Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:58:51 +0200 From: Lukas Razik <freebsd@razik.name> To: Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org> Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Issue with 7.0-RELEASE and Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC Message-ID: <48A2B05B.20000@razik.name> In-Reply-To: <20080811205530.GA54217@eos.sc1.parodius.com> References: <200808110000.58666.freebsd@razik.name> <20080810234421.GA90311@eos.sc1.parodius.com> <200808112221.00672.freebsd@razik.name> <20080811205530.GA54217@eos.sc1.parodius.com>
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Hello! >>I'm happy to see that it could work with the newest 7.0-STABLE tree because I >>don't want to buy a new NIC which works with FreeBSD. > > > Be aware that Realtek NICs have a history of being incredibly buggy and > having very odd engineering design flaws. I go to great lengths to > avoid them on motherboards; I agree an OS should work with it, but based > on the pain I've seen Yong-Hyeon (driver maintainer) go through when it > comes to hardware revisions or general oddities, I often cringe at the > idea of using a Realtek NIC in any environment I have control over. > (I've blogged about how Realtek more or less dominates the consumer > market with their NIC/PHYs, which is quite scary considering the bugs > even in their Windows drivers.) > > I am very, very thankful we have an active rl(4) and re(4) driver > maintainer, though. :-) I know that there are better NICs (in the past I had some from Intel) but the system is only for personal use and I don't need a "optimal working" Ethernet network, so the onboard RTL NICs should be enough for my purposes... >>I use FreeBSD for 90% >>(for some years now) and therefore I also bought a 3ware 8006-2LP Hardware- >>RAID controller and will buy a second HighPoint 3120 HW-RAID controller (which >>is less expensive) because I had bad experiences with the Fake- (or >>Pseudo-)RAID controllers like the "normal" onboard controllers and others >>(Promise FastTrak 4310 etc.). > > > I have a tendency to like Intel (and occasionally nVidia, but highly > prefer Intel) ICH controllers simply because Intel has fantastic product > errata, and the ICH controllers have performed quite well over the > years. They're also used on server hardware (read: Supermicro). > > But in this day and age, one of the best SATA controllers for FreeBSD is > an Areca controller. They're somewhat expensive (comparatively), but > the performance is apparently stunning, combined with decent FreeBSD > drivers that utilise CAM and da(4) (yes, despite the disks being SATA). > Every time people mention them on the lists, the response is the same: > amazing performance, and really good driver + administrative support > (e.g. software administrative utilities). > > I do wish Areca made a less expensive controller with less features, > intended for "tech-savvy" consumer use, in the US$125 or less price > range. I've read about the Areca (aka Tekram?) controllers and the good support by FreeBSD but as I told you, I have a 3ware controller and I'me _very_ happy with it. But now I need a second one (with PCIe x1 and two SATA ports) for RAID1 because it seems as if the RAID-functionallity of my onboard ICH9R controller isn't supported by FreeBSD and Linux but I want to do further testing... I've looked for such an Areca HW-RAID controller some days ago because of my bad experiences with the Fake-RAID controllers in the past and I've found the new Areca ARC-1200: http://www.areca.com.tw/products/2ports.htm but here in Germany it's with ~140EUR even more expensive than the 3ware 9650SE-2LP which is listed for ~130EUR: http://www.3ware.com/products/serial_ata2-9650.asp Then I've seen that HighPoint doesn't produce only cheap Fake-RAID cards but also the HighPoint RocketRAID 3120 HW-RAID controller which is listed for only ~100EUR and which ostensibly has a good Linux/FreeBSD support. If I will not be able to get the ICH9R working stable with FreeBSD and Linux, then I will buy the HighPoint 3120. If it works good and I have the time then I'll benchmark it against the 3ware 8006-2LP under FreeBSD... >>Now I also have troubles with FreeBSD and the ICH9R SATA-controller >>and it's RAID functionality. > > > I'm not surprised. FreeBSD's Intel MatrixRAID support is very > dangerous, I would not recommend using it if your data matters. There > are a few PRs which contain patches that address some of the concerns, > but out-of-the-box, I'd recommend avoiding Intel MatrixRAID on FreeBSD. > Then I can save my time... :-) Thanks for your answer with all information! Regards, Lukas
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