[SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

ozar · 2008-07-07 21:13:10

Guys, I've searched high and low on Google, and on these forums for hours now, but can't really find what I'm looking for.

I have a new motherboard due to arrive in a few days and am trying to determine in advance if I'll need to download and compile the r8168 driver from the Realtek website in order to have a working network connection, or if the r8169 driver included with the kernel by default will now work with the RTL8111C LAN chip? I do know from other posts here and there that there were lots of problems a few months ago when trying to use the r8169 driver with that chip.

Do any of you happen to know if the r8168 driver has been merged with the r8169 driver in the most recent kernel releases, or would you happen to be running the 8111c chip and it's working well with the current r8169 driver?

Thanks in advance for any help.

* [SOLVED] see post #16 for solution

Last edited by ozar (2008-07-21 22:28:15)

ToLo · 2008-07-08 16:04:40

hi ozar

My onboard NIC is a:

Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)

and, I guess it was since the end of april this year, the r8169 modul is working fine.

The driver source r8168 rev. 8.006.00 from realtek is not building on kernel 2.6.25. It looks like, that
the source isn't prepared for the newest kernel. I'm quite sure the r8168 code has been merged.

hope it works for you, ToLo

ozar · 2008-07-08 22:15:25

The driver source r8168 rev. 8.006.00 from realtek is not building on kernel 2.6.25.

Thanks for the reply, ToLo.

The chip on mine is supposed to be the C version, but I don't know if that will matter with the 2.6.25 kernel, or not. I'll post back on how it goes, either way.

Thanks again!

whompus · 2008-07-09 13:12:47

The computer I've just put together has that realtek gigabit ethernet controller and I've had no end of problems with it, the network would work very intermittantly on boot up.

Could not build the r8168 driver either, have given up for the moment due to some problems with tv card as well, as it was my first venture into x86_64 it maybe related to that. Need to do some more reading up in the wiki.

ozar · 2008-07-09 15:53:01

Thanks for the reply, whompus.

That's pretty much what I've been reading on various threads here and in other forums. I was really hoping that the 2.6.25 kernel might have all that fixed. My new motherboard is coming in tomorrow, so guess I'll know soon enough how it works (or doesn't) for me.

Thanks again.

ozar · 2008-07-11 23:53:18

Yippee... The new motherboard is in, Arch is installed, and the r8169 driver seems to be working fine, at least so far.

I've heard it works for some only part of the time, but hopefully that was just with older kernels.

ozar · 2008-07-12 04:42:42

Oops... guess I spoke too soon. After rebooting, it didn't work again.

I tried compiling the r8168 driver as instructed by the 'readme' file in the Realtek driver package, but it wouldn't compile. I also tried several other potential fixes found across the web, but they didn't work, either.

Hate to say it, but I actually had to resort to installing Windows XP just to get back online to post this, and to look for other possible fixes for Linux.

ToLo · 2008-07-13 07:25:58

Did you already test some parameters at the kernel commandline?
I used irqfixup as a workaround without a negative impact to the system performance.
More information about available parameters you get here:kernel-parameters

whompus · 2008-07-13 11:43:02

I tried loaded windows xp and doing the enable wake on lan mod as shown in the wiki I was still having problems. Wiped the disc and did a complete reinstall using the latest x86_64 iso and so far only had 3 network failures which I think was related to some lock ups I had and needed to do a hard reset, the only thing I remember doing differently to last time was putting 192.168.1.1 (my default gateway)on the nameserver line in resolv.conf.

ozar · 2008-07-13 20:45:09

Thanks for the replies, guys.

I've tried just about everything I can think of, but nothing works. I've also found a patch to supposedly fix this, but it's for the 2.6.26-rc6 kernel, and I have no idea how to use it:

http://userweb.kernel.org/~romieu/r8169/2.6.26-rc6/

In the interim, I've finally got internet under Linux again, but the real problem (8111c chip & r8168/r8169 driver) remains unsolved.

After digging around in my spare parts box, I put a Cnet Pro200WL card in that uses the 'tulip' driver, and it didn't work. It showed as UP in ifconfig, but nothing would go up or down across the connection. I took it out and replaced it with a card that uses the 8139 Realtek drivers, and that worked. Had that failed, I was going to try the old standby, Linksys LNE100TX card that I have on hand.

Now all that's needed is a fix so the redundant card can be removed and I can use the default controllers on the new motherboard.

whompus · 2008-07-16 11:16:20

After installing all my software and configuring the system I'm back to an intermittent network problem again.:(

ToLo · 2008-07-18 14:32:06

hi
there is an updated driver source available from realtek.
Version 8.007.00 updated 2008/7/17!
This module builds just fine on my computer. So maybe this is going to help you?
Please let me know.
bye T.

ozar · 2008-07-18 15:21:15

ToLo, thanks big time for posting that.

I've not looked on their site for new drivers lately, but will try this one as soon as I get back to that particular machine and will post back on how it goes.

Last edited by ozar (2008-07-18 15:28:25)

whompus · 2008-07-18 17:07:56

Thanks ToLo for the heads up on the driver builds fine on x86_64 just tested cold boot and reboot and all appears well at the moment.

ozar · 2008-07-18 18:47:05

Yep, thanks again ToLo... that compiled fine and is running great as I type this post. If it should stop working, I'll post an update, but I'll know more after a few reboots.

In the interim, do any of you know how you'd go about installing this if you were doing a fresh Arch install (by FTP) so that you can have a connection in order to download the packages needed for the new install? Or, is there some way to slipstream the working driver right into the installation CD?

ozar · 2008-07-21 22:26:57

Update...

Ok, the new kernel (2.6.26) that just went into testing today fixed all the above described issues and the r8169 drivers are working well with my 8111c controllers, so I'm considering this issue solved.

Will, be glad when 2.6.26 makes its way to 'core', though.

Last edited by ozar (2008-07-22 02:16:11)

luuuciano · 2008-07-29 04:44:15

Someone knows when will be 2.6.26 in core?

Recently I have bought a dell notebook, using the same chip... so, Im stucked in the 1st steeps of the arch installation
internet is filled is "solutions", but it looks like no one knows the right way to solve it...

btw,,,
with 2.6.26 in core... wich is the best wahy to update a new system (that have 2.6.25)?

is there any script that "grabs" packages and his dependencies?
(as the machine have no internet connection)

Last edited by luuuciano (2008-07-29 04:47:46)

luuuciano · 2008-08-04 00:31:26

I have a dell vostro, notebook, lspci shows:
Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168b PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev ff)

I have installed 2.6.26 from testing and do not work... the same behavior
and the kernel is using a r8169 module...

I have found this
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p= … ostcount=8
But I do not have idea how to use it in arch
(I have tried make make install, etc... but do not works)

any idea?

ozar · 2008-08-04 00:45:05

If the 2.6.26 kernel won't get the 8111c network controllers working for you, try the 8.008.00 version of the Realtek drivers available from any of the following links:

ftp://61.56.86.122/cn/nic/r8168-8.008.00.tar.bz2

ftp://202.65.194.211/cn/nic/r8168-8.008.00.tar.bz2

ftp://152.104.238.19/cn/nic/r8168-8.008.00.tar.bz2

Instructions for installing them are included with the compressed file.

luuuciano · 2008-08-04 01:58:11

thanks ozar, I will try that...

btw, this is my rc.conf module section:
r8169 ipw3945 iwl 3945 snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-hwdep snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-hda-intel soundcore

it is the hwd default... maybe something is missing?

luuuciano · 2008-08-04 02:24:50

well I have used the latest realtek driver and nothing...
I have followed all the readme steps, and adde !r8169 r8168 to the modules rc.conf section...

ozar · 2008-08-04 03:34:57

The only other thing I can think of to suggest would be that if you happen to be dual-booting between Linux and Windows, you might check the following wiki page for a potential problem that could cause the controller not to work under Linux:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Con … _WOL_issue

luuuciano · 2008-08-04 03:52:43

thanks ozar, but it looks that now Wake-On-Lan After Shutdown it is enabled by default

ozar · 2008-08-04 19:33:44

The only other thing I can think of to suggest would be to disable the two on-board controllers (if that's what you have) in your BIOS settings, reboot, then re-enable them to see if they might start working.

Otherwise, you might have to disable them and install a NIC that is known to work with Linux if you want Internet.

That's what I finally had to do, at least until the 8111c controllers started to work.

luuuciano · 2008-08-05 19:45:41

wow, I have tested it using a kubuntu livecd, and it works! and the wireless works too...
in arch I made a iwconfig and no interface was reported, iwl3945 was moded... I do not know if the wifi thing is related to the network issue at boot process

that kubuntu uses a 2.6.24-19-generic kernel...
loads the r8169 module, version 2.2LK?
and iwl3945, version 1.2.0

/etc/network/interfaces have:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

wich info can be useful?

Arch Linux

#1 2008-07-07 21:13:10

[SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#2 2008-07-08 16:04:40

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#3 2008-07-08 22:15:25

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#4 2008-07-09 13:12:47

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#5 2008-07-09 15:53:01

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#6 2008-07-11 23:53:18

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#7 2008-07-12 04:42:42

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#8 2008-07-13 07:25:58

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#9 2008-07-13 11:43:02

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#10 2008-07-13 20:45:09

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#11 2008-07-16 11:16:20

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#12 2008-07-18 14:32:06

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#13 2008-07-18 15:21:15

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#14 2008-07-18 17:07:56

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#15 2008-07-18 18:47:05

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#16 2008-07-21 22:26:57

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#17 2008-07-29 04:44:15

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#18 2008-08-04 00:31:26

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#19 2008-08-04 00:45:05

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#20 2008-08-04 01:58:11

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#21 2008-08-04 02:24:50

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#22 2008-08-04 03:34:57

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#23 2008-08-04 03:52:43

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#24 2008-08-04 19:33:44

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

#25 2008-08-05 19:45:41

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8111C Controller Compatibility

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