Ethernet connection doesn't work after installing kernel

[reissecup]

Newbie who is unfamiliar with a lot of terminology here. I installed the linux65 kernel and restarted, and my internet completely stopped working. I connect an ethernet cable to a wifi extender. I tried downgrading to different kernels but it was still not working.
ip link isn’t showing anything.

journalctl -u NetworkManager.service gave me this:

Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer systemd[1]: Starting Network Manager...
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.6756] NetworkManager (version 1.38.4-1) is starting... (for the first time)
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.6761] Read config: /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf (lib: 20-connectivity.conf)
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer systemd[1]: Started Network Manager.
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.6780] bus-manager: acquired D-Bus service "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.6846] manager[0x563dc5176020]: monitoring kernel firmware directory '/lib/firmware'.
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7305] hostname: hostname: using hostnamed
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7305] hostname: static hostname changed from (none) to "reissecomputer"
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7308] dns-mgr[0x563dc5153270]: init: dns=default,systemd-resolved rc-manager=symlink
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7380] manager[0x563dc5176020]: rfkill: Wi-Fi hardware radio set enabled
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7380] manager[0x563dc5176020]: rfkill: WWAN hardware radio set enabled
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7539] Loaded device plugin: NMTeamFactory (/usr/lib/NetworkManager/1.38.4-1/libnm-device-plugin-team.so)
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7565] Loaded device plugin: NMWifiFactory (/usr/lib/NetworkManager/1.38.4-1/libnm-device-plugin-wifi.so)
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7586] Loaded device plugin: NMAtmManager (/usr/lib/NetworkManager/1.38.4-1/libnm-device-plugin-adsl.so)
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7616] Loaded device plugin: NMWwanFactory (/usr/lib/NetworkManager/1.38.4-1/libnm-device-plugin-wwan.so)
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7627] Loaded device plugin: NMOvsFactory (/usr/lib/NetworkManager/1.38.4-1/libnm-device-plugin-ovs.so)
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7660] Loaded device plugin: NMBluezManager (/usr/lib/NetworkManager/1.38.4-1/libnm-device-plugin-bluetooth.so)
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7664] manager: rfkill: Wi-Fi enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7665] manager: rfkill: WWAN enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7666] manager: Networking is enabled by state file
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7680] settings: Loaded settings plugin: keyfile (internal)
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <warn>  [1665798688.7702] keyfile: load: "/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Auto Ethernet.nmconnection": failed to load connection: invalid connection: connection.type: property is missing
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7711] dhcp-init: Using DHCP client 'internal'
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7711] device (lo): carrier: link connected
Oct 14 21:51:28 reissecomputer NetworkManager[1169]: <info>  [1665798688.7713] manager: (lo): new Generic device (/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1)

I’m not sure what that warn thing means but it was in yellow so it must be important.

[Aragorn]

Welcome to the forum!

When asking for assistance, you should at the very least include technical information about your machine. See the following two posts…

[HowTo] Post command output and file content as formatted text

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[HowTo] Post command output and file content as formatted text

Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆ Formatting differences Discourse – this forum’s engine – uses Markdown to format its posts, and removes “unnecessary” whitespace. Terminal commands often produce output formatted so that they are better readable by the user, taking advantage of the monospaced font used. Programming code often rely on indentation to make it more readable. Using preformatting in Markdown Markdown includes a pattern to provide preformatting when necessary. You only need to put the part to f…

That said, you probably have a Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 adapter, and there are indeed problems with that if you use the Manjaro-default r8168 driver, which is an out-of-tree driver from Realtek.

The Manjaro developers are working on an update to r8168, but if your hardware is more recent than say four years ago, then you are better off removing r8168 via the Manjaro Settings Manager and removing the blacklist file (if it exists) for the in-kernel r8169 driver under /etc/modprobe.d/. Then, reboot, and the r8169 driver will be loaded instead.

[reissecup]

I assume you don’t really need to know my specs since you’re right about what adapter I have.

removing r8168 via the Manjaro Settings Manager

It seems I’m not able to do that, this is what mhwd --remove pci network-r8168 brings up:

> Removing network-r8168...
Sourcing /etc/mhwd-x86_64.conf
Has lib32 support: true
Sourcing /var/lib/mhwd/local/pci/network-r8168/MHWDCONFIG
Processing classid: 0200
checking dependencies...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: removing linux510-r8168 breaks dependency 'linux510-r8168' required by linux-latest-r8168
Error: pacman failed!
Error: script failed!

I also tried doing that in settings manager and same thing.

[reissecup]

(I just made a reply but i don’t know if it actually replied to you so i’m just replying again to see what it looks like)

[Aragorn]

@reissecup

linux-latest-r8168

That package is no longer in the repositories — it’s probably a leftover orphan from an older ISO — so you should remove that.

sudo pacman -Rdd linux-latest-r8168

Then, try removing the r8186 driver again via the Manjaro Settings Manager, and check whether it also appropriately removes the blacklist on r8169.

[reissecup]

It worked and it works again, though when I do mhwd it still lists network-r8168

> 0000:04:00.0 (0200:10ec:8168) Network controller Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
         network-r8168            2023.09.12                true            PCI

is that fine?

[Aragorn]

If your network is working, then yes. But strictly speaking, you don’t need r8168 with any hardware less than 5 years old. The in-kernel r8169 driver works perfectly well in most cases.