MSI Cubi 5 12M 009 - PfSense install - setup REALTEK 2.5g NIC

paul@waldon.com.au

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FYI - after heaps of hours trying to get this to work, I'm posting here on how to install pfsense on this box (This is not a full walkthrough - but you should get the drift of it)
Note - I did this on two Cubi 5's and took me literally hours and hours with a lot of googling and running heaps of commands and rebooting on both attempts! So if you use these instructions your mileage may vary!

1 - turn off secureboot - Boot into a Windows11 installer and "repair computer" - "advanced" - "boot into uefi" (Using widows to boot into UEFI is needed to make secureboot persistant) also you may have to update the bios to =>880 (I needed to) and disable some other hardware (un supported in pfsense/FreeBSD) etc.

2 - use 2.7.0 of pfsense iso installer (This has the required PKG file of realtek-re-kmod to recognize the 2.5g NIC)

3 - on first bootup of installer press "3" to get to shell, type the following
  • set hint.uart.0.disabled="1"
  • set hint.uart.1.disabled="1"
  • set hint.agp.0.disabled="1"
  • boot
  • *note* You will have to do this on every boot until you do #8 & #9 otherwise the boot will hang

  • 4 - select re0 as wan (which is/was the 1g adapter for me) and dhcp etc to you can connect to pfsense (and internet)

  • 5 - select "8" to get to shell and type
  • pkg install realtek-re-kmod (This is why we need to install 2.7.0.)

  • 6 - if no errors reboot and you now should see "re1" which is the 2.5G nic and go ahead and reassign Interfaces & IP's and you should be good to go, otherwise type the following
  • pkg install realtek-re-kmod - HAPPY DAYS!!!! enjoy pfsense! otherwise...

  • 7 - if you get the error 'ld-elf.so.1: Shared object "libssl.so.30" not found, required by "pkg"' Then go to the boot dir in the shell and type

    pkg-static bootstrap -f (reinstalls pkg manager)
  • pkg delete realtek-re-kmod (removes the broken realtek pkg)
    • - then maybe type certctl rehash just for yips and giggles to refresh the certs
  • pkg install realtek-re-kmod (reinstalls it)

  • 8 - type the following
  • cd ..
    cd boot

  • 9 - The add the following lines in the following files
    ee loader.conf.local (I also did "loader.conf) and add the following lines
    hint.uart.0.disabled="1"
    hint.uart.1.disabled="1"
    hint.agp.0.disabled="1"
    if_re_load="YES"
    if_re_name="/boot/modules/if_re.ko" (press escape and exit/save etc)

  • 10 - reboot and hopefully all is good in the world
Note -
I used this after a few hours with the first Cubi and it just worked, tried on the second it took me a few more time to do #7 et.al.
So shout out to Digital Spaceport on youtube!
10 - Update to latest version


 
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