RGE(4)

📦
version 11.0 · 2 versions
, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 RGE(4) — Realtek Ethernet, bestie edition 💖

Manual name: rge(4), and it's from the Kernel Interfaces Manual. okay so this page is all about the Realtek NIC situation, and it's lowkey iconic.

✨ NAME ✨

rge — Realtek 8125/8125B/8126/8127 PCI Express 10/100/1Gb/2.5Gb/5Gb/10Gb Ethernet device. That's the whole name, and yes it ate. 💅

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

the config line is literally:

rge* at pci?

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The rge driver provides support for NICs based on the Realtek RTL8125, RTL8126, and RTL8127 PCI Express Ethernet controllers, including the following cuties:

  • IOCrest IO-PCE8126-GLAN Adapter (5000baseT) — iconic, no notes.
  • WisdPi WP-NA5000 Adapter (5000baseT) — obsessed.
  • Realtek 8125/8125B 2.5GbE Adapter (2500baseT) — main character energy.
  • Realtek 8126 5GbE Controller (5000baseT) — slay.
  • Rivet Networks Killer E3000 Adapter (2500baseT) — no cap.
  • TP-LINK TL-NG421 Adapter (2500baseT) — periodt. 💅

NICs based on the 8125 and 8125B are capable of 10, 100, 1000 and 2500Mbps operation. NICs based on the 8126 are also capable of 5000Mbps operation, while NICs based on the 8127 are additionally capable of 10000Mbps operation. All NICs support off-loading of checksum calculations for IPv4, TCPv4, and UDPv4, but not for xxxv6. yes bestie, that's the spelling on the page — we do not edit the lore 😭

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

Go check these besties: arp(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), pci(4), ifconfig(8). iykyk.

⚠️ CAVEATS ⚠️

Real talk: the rge driver support for the RTL8127 chip should be considered experimental. So like, proceed with caution, not chaos. 💅

📜 HISTORY 📜

The rge driver first appeared in OpenBSD 6.6 and in NetBSD 10.0. history really said debut era.

👑 AUTHORS 👑

The rge driver was written by Kevin Lo <kevlo@openbsd.org>, and was initially ported to NetBSD by Sevan Janiyan. The current version was updated by Paul Goyette <pgoyette@netbsd.org> to synch with changes from OpenBSD. collab era 🫶

Source/version: Debian · date: November 20, 2025 · manual name: RGE(4). Bye bestie, go configure that NIC 💖🦋

📦 where this page comes from