RE(4)

NAME
re - RealTek 816xS/811xS/8101E/8105E/8125 PCI/PCIe Ethernet adapter driver

SYNOPSIS
device miibus
device re

Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following line in /boot/loader.conf:

    if_re_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
The re driver provides support for various NICs based on the RealTek RTL8169S, RTL8110S, RTL8168S, RTL8111S, RTL8101E and RTL8125 PCI and PCIe ethernet controllers.

NICs based on the 8101E are capable of 10 and 100Mbps speeds over CAT5 cable. NICs based on the 816xS and 811xS are capable of 10, 100 and 1000Mbps operation. NICs based on the 8125 are capable of 10, 100, 1000Mbps and 2500Mbps operation.

All NICs supported by the re driver have TCP/IP checksum offload and hardware VLAN tagging/insertion features, and use a descriptor-based DMA mechanism. They are also capable of TCP large send (TCP segmentation offload).

The 8169S and 8110S are single-chip devices containing both a 10/100/1000 MAC and 10/100/1000 copper PHY. Standalone 10/100/1000 cards are available in both 32-bit PCI and 64-bit PCI models. The 8110S is designed for embedded LAN-on-motherboard applications.

The re driver supports the following media types:

autoselect
    Enable autoselection of the media type and options. The user can manually override the autoselected mode by adding media options to rc.conf(5).

10baseT/UTP
    Set 10Mbps operation. The ifconfig(8) mediaopt option can also be used to select either full-duplex or half-duplex modes.

100baseTX
    Set 100Mbps (fast ethernet) operation. The ifconfig(8) mediaopt option can also be used to select either full-duplex or half-duplex modes.

1000baseT
    Set 1000baseT operation over twisted pair. The RealTek gigE chips support 1000Mbps in full-duplex mode only.

The re driver supports the following media options:

full-duplex
    Force full duplex operation.

half-duplex
    Force half duplex operation.

For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8). The re driver supports polling(4).

  MIB Variables
A number of per-interface variables are implemented in the dev.re.X branch of the sysctl(3) MIB.

rx_desc_count
    Number of RX descriptors (read-only). Use the tunable hw.re.rx_desc_count to configure it.

tx_desc_count
    Number of TX descriptors (read-only). Use the tunable hw.re.tx_desc_count to configure it.

imtype
    Interrupt moderation type. 0 means disable interrupt moderation. 1 means using simulated interrupt moderation (default). 2 means using hardware interrupt moderation, if hardware supports it. Due to lack of proper document, hardware interrupt moderation (2) may not work as expected.

sim_time
    If imtype is set to 1, it controls interrupt moderation time (unit: 1us). It will not have any effect, if imtype is 0 or 2. By default, it is set to 150us.

hw_txtime
    If the controller does not support hardware interrupt moderation, then this sysctl node will not exist. If imtype is set to 2, it controls TX interrupt moderation time (unit: 25us). It will not have any effect, if imtype is 0 or 1. It is set to 5 (125us) by default. Due to lack of chip document, it may not work reliably.

hw_rxtime
    If the controller does not support hardware interrupt moderation, then this sysctl node will not exist. If imtype is set to 2, it controls RX interrupt moderation time (unit: 25us). It will not have any effect, if imtype is 0 or 1. It is set to 2 (50us) by default. Due to lack of chip document, it may not work reliably.

HARDWARE
The re driver supports RealTek RTL816xS, RTL811xS, RTL8105E, RTL8101E, and RTL8125 based Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet adapters including:

•   Corega CG-LAPCIGT Gigabit Ethernet (8169S)
•   D-Link DGE-528(T) Gigabit Ethernet (8169S)
•   Gigabyte 7N400 Pro2 Integrated Gigabit Ethernet (8110S)
•   LevelOne GNC-0105T (8169S)
•   LinkSys EG1032 (32-bit PCI)
•   PLANEX COMMUNICATIONS Inc. GN-1200TC (8169S)

SEE ALSO
arp(4), ifmedia(4), netintro(4), ng_ether(4), polling(4), vlan(4), ifconfig(8)

HISTORY
The re device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 5.2 and DragonFly 1.0.

AUTHORS
The re driver was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@windriver.com>.