The vendor of my “to be” nas box decided to torture its customers with a “RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller”.
This specific controller is famous for dropping the network connection every 5 minutes and renegotiate at 100Mbit max.
I’m trying to install the original 8168 driver instead of the 8169 driver which is used by default. I’m aware of the discussion to migrate to r8169 here but I didn’t find a solution to get it running stable with that driver.
I installed the driver using
mhwd -i pci network-r8168
The driver gets installed to
/usr/lib/modules/extramodules-6.6-MANJARO/r8168.ko.xz
which is not recognized by modprobe.
I would have expected some pacman hook to create a symlink or similar. Creating it manually I would expect trouble at the next kernel update.
Am I on the wrong path here or missing something?
Any help about driver loading or even better how to get this controller stable is appreciated.
Sysinfo:
inxi --full --admin --filter --width
System:
Kernel: 6.6.10-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
clocksource: tsc available: acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.6-x86_64
root=UUID=28131e87-9375-48f1-963d-9c906aed1988 rw splash
udev.log_priority=3
Console: pty pts/5 DM: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ZOTAC model: ZBOX-CI622/CI642/CI662NANO v: XX
serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: B418P104 date: 03/03/2020
CPU:
Info: model: Intel Core i5-10210U socket: BGA1528 (U3E1) note: check bits: 64
type: MT MCP arch: Comet/Whiskey Lake note: check gen: core 10 level: v3
note: check built: 2018 process: Intel 14nm family: 6 model-id: 0x8E (142)
stepping: 0xC (12) microcode: 0xF8
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache:
L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB
L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 700 high: 800 min/max: 400/4200 base/boost: 1485/8300
scaling: driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave volts: 0.6 V
ext-clock: 100 MHz cores: 1: 800 2: 400 3: 800 4: 400 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800
8: 800 bogomips: 33615
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Vulnerabilities:
Type: gather_data_sampling mitigation: Microcode
Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Split huge pages
Type: l1tf status: Not affected
Type: mds status: Not affected
Type: meltdown status: Not affected
Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Type: retbleed mitigation: Enhanced IBRS
Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
prctl
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced / Automatic IBRS, IBPB: conditional,
RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence
Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel CometLake-U GT2 [UHD Graphics] vendor: ZOTAC driver: i915
v: kernel arch: Gen-9.5 process: Intel 14nm built: 2016-20 ports:
active: none off: DP-1 empty: DP-2,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0
chip-ID: 8086:9b41 class-ID: 0300
Display: server: X.org v: 1.21.1.10 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.3
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa
dri: iris gpu: i915 tty: 96x30
Monitor-1: DP-1 model: ARZOPA serial: <filter> built: 2021 res: 1920x1080
dpi: 139 gamma: 1.2 size: 350x200mm (13.78x7.87") diag: 403mm (15.9")
ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris platforms: device: 0 drv: iris
device: 1 drv: swrast surfaceless: drv: iris inactive: gbm,wayland,x11
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: mesa v: 23.3.3-manjaro1.1
note: console (EGL sourced) renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2),
llvmpipe (LLVM 16.0.6 256 bits)
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.274 layers: N/A device: 0 type: integrated-gpu
name: Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2) driver: mesa intel v: 23.3.3-manjaro1.1
device-ID: 8086:9b41 surfaces: N/A
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Comet Lake PCH-LP cAVS vendor: ZOTAC driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_skl,snd_sof_pci_intel_cnl bus-ID: 00:1f.3
chip-ID: 8086:02c8 class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.6.10-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: n/a (root, process) with:
1: pipewire-pulse status: active 2: wireplumber status: active
3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Intel Comet Lake PCH-LP CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:02f0 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlo1 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
driver: r8168 v: 8.052.01-NAPI modules: r8169 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
lanes: 1 port: 4000 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp1s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Device-3: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
driver: r8168 v: 8.052.01-NAPI modules: r8169 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-1: docker0 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-2: kvm-br0 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown mac: <filter>
IF-ID-3: vnet0 state: unknown speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel Bluetooth 9460/9560 Jefferson Peak (JfP) driver: btusb v: 0.8
type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-10:6
chip-ID: 8087:0aaa class-ID: e001
Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB lvm-free: 242.72 GiB used: 944.56 GiB (50.7%)
ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 870 EVO 2TB
family: based SSDs size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B
sata: 3.3 speed: 6.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 1B6Q
temp: 44 C scheme: GPT
SMART: yes state: enabled health: PASSED on: 20d 15h cycles: 48
written: 3.5 TiB
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 64 GiB size: 61.94 GiB (96.79%) used: 7.47 GiB (12.1%)
fs: ext4 block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 292 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat block-size: 512 B dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 250 GiB size: 245.02 GiB (98.01%)
used: 1.05 GiB (0.4%) fs: ext4 block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/dm-1
maj-min: 254:1 mapped: vg--nas-lv--home
ID-4: /var raw-size: 50 GiB size: 48.91 GiB (97.83%)
used: 12.85 GiB (26.3%) fs: ext4 block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/dm-0
maj-min: 254:0 mapped: vg--nas-lv--var
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: yes
compressor: zstd max-pool: 20%
ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 32 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 52.0 C pch: 55.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
Processes: 304 Uptime: 36m wakeups: 0 Memory: total: 32 GiB
available: 31.12 GiB used: 10.82 GiB (34.8%) igpu: 32 MiB Init: systemd
v: 255 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 13.2.1
clang: 16.0.6 Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1263 libs: 375
tools: octopi,pamac,yay Shell: Bash (sudo) v: 5.2.21
running-in: pty pts/5 (SSH) inxi: 3.3.31
PS: inxi output shows the active nic, this is due to a manually loading the driver with full path given to modprobe.
