Blacklist module permanently

Coret · 2017-01-08 15:37:23

Hello,

My network card doesn't work with the r8169 drivers, so I blacklisted that one and manually installed the r8168 drivers. To blacklist I simply created the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and added the following line:

blacklist r8169

I used the computer for a couple of days without a single issue. Then yesterday I installed steam, and to do so removed the comment of the multilib section of the pacman.conf and ran the command: pacman -Syu, the installation was fine it all worked.

Now today I turned on my machine and the network was not working, ran the lspci -vv command and this is what I get is that the:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)

is using r8169 on the Kernel modules. (Sorry couldn't paste the whole result of the lspci -vv command, for some reason only the first line shows up)

However the blacklist.conf is still there, so I just ran the installation of the r8168 drivers and the issue is resolved.

The question is: Could the driver r8169 returned due to the pacman -Syu ? And if it is case, shouldn't the blacklist file worked?

Regards

Trilby · 2017-01-08 15:56:30

Please see the NOTE box here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … acklisting

Your update likely brought in a tool that depended on that module.

V1del · 2017-01-08 16:24:23

Are you certain that the r8169 driver was "in use" and not just listed as a potential driver that does support this card? There's a difference between these two. I bet that the blacklist worked but a kernel update mandated that you recompile the correct r8168 module.

Coret · 2017-01-08 19:09:03

V1del wrote:

Are you certain that the r8169 driver was "in use" and not just listed as a potential driver that does support this card? There's a difference between these two. I bet that the blacklist worked but a kernel update mandated that you recompile the correct r8168 module.

I think you are right, I just ran the lspci -vv command again to compare and this is what it shows:

Kernel driver in use: r8168
Kernel modules: r8169, r8168

So is there anyway to know if I would have to recompile after a kernel update? Or even better, avoid having to do this or perhaps having the Linux recompile on its own?

Trilby · 2017-01-08 23:33:28

Coret wrote:

So is there anyway to know if I would have to recompile after a kernel update? Or even better, avoid having to do this or perhaps having the Linux recompile on its own?

I have no experience with this driver. But a general answer to this question would be dkms.

Coret · 2017-01-12 21:20:32

Trilby wrote:

Coret wrote:
So is there anyway to know if I would have to recompile after a kernel update? Or even better, avoid having to do this or perhaps having the Linux recompile on its own?
I have no experience with this driver. But a general answer to this question would be dkms.

Thanks, will take a look. The problem is that is difficult issue to reproduce to figure if I fixed properly or not... Maybe even a script to check if the module was loaded and if not warn me and recompile on its own...

V1del · 2017-01-12 22:14:02

Where did you install the module from anyway? from what I see r8168 is in the repos, therefore it will be rebuilt by the maintainers automatically, maybe your mirrors weren't in sync and the kernel was updated without the module and by installing again later the mirrors were up to date again. If you use the package from the repos, pay attention that the driver package gets installed together with the next major release of a kernel, and maybe wait a bit until the kernel and r8168 are updated at the same time

Coret · 2017-01-13 21:19:24

V1del wrote:

Where did you install the module from anyway? from what I see r8168 is in the repos, therefore it will be rebuilt by the maintainers automatically, maybe your mirrors weren't in sync and the kernel was updated without the module and by installing again later the mirrors were up to date again. If you use the package from the repos, pay attention that the driver package gets installed together with the next major release of a kernel, and maybe wait a bit until the kernel and r8168 are updated at the same time

Didn't notice that the driver is in the repository. I downloaded from the manufacturer site http://www.realtek.com/Downloads/downlo … GetDown=fa

Since I only have this network in this computer I had to download from another machine. During the installation of the arch I had no issues with the network, that is why I didn't even researched on the repos.

In this case what would be the best approach? Install now using pacman? The versions seems to be a bit different r8168-8.043.01-2 from pacman and from the realtek site is r8168-8.043.02

V1del · 2017-01-13 23:49:53

Yeah I'd go with installing from the repos, the arch package will surely get updated to the newer version soon. And these kernel modules are rebuilt by the maintainer as necessary for newer kernels.

Coret · 2017-01-21 20:01:01

Installed from the repo, oddly enough it requested me to blacklist the r8169 by creating this file: /etc/modprobe.d/r8169_blacklist.conf
Created just in case, better have two files to ensure the driver is blacklisted than boot up with the wrong driver.

Thanks for the help!

Arch Linux

#1 2017-01-08 15:37:23

Blacklist module permanently

#2 2017-01-08 15:56:30

Re: Blacklist module permanently

#3 2017-01-08 16:24:23

Re: Blacklist module permanently

#4 2017-01-08 19:09:03

Re: Blacklist module permanently

#5 2017-01-08 23:33:28

Re: Blacklist module permanently

#6 2017-01-12 21:20:32

Re: Blacklist module permanently

#7 2017-01-12 22:14:02

Re: Blacklist module permanently

#8 2017-01-13 21:19:24

Re: Blacklist module permanently

#9 2017-01-13 23:49:53

Re: Blacklist module permanently

#10 2017-01-21 20:01:01

Re: Blacklist module permanently

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