Compiling RealTek RTL8111/8168B driver keeps on failing

ddalley · 04-07-2012, 12:30 AM

I am plagued by the mess with RealTek networking drivers for the RTL8111/8168B, but when I try to follow the instructions to "make" the driver, it keeps on failing because something is not installed.

According to the package manager, the correct linux-source is installed. However...

Code:

make: *** /lib/modules/3.0.0-16-generic/build: No such file or directory.  Stop.
make: *** [LINUX] Error 2

I don't have a drawer for "build".

Now what?

TobiSGD · 04-07-2012, 12:38 AM

That hardware is already supported by your kernel, why do you want to compile that driver in the first place?

ddalley · 04-07-2012, 03:15 AM

Because many distros try to use the incorrect driver, so since the distros, such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint, are not fixing this error, users are left to fend for themselves.

Look up the driver number above and you will see.

Unfortunately, I can't get past this make error.

ikarus · 04-07-2012, 05:08 AM

Latest driver RTL8111/8168B has all the compiling built into a shell script - just execute and it does the lot including the init stuff.

Ive just downloaded it and used it on my mint12 64 installation

IK

ddalley · 04-07-2012, 07:43 PM

I tried again last night, with version 8.029.00 dated 2012/3/29, after updating to 3.0.0.17, and no joy.

Code:

$ ./autorun.sh

Check old driver and unload it.
rmmod r8169
ERROR: Removing 'r8169': Operation not permitted
Build the module and install
make: *** /lib/modules/3.0.0-17-generic/build: No such file or directory.  Stop.
make[1]: *** [clean] Error 2
make: *** [clean] Error 2

TobiSGD · 04-07-2012, 08:29 PM

Seems to me that you have to execute that script as root.

ddalley · 04-07-2012, 10:25 PM

Tried that, too.
Didn't see a difference.

Code:

# ./autorun.sh

Check old driver and unload it.
rmmod r8169
Build the module and install
make: *** /lib/modules/3.0.0-17-generic/build: No such file or directory.  Stop.
make[1]: *** [clean] Error 2
make: *** [clean] Error 2

TobiSGD · 04-08-2012, 04:12 AM

On my system (Slackware) /lib/modules/3.2.13/build is a symlink to my kernel source (/usr/src/linux-3.2.13). Try to create such a symlink to your kernel source and do it again.

ddalley · 04-08-2012, 05:51 AM

Theoretically, I created a symlink, but since this was my first attempt to do so, maybe theory is not reality because I still got an error.

ddalley · 04-19-2012, 04:00 PM

I finally figured out why the driver would not compile.

The instructions said to install two dev files (linux-source and linux-source-3.0.0) and I had; however, there was some sort of install error that meant that they wouldn't run properly and kept on causing an indeterminate error. No install error was given to me, so I had no idea there was a problem with them.

After contacting RealTek, I got the idea to check the installed program list, to see what state these two files were in. They were listed with an exclamation mark, so I re-installed them and then I was able to compile completely.