TrueNAS Scale and RTL8125 rev 0c

TrueNAS General
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1

Hi,

I have issue with network card not working on TrueNAS Scale 24.10.2 and 25.04-RC.1
I’m using Asus Prime B840M-A motherboard with RTL8125 rev 0c.
The strange part about it is that if I install PCIe RTL8125 2.5GbE rev 05 it works just fine.

Working NIC:
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller (rev 05)
Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 32, IOMMU group 13
I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
Memory at f6a00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Memory at f6a10000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable+ 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 01
Capabilities: [b0] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=32 Masked-
Capabilities: [d0] Vital Product Data
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [148] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [168] Device Serial Number 01-00-00-00-68-4c-e0-00
Capabilities: [178] Transaction Processing Hints
Capabilities: [204] Latency Tolerance Reporting
Capabilities: [20c] L1 PM Substates
Capabilities: [21c] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0002 Rev=4 Len=100 <?>
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169

non working NIC:
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller (rev 0c)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 34, IOMMU group 13
I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
Memory at f6800000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Memory at f6810000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable+ 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 01
Capabilities: [b0] MSI-X: Enable- Count=64 Masked-
Capabilities: [d0] Vital Product Data
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [148] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [164] Device Serial Number 01-00-00-00-68-4c-e0-00
Capabilities: [174] Transaction Processing Hints
Capabilities: [200] Latency Tolerance Reporting
Capabilities: [208] L1 PM Substates
Capabilities: [218] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0002 Rev=4 Len=100 <?>
Kernel modules: r8169

Could you please advise if there are any way to fix onboard card? I’m trying to make this system as much power efficient as possible, hence I don’t want to install external NIC.

From what I found so far is that r8169 is not a correct driver for this NIC and while it can still work, it is better to have realtek-r8125-dkms driver instead. Any recommendations about it? Is it good idea or not?

Thanks!

2

Sorry, I don’t have any recommendations.

But I do have an explanation. For some hardware vendors, Linux is not considered a Tier 1 OS, like MS-Windows can be. So some hardware vendors do not release pre-sales hardware to Linux driver developers. Or develop the drivers themselves.

This sounds like the Linux “realtek-r8125-dkms” driver does not recognize the chips correctly. That can happen when a small identifying detail is changed.

As for if / when it will get fixed in TrueNAS SCALE, I would follow up with upstream Debian to see if they have a fix.


To put it bluntly, iX can’t fix all problems in the base OS. They do take responsibility for OpenZFS and other components that are critical for SCALE. But, drivers for chips that don’t exist in their own iX branded hardware can be difficult to deal with.

Good luck.

1 Like
3

This sounds like the Linux “realtek-r8125-dkms” driver does not recognize the chips correctly.

I don’t have this driver installed. I’m using out of the box TrueNAS. I was just wondering if this is good idea to try it since I saw mentioning that this driver works much better than r8169. However while installing it on vanila linux or system such as proxmox is stright foward, I’m not sure how to do it no TrueNAS and if it is good idea or not.

4

Not a good idea, since truenas is designed as an appliance os and it’s not recommended, nor supported to install driver yourself.

3 Likes
5

Just to close this look, I end up installing Proxmox with realtek-r8125-dkms driver and TrueNAS inside Proxmox.

6

So you provided the TrueNAS VM likely the vmxnet3 NIC and letting Proxmox perform the interfacing.

Glad you found a solution that works for you.

7

I too am having this issue with a 2.5Gb Realtek RTL8125B NIC.