Qubes 4.0: Can't connect to network over Ethernet

[fshar...@gmail.com]

Hello. First-time Qubes user, somewhat new to Linux.

I'm not able to connect to the network over Ethernet. In the system tray is a red network icon with an x. If I click it and select "Wired connection", the icon changes to two circling red dots (i.e. a "wait" icon). Occasionally a message pops up saying "The network connection has been disconnected." Eventually it gives up and goes back to the red network icon.

I'm able to connect to the network using the same computer with a different OS.

I tried replacing my cat-5 cable, but no luck.

The cat-5 cable connects to a wifi repeater, if that makes any difference. The wifi repeater is programmed with the wifi network information; when I connect a computer to it, it's typically treated like any other wired connection.

I'm using wifi, so I don't have a modem I can connect to. I do have a wifi USB card, but I don't know how to make Qubes use that (I know how to attach USB storage devices, but not this).

I'm running Qubes from a USB stick, if that makes any difference. I'm on the same computer I used to install it.

I have an old Biostar TPower X79 mainboard.

When I look at the properties for sys-net, it shows the following device attached:

0b:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Contoller (rev 06)

I don't see any other network-related devices listed.

sudo lspci -v
00:05.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 06)
Subsystem: Biostar Microtech Int'l Corp Device [1565:230a]
Physical slot: 5
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 71
I/O ports at c200 [size=256]
Memory at f2029000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
Memory at f2024000 (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: [d0] Vital Product Data
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169

sudo systemctl | grep 'eth'
sys-devices-vif\x2d0-net-eth0.device loaded active plugged /sys/devices/vif-0/net/eth0
sys-subsystem-net-devices-eth0.device loaded active plugged /sys/subsystem/net/devices/eth0
LOAD = Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.

sudo journalctl | grep 'eth'
Apr 04 17:02:34 sys-firewall kernel: xen_netfront: Initialising Xen virtual ethernet driver

ifconfig -a
eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 10.137.0.3 netmask 255.255.255.255 broadcast 10.255.255.255
inet6 fe80::216:3eff:fe5e:6c00 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
ether 00:16:3e:5e:6c:00 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 44 bytes 3192 (3.1 KiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 44 bytes 3136 (3.0 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 65536
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host>
loop txqueuelen 1000 (Local Loopback)
RX packets 26 bytes 2104 (2.0 KiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 26 bytes 2104 (2.0 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

Last night for some reason ifconfig was listing my ethernet connection as "ens5". Not sure why that happened but it seems to be gone now.

Thank you very much for any suggestions, and if I can provide any other info just let me know.

[awokd]

On Thu, April 5, 2018 1:37 am, fshar...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hello. First-time Qubes user, somewhat new to Linux.
>
>
> I'm not able to connect to the network over Ethernet. In the system tray
> is a red network icon with an x. If I click it and select "Wired
> connection", the icon changes to two circling red dots (i.e. a "wait"
> icon). Occasionally a message pops up saying "The network connection has
> been disconnected." Eventually it gives up and goes back to the red
> network icon.

Sounds like it is trying to DHCP, but not getting a reply it understands.
Are you using the default fedora-26 template for sys-net? Try shutting it
down, then switching to debian-9. You could also try to set a static IP
("manual" IPv4 if you edit Wired Connection 1).

You're running the below commands in sys-net, right?

> sudo lspci -v 00:05.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor
> Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
> [10ec:8168] (rev 06)
> Subsystem: Biostar Microtech Int'l Corp Device [1565:230a]
> Physical slot: 5
> Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 71
> I/O ports at c200 [size=256]
> Memory at f2029000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
> Memory at f2024000 (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: [d0] Vital Product Data
> Kernel driver in use: r8169
> Kernel modules: r8169

This part looks good.

> sudo journalctl | grep 'eth' Apr 04 17:02:34 sys-firewall kernel:
> xen_netfront: Initialising Xen virtual ethernet driver

Try "sudo journalctl | grep 'r8169'" here.

> ifconfig -a eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
> inet 10.137.0.3 netmask 255.255.255.255 broadcast 10.255.255.255 inet6

This part doesn't look as good. Try "ip link" too. There should be
something listed for your network adapter (probably the ens5 you see
occasionally) but all I see here is the virtual interface and loopback.
Check if there's an updated package available for r8169 firmware if the
debian-9 switch didn't help.

[hdct...@gmail.com]

THANK YOU! That fixed the problem.

I'm sorry for my slow reply, I had skipped the debian-9 template during the install so I had to reinstall a couple of times (due to mistakes on my part) to get it.

Once I switched sys-net to debian-9 I was able to connect and ping successfully. I don't know how you knew to do that (are there different drivers in the debian-9 template?) but it worked.

Also to answer your question, yes I was running lspci and the other commands in sys-net.

Thank you again, this is hugely appreciated. Now I can get on with learning Qubes.

[awokd]

On Fri, April 6, 2018 11:04 pm, hdct...@gmail.com wrote:
> THANK YOU! That fixed the problem.
>
>
> I'm sorry for my slow reply, I had skipped the debian-9 template during
> the install so I had to reinstall a couple of times (due to mistakes on
> my part) to get it.
>
> Once I switched sys-net to debian-9 I was able to connect and ping
> successfully. I don't know how you knew to do that (are there different
> drivers in the debian-9 template?) but it worked.

It was an educated guess, at best. :)

> Also to answer your question, yes I was running lspci and the other
> commands in sys-net.
>
> Thank you again, this is hugely appreciated. Now I can get on with
> learning Qubes.

Enjoy!

[brenda...@gmail.com]

On Friday, April 6, 2018 at 7:04:38 PM UTC-4, hdct...@gmail.com wrote:
> THANK YOU! That fixed the problem.
>
> I'm sorry for my slow reply, I had skipped the debian-9 template during the install so I had to reinstall a couple of times (due to mistakes on my part) to get it.
>
> Once I switched sys-net to debian-9 I was able to connect and ping successfully. I don't know how you knew to do that (are there different drivers in the debian-9 template?) but it worked.

Indeed there are. In fact, on my Thinkpad W520, the network *doesn't* work in debian-9 due to a wireless driver issue. debian-8 does work though. I'll figure it out sometime...but I'm good for now. :)

Brendan