Realtek Ethernet Driver
Rene Thivierge
I have recently upgraded from Ubuntu 15.10 to 16.04. when i was using 15.10 ethernet works flawlessly. But after upgrading to 16.04 it doesn't work anymore showing network cable unplugged. I tried reinstalling driver & end up getting following error
When i had installed in 15.10 it was installed successfully.My ethernet controller is: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev10).I have done all proxy settings same as they were in 15.10.
After that I still couldn't connect to the internet. But the r8101 kernel module was loaded and in nm the connection came up. I noticed there was no mac address. With the following command I forced a random chosen mac address.
I then tested a USB to Ethernet adapter, and it was able to work.
So I narrowed the issue down to the onboard Ethernet driver.
Driver was up to date, so I did the typical uninstall/reinstall, Did not work.
However I knew my Windows 10 machines worked flawlessly.
I just registered to also confirm the issue is real, and happens in HP Gaming laptops as well, with Realtek Gaming Gbpe Ethernet Devices, which Windows 11 seems to force updating in Windows Update using "Realtek - Net - 1.0.0.23 (Driver Update)", then we need to revert back every time to previous driver (the one from HP supports download page which is SP111133 for me at least, owning a HP Pavillion Gaming 16-a0033ns). Hope this helps someone too and that this issue is fixed! It seems this is not happening in Windows 10, so W10 with latest Realtek drivers seems to be working, the issue is only in W11! (so strange btw)...
Windows 11 with the last Realtek Gaming 2.5 Gbpe Ethernet Devices driver is having the problem only with VPN IPSEC, that is working only with vpnssl. Installing the lastest driver for windows 10 fix the problem with IPSEC.
Fortinet Answer: "...there will be no fix from the forticlient side as this is not a forticlient issue.This issue is with Realtek drivers and a drivers update might fix the issue.To avoid this issue, try not to use the latest Realtek driver, it has the bug, just use the driver that comes with Windows and that should work."
Thanks! But I'm using current latest Forticlient VPN version 7.0.8.0427... any ideas where to get the installer for VPN version 7.0.2? I cannot find anywhere... :( so the only workaround for me is to keep using previous realtek drivers from HP drivers download page (not windows update latest version).
The Fortinet Security Fabric brings together the concepts of convergence and consolidation to provide comprehensive cybersecurity protection for all users, devices, and applications and across all network edges.
Just updated to Catalina and it appears my StarTech USB-C Ethernet adaptor(Model us1gc30a) no longer works nor my StarTech USB hub with ethernet(Model ST3300G3UA). It appears to use the RealTek chipset if that helps.
Ive got the same problem. The only solution I found with my Realtek is to shutdown the system, every time when you unplug the device. Remember shut down not restart. This is very important! I think that this is a problem with paring or sandboxing the device. I tried with three different cards and problem was the same.
The guy asked for a solution, I gave one that was working for me. After your post I start digging and realised that there might be something wrong with drivers which was odd anyway. As far as I can remember I have not installed any on my Mojave and RTL was running out of the box like a charm...
As a result, we usually end up recommending that users replace these with an Intel ethernet card such as the Intel Desktop CT, usually available for about $35. Make sure you get a legitimate Intel card, as there are fakes out there. The Intel will perform much better than your Realtek.
The LAN solution from Intel has been long known to have a better throughput, lower CPU utilization as well as better stability. With the Intel Gigabit LAN solutions onboard, the ultimate network experience can therefore be delivered to its users like never before.
Speaking of 100Mbps, years ago, one of the FreeBSD driver gurus, Bill Paul, wrote the following commentary while writing a driver for the Realtek 100Mbps cards. So this is not directly relevant to modern cards, but why would it have gotten much better?
udev should detect your network interface controller (NIC) and automatically load the necessary kernel module at startup. Check the "Ethernet controller" entry (or similar) from the lspci -v output. It should tell you which kernel module contains the driver for your network device. For example:
Search the internet for the right module/driver for your chipset. Some common modules are 8139too for cards with a Realtek chipset, or sis900 for cards with a SiS chipset. Once you know which module to use, try to load it manually. If you get an error saying that the module was not found, verify first if you recently upgraded the kernel (see General troubleshooting#Cannot use some peripherals after kernel upgrade). Alternatively, it is possible that the driver is not included in the Arch kernel. You may search the AUR for the module name.
ifplugd is a daemon which will automatically configure your Ethernet device when a cable is plugged in and automatically unconfigure it if the cable is pulled. This is useful on laptops with onboard network adapters, since it will only configure the interface when a cable is really connected. Another use is when you just need to restart the network but do not want to restart the computer or do it from the shell.
Boot time initialization of lower ethernet NIC speed is possible through systemd.link files. The actual setup is performed by the net_setup_link udev builtin. Add the AutoNegotiation option to the network link file:
Some cable ISPs (Vidotron for example) have the cable modem configured to recognize only one client PC, by the MAC address of its network interface. Once the cable modem has learned the MAC address of the first PC or equipment that talks to it, it will not respond to another MAC address in any way. Thus if you swap one PC for another (or for a router), the new PC (or router) will not work with the cable modem, because the new PC (or router) has a MAC address different from the old one. To reset the cable modem so that it will recognise the new PC, you must power the cable modem off and on again. Once the cable modem has rebooted and gone fully online again (indicator lights settled down), reboot the newly connected PC so that it makes a DHCP request, or manually make it request a new DHCP lease.
Users with Realtek 8168 8169 8101 8111(C) 8156B based NICs (cards / and on-board) may notice a problem where the NIC seems to be disabled on boot and has no Link light. This can usually be found on a dual boot system where Windows is also installed. It seems that using the official Realtek drivers (dated anything after May 2007) under Windows is the cause. These newer drivers disable the Wake-On-LAN feature by disabling the NIC at Windows shutdown time, where it will remain disabled until the next time Windows boots. You will be able to notice if this problem is affecting you if the Link light remains off until Windows boots up; during Windows shutdown the Link light will switch off. Normal operation should be that the link light is always on as long as the system is on, even during POST. This problem will also affect other operating systems without newer drivers (eg. Live CDs). Here are a few fixes for this problem.
You can roll back your Windows NIC driver to the Microsoft provided one (if available), or roll back/install an official Realtek driver pre-dating May 2007 (may be on the CD that came with your hardware).
Probably the best and the fastest fix is to change this setting in the Windows driver. This way it should be fixed system-wide and not only under Arch (eg. live CDs, other operating systems). In Windows, under Device Manager, find your Realtek network adapter and double-click it. Under the "Advanced" tab, change "Wake-on-LAN after shutdown" to "Enable".
It appears that setting Integrated Peripherals > Onboard LAN Boot ROM > Enabled in BIOS/CMOS reactivates the Realtek LAN chip on system boot-up, despite the Windows driver disabling it on OS shutdown.
The adapter should be recognized by the r8169 module. However, with some chip revisions the connection may go off and on all the time. The alternative r8168AUR should be used for a reliable connection in this case. Blacklist r8169, if r8168AUR is not automatically loaded by udev, you can explicitly load the module at boot.
With motherboards such as the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3, booting with IOMMU off (which can be the default) will cause the network interface to be unreliable, often failing to connect or connecting but allowing no throughput. This will apply to the onboard NIC and to any other pci-NIC in the box because the IOMMU setting affects the entire network interface on the board. Enabling IOMMU and booting with the install media will throw AMD I-10/xhci page faults for a second, but then boots normally, resulting in a fully functional onboard NIC (even with the r8169 module).
With motherboards such as the "MicroStar B450M MORTAR TITANIUM", unpluging/pluging Ethernet cables or restarting router's DHCP server would cause r8169 to enter a downshifted status, and downgrade the 1000 Mbit/s Ethernet speed to 100 Mbit/s. The kernel log will show:
USB Network Adapters with the following controller will often hang and stop transmit until its link is reset. This is accompanied with Tx status -2 or Tx status -71 errors in the kernel log. This can be fixed by setting USB_QUIRK_NO_LPM.
59fb9ae87f