what do you mean by "Universal Compatibility"?

Screenshot_1

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It was plugged into my Mac though and that is allegedly compatible. I’d never even think of using the plugable adapter on my server. The OM3 MM fiber is super reliable, interference-proof, etc.

The QNAP Thunderbolt to SFP+ adapter is rock solid on MacOS, BTW. I like it better than my older Sonnet since it has a detachable Thunderbolt 3 cable and runs a lot cooler.

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Hi,

tks for quick answer … I thought it was transparent to any NIC in the market …

I´ll try intel NIC …

regards

Nice.

I use the Sabrent one

It’s based on the Aquantia chipset. I find it unreliable. It just drops out for 10-30s multiple times a day.

I also have a number of PCs with the same chipset in their 10gbe adapters, built into X570 motherboards. Can’t get them to reliably run network CI loads without failing.

Ergo, my experience with Aquantia is not good :-/

Never had issues with Intel X570 (iirc) adapters.

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That Sabrent is 10GbE copper…

I’ve heard so many horror stories re: heat, power draw, etc that I’d avoid 10GbE copper for the next 10 years until they actually figure out how to do it reliably and without smoking power supplies, switches, etc. in the process.

SFP+ works great, there is a flood of used but working 10GbE fiber adapters out there and if you want to go faster, those options exist also. 10GbE copper is a “me too!” technology option that is still too close to the bleeding edge, ie it causes a lot of bleeding as you pull your hair out trying to troubleshoot it.

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Agreed, totally worth going SFP+ and if you need to run small distance (ie from your quiet NAS to your laptop) it’s reasonably cheap as well.

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Some day economies of scale will make 10GbE copper less expensive than fiber or DAC but for now SFP+ is typically less expensive than 10GbE copper. It’s also more common on quality switches and routers like the MikroTik stuff. I also like how fiber eliminates the possibility of EMI or lightning-induced issues.

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Also, they run much cooler and have a recuded latency compared to copper.

Bit hard to get Mac Minis with SFP+ tho :wink:

There are adapers :thinking:

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That’s the kind of application the QNAP SFP+ Thunderbolt Adapter is perfect for. No drivers to install, defaults to 10GbE, does not get in your way.

With SFP+ you can tailor your fiber to your needs, ie MM OM3 for inexpensive SOHO applications to SM OM4+ if you need to cover really great distances and/or need higher speeds. For very short distances, there are inexpensive and simple DACs as well.

10GbE copper in contrast can only really handle short distances and relies on $$$$ cabling. The one major advantage that copper has over fiber is the ease of termination. The connectors cost nothing ditto the installation equipment compared to properly terminating a bare fiber. But pre-terminated fiber is cheap, so as long as you don’t need to run bare fiber, you will be ok.

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Don’t get me started on Realtek USB NICs. I once had one (integrated in a USB-C hub) so bad, it took down my network. I don’t even know how, it must have been flooding broadcast garbage or doing something stupid with ARP. Returned it the very next day.
Oh, and that time I wasted an afternoon debugging a router running OPNSense or pfsense, chasing after why Multicast traffic wasn’t getting routed properly. It was a NIC bug! So much for “surely these things can handle a light workload for one afternoon while I wait for my Intel NICs”.

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lol. Comes down to how much you value your time and sanity vs. paying slightly more for a proper NIC and never having to think about it again.

Imagine my joy when I discovered that our electrician had broken every single fiber when he tried to terminate them. I had to redo the entire house. Bought the right tools on eBay, did it all, resold the tools at a small loss. But boy were the tools expensive. Plus $60 in terminations per fiber. It adds up!

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A bit OT: don’t know how it works in your country, but here he’d be expected to fix what he broke.

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I’m just itching for an excuse to buy a fiber splicer, but I would need to do a crapton of terminations to justify the expense.