• Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI was reported to have a "weird behaviour" (quoting from the mailing list: 10Mbps link as shown by ethtool, 100Mbps link as shown by the link-indicator on the switch, ifconfig showed no TX-packets, some RX-packets, /billions/ of dropped packets - increasing by millions every second. The kernel log showed multiple 'Link down' entries.)

• http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=24&l2=165&l3=0&l4=0&model=2289&modelmenu=1

• Asus P5GC-MX/GBL

• Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L

• Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6

• MSI K9A2GM-FD / FIH / FIH-S

• Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H

1.2. Realtek PCI-Express NIC Described here:

Realtek RTL8111b Datasheet

Correct driver is not included with the standard CentOS 4.5, 5.0 and 5.1 distributions. The driver in CentOS 5.2 works for some but not for all of the cards. It has also been reported that under some circumstances, even the cards which seem to function with the driver included in 5.2 (see "rev 01" described below) sometimes still exhibit problems (big latencies, lock-ups). For example, see http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=3218.

3. Output of `lspci -v` for a functional card

On an MSI P35 Neo-F (model MS-7360) (note "rev 01" in the first line):

04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
 RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Unknown device 360c
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
        I/O ports at e800 [size=256]
        Memory at febff000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Expansion ROM at febc0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [48] Vital Product Data
        Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/1 Enable-
        Capabilities: [60] Express Endpoint IRQ 0
        Capabilities: [84] Vendor Specific Information

4. Output of `lspci -v` for a non-functional card

On an Asus P5GC-MX/GBL (note "rev 02" in the first line):

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B
PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 82c6
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 177
        Region 0: I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
        Region 2: Memory at cffff000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Region 4: Memory at efff0000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Expansion ROM at cffc0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-
                Address: 0000000000000000 Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint IRQ 1
                Device: Supported: MaxPayload 256 bytes, PhantFunc 0, ExtTag-
                Device: Latency L0s <512ns, L1 <8us
                Device: AtnBtn- AtnInd- PwrInd-
                Device: Errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
                Device: RlxdOrd+ ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
                Device: MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes
                Link: Supported Speed 2.5Gb/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Port 0
                Link: Latency L0s <512ns, L1 <64us
                Link: ASPM Disabled RCB 64 bytes CommClk+ ExtSynch-
                Link: Speed 2.5Gb/s, Width x1
        Capabilities: [b0] MSI-X: Enable- Mask- TabSize=2
                Vector table: BAR=4 offset=00000000
                PBA: BAR=4 offset=00000800
        Capabilities: [d0] Vital Product Data

On a Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H -- again rev 02. Note this NIC is identified as an RTL8111C by the product documentation.

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B
PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Unknown device e000
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 50
        I/O ports at b000 [size=256]
        Memory at e1510000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Memory at e1500000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=64K]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at e1520000 [disabled] [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit+ Queue=0/1 Enable+
        Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint IRQ 1
        Capabilities: [b0] MSI-X: Enable- Mask- TabSize=2
        Capabilities: [d0] Vital Product Data
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
        Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx

5. Solutions

There are a few ways to get the driver.

(1) Download and install the r8168 driver from Realtek's website at:

Realtek Driver Download

Direct download links were previously provided here. Realtek has changed the links on the above page to a Javascript tool that makes it difficult to extract the links. Follow the link above and look for LINUX driver for kernel 2.6.x and 2.4.x to download the current driver.

Pro:

• Requires only the packages available on the install DVD/Base repository and the source drivers downloaded from Realtek.

Against:

• You must recompile manually the module after each kernel upgrade.

Here is the full list of packages which must be installed in order to compile the driver from source.

(1) standard = Base + Updates repositories.

(2)

Driver disks for the following releases have been created and can be used while installing a new system :

• CentOS 4.5 (kernel 2.6.9-55.EL)
• CentOS 5.0 (kernel 2.6.18-8.el5)
• CentOS 5.1 (kernel 2.6.18-53.el5)
• CentOS 5.2 (kernel 2.6.18-92.el5)

These driver disks are for i686 and x86_64 arches only.

• r8168 Driver Disk for CentOS 4.5 and 5.0

• r8168 Driver Disk for CentOS 5.1 and newer

• r8168 Driver Disk Files for CentOS 5.2 See readme.txt.

8. Notes

• The kernel's r8169 driver identifies the same PCI ID as its working hardware. A test with a Fedora 8 Test 1 Live CD showed that that kernel 2.6.23 attempts to load the r8169 driver. However it does not work. The CentOS 5.0 installer does not attempt to load the r8169.

An exchange with Francois Romieu, one of the kernel developers for the r8169 driver, confirmed that the functionality of Realtek's r8168 and r8169 drivers will be incorporated into the kernel's r8169 driver. The kernel changelog shows a merge with Realtek's drivers in July 2007.

Kernel r8169 Changelog

This was confirmed November 2007 using the first release of Fedora 8 (kernel 2.6.23.1-42.fc8) on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 and an MSI P35 Neo-F E7360, both with an RTL8111B on-board. The kernel's r8169 driver correctly identified and configured the on-board NIC.

8.1. Update January 2009

To test a more recent kernel than that provided by the upstream vendor, a rev 02 motherboard (a Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H) was tested with Fedora 10 (kernel 2.6.27.5-117.fc10). As previously seen, the kernel identified the NIC and loaded the r8169 driver but still did not operate the NIC correctly. The same hardware was also tested with GParted Live 0.4.1-2, which is based on Debian Lenny (kernel 2.6.26-12). Interestingly, this software did correctly initialize and operate the RTL8111C rev. 02 NIC.

9. Updating the Kernel

When a NIC driver isn't included in the kernel, remotely (that is over a telnet or ssh session) updating the kernel can be a problem. A few extra steps can make this possible.