re0 Watchdog Timeout Error – Realtek FreeBSD Fix

My pfSense firewall was receiving an “re0: Watchdog Timeout Error”, and I was able to fix it and my connection speeds.

re0 Watchdog Timeout Error – Introduction

First, this is a fairly common issue, and this post helped me a ton while fixing it.

As you can see, the Zotac pfSense firewall that I built is running 2x Realtek adapters.

device     = 'RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller'
device     = 'RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller'

Additionally, I would often come back to my office to see error messages like the following on my router’s monitor.

re0: watchdog timeout
re0: link state changed to DOWN

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Verifying the Issue

Other than the watchdog timeout issues I was seeing, the OS would drop and restart the link state.

[2.4.5-RELEASE][[email protected]]/root: dmesg | grep re0 | more
re0: <:RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F/G PCIe Gigabit Ethernet>: port 0xe000-0xe0ff mem 0x81400000-0x81400fff,0xa0100000-0xa0103fff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci1
re0: Using 1 MSI-X message
re0: Chip rev. 0x4c000000
re0: MAC rev. 0x00000000
miibus0: <:MII bus>: on re0
re0: Using defaults for TSO: 65518/35/2048
re0: Ethernet address: 00:01:xx:xx:xx:xx
re0: netmap queues/slots: TX 1/256, RX 1/256
re0: link state changed to DOWN
re0: link state changed to UP

And, as you can see, there was an issue with my connections, especially when it came to uploads.

Updating the Drivers

First, I found a post on the Netgate forums about where I could download the updated drivers.

[2.4.5-RELEASE][[email protected]]/boot/kernel: curl https://forum.netgate.com/assets/uploads/files/1537813753467-if_re.zip -o if_re.zip
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  137k  100  137k    0     0   371k      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  371k

Next, I unzipped the archive in my /boot/kernel directory.

[2.4.5-RELEASE][[email protected]]/boot/kernel: unzip if_re.zip
Archive:  if_re.zip
extracting: if_re.ko

I also updated the permissions of the file, so that the OS would properly load the driver.

[2.4.5-RELEASE][[email protected]]/boot/kernel: chown root:wheel if_re.ko
[2.4.5-RELEASE][[email protected]]/boot/kernel: chmod 0555 if_re.ko

Finally, I updated the /boot/loader.conf file, and set if_re_load to “YES”.

[2.4.5-RELEASE][[email protected]]/boot/kernel: cat /boot/loader.conf
kern.vty=sc
if_re_load="YES"
autoboot_delay="3"
hw.usb.no_pf="1"
net.pf.request_maxcount="2000000"

With the driver installed, it was time to reboot my router.

[2.4.5-RELEASE][[email protected]]/boot/kernel: exit
exit
pfSense - Serial: GXXXX301XXXXX - Netgate Device ID: 22be57e0e3d3d3afe1d6

*** Welcome to pfSense 2.4.5-RELEASE (amd64) on pfSense ***

WAN (wan)       -> re0        -> v4/DHCP4: 70.229.194.201/22
LAN (lan)       -> re1        -> v4: 192.168.5.1/24
IOT (opt1)      -> re1.10     -> v4: 192.168.10.1/24
GUEST (opt2)    -> re1.20     -> v4: 192.168.20.1/24

0) Logout (SSH only)                  9) pfTop
1) Assign Interfaces                 10) Filter Logs
2) Set interface(s) IP address       11) Restart webConfigurator
3) Reset webConfigurator password    12) PHP shell + pfSense tools
4) Reset to factory defaults         13) Update from console
5) Reboot system                     14) Disable Secure Shell (sshd)
6) Halt system                       15) Restore recent configuration
7) Ping host                         16) Restart PHP-FPM
8) Shell

Enter an option: 5


pfSense will reboot. This may take a few minutes, depending on your hardware.
Do you want to proceed?

    Y/y: Reboot normally
    R/r: Reroot (Stop processes, remount disks, re-run startup sequence)
    S: Reboot into Single User Mode (requires console access!)
    F: Reboot and run a filesystem check

Enter an option: y

pfSense is rebooting now.

Verifying the Fix

As you can see in my previous post, I was able to resolve this issue.

First, I verified that the OS was properly loading the kernel driver.

[2.4.5-RELEASE][[email protected]]/root: kldstat
Id Refs Address            Size     Name
1    9 0xffffffff80200000 2e9f160  kernel
2    1 0xffffffff830a0000 7d2c0    if_re.ko
3    1 0xffffffff83211000 10c0     cpuctl.ko
4    1 0xffffffff83213000 32d8     cryptodev.ko

As it was, I reran the speedtest-cli application, and got a much more reasonable upload speed!

[2.4.5-RELEASE][[email protected]]/root: speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from AT&T ...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by AT&T [7.88 km]: 12.618 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 534.40 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed......................................................................................................
Upload: 376.16 Mbit/s

Other than that, I was no longer seeing the timeout issue, so I finally solved this problem.

re0 Watchdog Timeout Error – Conclusion

This wasn’t an issue that I had noticed (or even seen) until I had upgraded my internet.

That said, this will be something that you need to do if you are running with speeds of over 300 mbps.

In the end, I’m glad I fixed this, but I might have another router upgrade in the works soon!