Arch Linux

grandtheft

Member

Registered: 2010-10-05

Posts: 26

Shipped r8169 doesnt work with ethernet chip on Asus M4A785D-M Pro

Hi,

I just spent some time figuring out why my ethernet is not working on a freshly installed arch box. It turns out that the module shipped with 2.6.38 (fully updated fresh arch install) does not work with that card.

This post http://sites.google.com/site/buratiproject/blog led me to the solution.

Solution:
--> Download r8168 from realtek, compile module, insert r8168 instead
(I did it on other arch box running the same kernel, copied the module to a stick, mounted the stick on fresh box, copied the module to /lib/modules..../net/, ran depmod -> modprobe -> works)

So. I think I might have found an error there. Unfortunately I am not expert enough to find out the exact source, i.e. is the network chip recognized in the wrong way (udev), is the module with the kernel broken (dont think so, would cause trouble on MANY installations)...

Can someone guide me to report the bug in the right way?

regards,
gt

grandtheft

Member

Registered: 2010-10-05

Posts: 26

Re: Shipped r8169 doesnt work with ethernet chip on Asus M4A785D-M Pro

Actually - I dont understand how the install worked with updates from internet with the 'not working' module..!?
Can anyone understand that?

vadmium

Member

Registered: 2010-11-02

Posts: 63

Re: Shipped r8169 doesnt work with ethernet chip on Asus M4A785D-M Pro

I don’t understand your problem exactly. Are you saying you compiled the r8168 module from Realtek and it worked, or not? Or are you looking for a way to have Realtek’s module included with the Arch kernel?

grandtheft

Member

Registered: 2010-10-05

Posts: 26

Re: Shipped r8169 doesnt work with ethernet chip on Asus M4A785D-M Pro

Hi Vadmium,

I actually now don't have got a problem anymore. But I think others might have or get one. The problem is, that the kernel automatically loads the r8169 module, which does not work with the interface. Only blacklisting the module (r8169), compiling r8168 and inserting it gets the interface working. I consider the solution a workaround.

My problem / question is, if someone can help me track the root of the problem down so that eventually a bug report can be filed. Secondly, I'd like to understand how the machine received updates during installation (used /arch/setup routine), but doesn't work after booting from my hard drive.

If anybody's got an idea, would be great.

Best regards,
gt

combuster

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-09-30

Posts: 711

Website

Re: Shipped r8169 doesnt work with ethernet chip on Asus M4A785D-M Pro

What is the exact chip u r using (and model of the mainboard would be helpfull). I have a bleeding edge silicon for my NIC it seems, and propper support for it haven't hit kernel yet (not even mainline). 8111E is in question (but some strange revision I guess, cause even experimental code from net-next didn't work).

For me problem appears only after rebooting from Windows, power cycling and cold boot directly to Arch (and all subsequent restarts) couldn't reproduce the problem.

We could be suffering from totally another issue though, so model of the mainboard would clarify things a lot.

/edit: omg, u posted the model on the topic

Just a sec...

8112L seems to be in question, this one is older and we shouldn't have the same issue...

Last edited by combuster (2011-05-10 22:11:42)

vadmium

Member

Registered: 2010-11-02

Posts: 63

Re: Shipped r8169 doesnt work with ethernet chip on Asus M4A785D-M Pro

Looking at the top of Linux’s drivers/net/r8169.c source file it looks like it’s supposed to encompass the 8168 as well, so my guess is the bug is in that module. Hope that helps, but I’m not real sure on the best way of reporting kernel module bugs or getting them fixed though.

sudokill

Member

Registered: 2011-04-27

Posts: 54

Re: Shipped r8169 doesnt work with ethernet chip on Asus M4A785D-M Pro

I used to have this problem when I was on ubuntu, I use 8168 and ubuntu loads 8169, causing the network card to die until you reset the CMOS or power off for ages. This is how I fixed it on Ubuntu- http://djlab.com/2010/10/fixing-rtl8111 … an-ubuntu/

Arch still uses the 8169 driver and I've been using that with no problems at all, maybe it's because it has a newer kernel than Ubuntu 10.10, but if you google "linux 8168 8169" you'll see countless people have had problems and the bug has been around for a lot of years.

The Arch wiki mentions if you're dual booting with Windows, make sure wake on lan shutdown is set to enabled in the device manager section. I re-installed XP at the same time as Arch so I might have had that (wake on lan) set to disabled when I used Ubuntu / XP, either that or Arch's newer kernel fixed it for me. I've never had an issue and haven't needed to blacklist 8169 and use 8168

grandtheft

Member

Registered: 2010-10-05

Posts: 26

Re: Shipped r8169 doesnt work with ethernet chip on Asus M4A785D-M Pro

ok, thx sudokill & vadmium, so at this point in time, I'm not going to take any further steps. If someone else has got trouble with this, he can find the solution here, and for me it is solved at the moment. If the problem occurs not too often, there is probably some other misconfiguration or something similar involved.

thx for your support,
gt