[SOLVED] need nic driver for either intel 1225-V or realtek 8111-8168-8411

jkh2cpu · 12-13-2023, 04:18 PM

I bought a new motherboard (gigabyte z490 Vision G) that came with an on-board NIC. There is no driver in the kernel for the NIC and I'm not finding a linux driver for it. Never daunted, I bought a pcie ethernet card with a realtek chip: 8111 / 8168 / 8411. Again, no driver in the Kernel and what I can find on the net does not compile on -current. I checked SBo, but no luck.

So... anyone know of a decent pcie nic card or usb nic card that is more or less modern?

Daedra · 12-13-2023, 04:24 PM

I know the Intel I225-V is supported in 15.0 and beyond. I have an Intel I225-V on my system right now and it works fine. The module for the intel is "igc".

jkh2cpu · 12-13-2023, 04:39 PM

OK, I checked /boot/config, and IGC is a module. I was running 6.6.6 and the card did not work. I'm back to 6.1.66 and everything is AOK. Thanks for the help.

Paulo2 · 12-14-2023, 01:44 PM

About the Realtek nic, I also have a Gigabyte mobo with that same nic,
and when I built that machine I had to use the SBo 8168 driver because the
kernel driver 8169 wasn't working.

At some point, I don't know or remember why, the 8169 driver started working.
Maybe I ran enough 'modprobe 8169' and it got stuck

or it was just the kernel version that fixed it.

Code:

lspci -v|grep -A20 'Realtek.*8168'
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0c)
        Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Onboard Ethernet
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 33, NUMA node 0, IOMMU group 15
        I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
        Memory at fe200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Memory at d2100000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 01
        Capabilities: [b0] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=4 Masked-
        Capabilities: [d0] Vital Product Data
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
        Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 01-00-00-00-68-4c-e0-00
        Capabilities: [170] Latency Tolerance Reporting
        Kernel driver in use: r8169
        Kernel modules: r8169

baumei · 02-05-2024, 10:36 AM

In Slackware 15.0, it appears there is still a problem with the r8169 kernel module and the Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 chip, at least with revision "06".

For years I ran Slackware 14.2 on a Dell Dimension 540s, and it was great. Shortly after v15.0 came out I installed it on this 540s, and it was great. As far as I can tell the 540s was made in 2008, and in the last year I have from time to time heard what I think is bearing-noise in the processor fan. About a month ago I was given a Dell Optiplex 390 (had Windows installed, and everything worked). Last night I moved the hard-drive from the 540s to the 390, and booted the 390, applied all the Slackware updates (including kernel 5.15.145), and rebooted --> everything except the Ethernet appears to work just fine.

Running "lspci -v" tells me the Dell Optiplex 390 has the Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 (rev 06) chip.

After the discovery of the Ethernet problem in the 390, and after a bit of diagnosis, I noticed a pattern: after the power is cycled, the green light of the network 'card' is <ON> until about 5.x seconds into the boot up. Looking in the dmesg output I see about 5.x seconds in is where the r8169 module comes alive. Trying several variations I found: the green light will not come <ON> after a warm-reboot, but will always come on for 5.x seconds after a cold-reboot --> I am guessing the r8169 module does something which locks-up the Realtek chip. I blacklisted the r8169 module, and found the green light will stay <ON> for as long as I want to let the 390 run; of course, the networking does not function, because there is no driver for the Realtek chip.

I read of Paulo2's experience with the Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 chip, the r8169 module, and the SBO r8168 module. I am thinking my next steps will be to download the SBO r8168 module files, use a flash-drive to copy these files to the 390, compile the r8168 module package, and install the package.

baumei · 02-05-2024, 12:11 PM

Well, fooey.

I compiled the SBO r8168 module, and installed it in Slackware 15.0 on the Optiplex 390, and rebooted. Now, the green light for the Ethernet port stays <ON>, but there is apparently also some other problem. Running ifconfig shows only the loopback interface. Running "lspci -v" shows the OS is seeing the Realtek chip, and it is using the r8168 driver --- however, the r8169 module is listed as being present somewhere in the system, even though I blacklisted r8169; I am wondering whether r8169 is compiled into the Slackware 15.0 generic kernel.