[Gllug] Realtek 8168B

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 02:59:59PM +0100, Ken Smith wrote:
> Hi, My i7 desktop machine with a ASUS MB has an onboard Realtek 8168b  
> network interface. When I first set the machine up with FC13 x64 the  
> driver failed to start on the internal nic, so rather than trace the  
> problem, I threw a PCI 8169 card in there and it started right away. So  
> far so good.
>
> Later, I found some suggestions about compiling an r8168.ko module from  
> a source .gz from the Realtek site. I did that and the internal 8168  
> stated to work, although I don't think it was that reliable.
>
> Anyway, I have just updated the kernel to 2.6.34.9-69.fc13.x86_64 and  
> without thinking about it, the network was working, although I realise  
> it was on the supplied 8169.ko module.
>
> Today I changed the VGA card (one nVidia to another) and decided to take  
> the extra nic out as I wasn't using it. Boot up -> No network. Grrrr
>
> Fiddling around with modules and rebuilding the r8168.ko module against  
> the current kernel hasn't helped.
>
> So I disemboweled the machine and put my 8169 nic back in. All  
> happiness, except he VM's on this box now need reconfigured to use eth1.
>
> So what's the deal, are 8168's a pile of trash? Or is there something  
> about a P7P55D Asus motherboard that's weird.

Just a few comments really ...  I have not used this card.

F13 is out of support, today I believe.  F14 is probably the
way to go now unless you want to suffer GNOME 3.

Also 2.6.34 is pretty old -- about a year old.  With F14 you'll get a
newer driver that you won't have to compile yourself, and also newer
card firmware (make sure you have linux-firmware package installed).

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat
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