RTL8111/8168/8411 requires power cycle after Windows 10

[Ulrich Windl]

Hi!

I had reported problems with the RTL8111/8168/8411 ethernet controller
and Qubes OS before. In the meantime I found out that it does not work
when Windows 10 was running, and after a "restart" Qubes SO is booted.

The effect is interesting: The card detects whether the link goes up or
down, detects the proper speed, tries DHCP, but never gets an address.

Only when I power don the PC and reboot Qubes OS, I get an address from
DHCP. I suspect that the card isn't fully reset when Qubes OS boots.

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 11)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 859e
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
Memory at f7d00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Memory at f0300000 (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 01-00-00-00-33-4c-cd-00
Capabilities: [170] Latency Tolerance Reporting
Kernel driver in use: pciback
Kernel modules: r8169

Kernel: 4.19.107-1.pvops.qubes.x86_64

Regards,
Ulrich

[awokd]

Ulrich Windl:

> Hi!
>
> I had reported problems with the RTL8111/8168/8411 ethernet controller
> and Qubes OS before. In the meantime I found out that it does not work
> when Windows 10 was running, and after a "restart" Qubes SO is booted.
>
> The effect is interesting: The card detects whether the link goes up or
> down, detects the proper speed, tries DHCP, but never gets an address.
>
> Only when I power don the PC and reboot Qubes OS, I get an address from
> DHCP.  I suspect that the card isn't fully reset when Qubes OS boots.
>
> 03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
> RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 11)

Does that card support strict reset, and if so, does enabling it help? I
think the order of operations with strict reset enabled goes like:

1. Power on PC
2. Card partially initializes with pciback xen driver
3. Power on VM with pass-through NIC
4. Strict reset sent to NIC
5. Card fully initializes with VM's drivers
6. Power off VM
7. Card gets reattached to pciback

--
- don't top post
Mailing list etiquette:
- trim quoted reply to only relevant portions
- when possible, copy and paste text instead of screenshots