RTL8111E not working in 26.7, 26.1, worked fine in all previous releases, RTL8111G works still

[no1unorightnow]

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• I have read the contributing guide lines at https://github.com/opnsense/src/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md
• I am convinced that my issue is new after having checked both open and closed issues at https://github.com/opnsense/src/issues?q=is%3Aissue

Describe the bug

This started with this forum thread: https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=52060
In this message:
https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=52060.msg268284#msg268284
It was suggested I file a report here.
I have done some more testing and found that this NIC is just not working at all as of 26.1, nor 26.7. I did a clean install of 26.7 (not upgrades) and it's the same problem - the NIC just isn't powering up at all. It still works fine with 25.7.
The physical chip is labeled:
RTL8111E
B9C77G1
GB48B

The biggest issues I have, is that this doesn't seem to be announced in ANY of the changelogs I've found, but certainly not the one presented at upgrade time.

Tip: to validate your setup was working with the previous version, use opnsense-revert (https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/opnsense_tools.html#opnsense-revert)

I manually validated by manually installing 25.7, 26.1, and 26.7 multiple times, but did not use "opnsense-revert".

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install either 26.1 or 26.7 using any method (upgrade, fresh install, etc)
2. Observe that the NIC does not work, lights don't blink, no networks are detected, etc., though the interface is still detected as re0
3. Install 25.7
4. See that the NIC works perfectly fine, with and without the os-realtek-re package.
   Expected behavior

NICs should not be soft-bricked on upgrades, or clean installs, without a clear changelog indicating it will happen.

Describe alternatives you considered

I do not have an alternative since this is the NIC soldered to the motherboard. I did start a forum post to try do address first.

Screenshots

n/a since the webUI is unreachable. Can take pictures of a physical screen if that is helpful.

Relevant log files

I do not have an easy way to pull log files, but if there's something you'd like me to sneakernet over, let me know.

Additional context

The DHCP server switch mentioned in the forum post was also not well-noted though it's been a long time in the making; the DHCP server stuff is NOT relevant to this bug report, though.

Environment

Software version used and hardware type if relevant, e.g.:

OPNsense 25.7, 26.1, 26.7 (amd64)
AT5NM10T-I/NA/SI
RTL8111E

[no1unorightnow]

I see this was marked upstream, but I'm curious what that means for users of this chipset, considering that FreeBSD 15.1 indicates it's supported - as it was in 14.3, which the version of OPNsense that worked is based on. Is there a recommended work-around or something?
https://www.freebsd.org/releases/14.3R/hardware/
https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.1R/hardware/
Both list RTL8111.
The re driver also lists it:
https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?re(4)

And as noted in the forum thread, installing the proprietary driver yields no difference, leading me to think this is something other than a simple driver compatibility issue with the underlying system.

I would be happy to do more troubleshooting if guidance is provided on what might be useful.

Thank you.

[no1unorightnow]

Update on this, the working machine is RTL8111G; considering that Realtek lumps E, G, and a bunch of other RTL8111 variants together under the same driver, I am wondering what else as far as dropped hardware support might be causing my issue, considering that a Realtek driver issue seems further unlikely.