24.1.10 to 25.1.3 : "os-realtek-re" plugin needs to be reinstalled

[lostpacket]

Short feedback... I've upgraded from 24.1.10 to 25.1.3 last night.

All went good, a piece of cake for the network hobbyist that I am. Thanks OpnSense team & contributors, fantastic work as always.

Only issue : I had to uninstall, then reinstall the "os-realtek-re" plugin to get my (cheap) RTL8111-based NIC card working properly under heavy load. This is already why I installed it on 24.1 ; I guess the upgrade disabled the plugin, as its version (1.0) didn't change.

Unfortunately, even if FreeBSD is stating RTL8111 to be supported in 14.2 (which is the version OpnSense 25.1 relies on), the test I made with plugin disabled were unconclusive.

https://www.freebsd.org/releases/14.2R/hardware/

I know neither third-party plugins or FreeBSD development are under the control of OpnSense ; this post is only for raising awareness about this behavior, for anybody who may be concerned.

Cheers :)

[franco]

On upgrades, we reinstall ALL packages using the -f switch as indicated by:

https://github.com/opnsense/update/blob/0c9eb093b27d43a5ce8123d0314ae89d52e7bc23/src/update/opnsense-update.sh.in#L998-L999

Which means the matching Realtek packages for the new kernel are installed as well, unless there is a persistent issue that could be seen in the upgrade log.


Cheers,
Franco

[lostpacket]

Hi Franco,

Thanks for your feedback.

Unfortunately I didn't keep track of the firmware upgrade log when I rolled it yesterday... I'm not sure it's saved somewhere as I'm running over RAM, but I'll be happy to retrieve it for you if it is.

I'm pretty sure it was the reinstall how did the trick... I've been encountering "link state changed to DOWN" random errors, that persisted when I removed the plugin, but disappeared right after reinstall. I don't remember editing any other setting (except for the brand new dashboard ahah) neither did I switch interfaces, cables or anything related to hardware.

Anyway, thanks again for your dedication. Please let me know if I can do anything to help :)

[franco]

It should be persistent, check

# opnsense-update -G


Thanks,
Franco

[lostpacket]

Looks like you were right ! Only posting relevant parts of the log (last three lines are actually the last three in the file) but I definitively missed this when it went through.

Code Select Expand

# opnsense-update -G
...
os-realtek-re-1.0: already unlocked
...
realtek-re-kmod-1100.00.1401000_1: already unlocked
...
[184/209] Upgrading realtek-re-kmod from 1100.00.1401000_1 to 1100.00.1402000_1...
[184/209] Extracting realtek-re-kmod-1100.00.1402000_1: .... done
...
[209/209] Reinstalling os-realtek-re-1.0...
[209/209] Extracting os-realtek-re-1.0: .. done
pkg-static: Fail to rename /usr/local/etc/rc.loader.d/.pkgtemp.50-realtek-re.x4XvZnhNXmT0 -> /usr/local/etc/rc.loader.d/50-realtek-re:No such file or directory
#

I have no idea what caused it... I never use the shell, but I did numerous setting updates in the past and went through some sunday-hobbyist incidents (burned NIC, power cuts, hot removing of cables, etc.) ; therefore I'm not too surprised such a glitch could happen.

Let me know if I can help to anything else :) thanks again

[franco]

That appears to explain it:

> pkg-static: Fail to rename /usr/local/etc/rc.loader.d/.pkgtemp.50-realtek-re.x4XvZnhNXmT0 -> /usr/local/etc/rc.loader.d/50-realtek-re:No such file or directory

The file that is required to load the module at boot time was not installed due to some sort of previous package manager error (these are a bit obscure unfortunately).

The health audit would have spotted this I think, but reinstalling was the right fix anyway.


Cheers,
Franco