rdenney Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 This is a note just as bread crumbs for others who may run into this issue. In reading the release notes, the r8169 driver has been included, then removed, then included, and ultimately removed. It has been "replaced" by an r8168 driver. I read where the Realtek driver was a consistent problem for one reason or another. When I installed 4.7, it worked with my PCI cheapie GIG-E network card that uses an 8169 chip, without issue. But I needed a late release candidate to support my LSI9210-flashed IBM M1015 disk controller, but I found that rc8a no longer includes the r8169 driver. The r8168 driver DOES NOT find the 8169-based no-name network card. One expert user (see here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=22615.msg201529#msg201529) rolled an r8169 driver into the rc8a kernel and has offered that for download. I am using that build and it works perfectly with my network card. Okay, there are reasons the r8169 driver was removed, I gather. But if one of those reasons is that the 8168 driver provides the needed functionality, then it my case it did not. Every single PCI-based NIC at Micro Center, where I was shopping for bits for this project, used the Realtek 8169 chip. Nary an Intel chip in sight. Given that many (like me) are repurposing old motherboards, a gigabit NIC might not be integrated already (mine was Fast Ethernet). The NIC I used was all of about eight dollars--an easy way to add a gigabit network interface to an older board. That board is otherwise abundantly applicable to use wiht unRAID, it seems to me, so perhaps before rc8a becomes a stable version, consideration should be given to reinserting that r8169 driver officially. Rick "bringing what has been buried in other threads to a thread title for ease of searching" Denney Link to comment
ebr Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Okay, I guess this is my problem too since upgrading to any 5.0 release gives me no network on the unRaid box. 4.7 has been working great for a year. I also have a cheap PCI nic card. My motherboard is not that old but only has a 100MB integrated NIC. How do I confirm that my PCI nic has this particular chipset so that I know this is the issue I am facing? Link to comment
ebr Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Nevermind - I pulled the card and, sure enough, the chip says RTL8169s. This really sux. My parity drive failed and I bought a new 3TB not realizing it would not work with 4.7. So now I either have no parity or a too-slow network connection to serve my media. Link to comment
rdenney Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 Nevermind - I pulled the card and, sure enough, the chip says RTL8169s. This really sux. My parity drive failed and I bought a new 3TB not realizing it would not work with 4.7. So now I either have no parity or a too-slow network connection to serve my media. Just use the version shown in the post that I linked. It includes the r8169 driver, and your 8169-based NIC should then work. That version is otherwise identical to rc8a. Rick "agreeing that Realtek 8169 support should be included in any release candidate" Denney Link to comment
ebr Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Thanks. I went ahead and installed that version and it appears to be working fine. Building my parity back now. Link to comment
tcharron Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 +1. My mobo died, and I replaced it with one I had -- a Gigabyte Z77-DS3H. Unbeknownst to me, the embedded giga-nic was atheros based, and I was surprised to learn that Unraid wouldn't work with it. Ok, set aside my frustration and put in a realtek based PCI network card. Doubly surprised when that did not work. Using the user provided binary solved the problem. Really uncomfortable having to trust any build from the user community, but didn't have a choice in this case. Call this a vote to add Atheros & r8169 support. I can't see how Unraid can remain viable without both being officially supported. Link to comment
dgaschk Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Atheros should work fine.. There was a problem in 4.7 but not in 5.0. Link to comment
limetech Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 The whole Realtek driver problems has been a real pain, and has been a catch-22 situation. The current state with 5.0-rc8a is the vendor supplied driver (r8168) is IN and the linux kernel stock driver (r8169) is OUT. So there is a group of users whose Realtek NIC's won't work with r8168 and you guys are not happy, but if I switch to r8169 you guys will be happy but a different set of guys will be unhappy. I've been trying to avoid a "configuration setting" somewhere to let you pick the driver because this has to be done via the console (because if your NIC doesn't work you have no network thus no webGui). Also, it's a real hack to do this anyway. Next imminent release, -rc9, has latest Realtek r8168 driver. Realtek has been pretty good lately at updating their driver for linux. Here is where I get it: http://code.google.com/p/r8168/ They have just released version 8.035, which is in -rc9. So we'll see if this solves the issues. If it doesn't , then I'll add the hack to let you select which driver to use. Also... I noticed some talk of using 100Mbit ethernet - well I don't recommend this because it's really slow. But also, I have only included a handful of 100Mbit NIC drivers, all because of customer request. So if you are really insistent on using a slow NIC, and your NIC is not recognized by unRaid, you need to send me an email telling me what NIC you want a driver for. [email protected] Link to comment
rick.p Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 I've been trying to avoid a "configuration setting" somewhere to let you pick the driver because this has to be done via the console (because if your NIC doesn't work you have no network thus no webGui). Also, it's a real hack to do this anyway. Stupid idea follows: Not a console config option. A config setting that goes under the 'config' folder on the flash. That can be plugged into the PC to get to. Brute force method. if it sees a file named.. use8169 then .. duh, it loads the 8169 driver. Just the existence of the file triggers it, but the exact name. Nothing extra to read, just 'is is there?' Hack? Yes? Semi-Quick and Dirty? Yes? Avoid the console issue? Absolutely? like I said, stupid idea.... Link to comment
dgaschk Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Is there anyway to automate the selection using ping for example? Link to comment
Gizmotoy Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I'm in the same boat, and the modified rc8a works for me as well, in case anyone else is keeping track. Hopefully the new 8168 driver Tom's sticking in for rc9 helps. If I wasn't running headless I'd be first in line to give it a shot since running an unofficial build is a little worrisome, but diagnosing network driver problems on such a machine is a pain. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, though. Link to comment
unevent Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I'm by no means a Linux expert, but what do the *ubuntu guys do? I have Xubuntu on several systems with Realtek NICs and they use the 8169 driver. Obviously different distro (Debian vs Slack), but do they probe and select based on a config file or something? Link to comment
limetech Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I'm by no means a Linux expert, but what do the *ubuntu guys do? I have Xubuntu on several systems with Realtek NICs and they use the 8169 driver. Obviously different distro (Debian vs Slack), but do they probe and select based on a config file or something? Google 'linux r8168' and/or 'linux r8169' and you'll find plenty of posts where one is recommended to use over the other, and over the default. Link to comment
Marvel Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 The whole Realtek driver problems has been a real pain, and has been a catch-22 situation. The current state with 5.0-rc8a is the vendor supplied driver (r8168) is IN and the linux kernel stock driver (r8169) is OUT. So there is a group of users whose Realtek NIC's won't work with r8168 and you guys are not happy, but if I switch to r8169 you guys will be happy but a different set of guys will be unhappy. I've been trying to avoid a "configuration setting" somewhere to let you pick the driver because this has to be done via the console (because if your NIC doesn't work you have no network thus no webGui). Also, it's a real hack to do this anyway. Next imminent release, -rc9, has latest Realtek r8168 driver. Realtek has been pretty good lately at updating their driver for linux. Here is where I get it: http://code.google.com/p/r8168/ They have just released version 8.035, which is in -rc9. So we'll see if this solves the issues. If it doesn't , then I'll add the hack to let you select which driver to use. Also... I noticed some talk of using 100Mbit ethernet - well I don't recommend this because it's really slow. But also, I have only included a handful of 100Mbit NIC drivers, all because of customer request. So if you are really insistent on using a slow NIC, and your NIC is not recognized by unRaid, you need to send me an email telling me what NIC you want a driver for. [email protected] Hey Limetech, Could you not have two releases ? standard one and then one with the other driver . Cheers Link to comment
limetech Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Hey Limetech, Could you not have two releases ? standard one and then one with the other driver . Cheers This is exactly what I'm going to do: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=25208.msg219067#msg219067 Link to comment
Gizmotoy Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 Any of you guys try RC10? Looks very promising. Link to comment
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