Ubuntu
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RTL8101E not working with 2.6.27-11

Bug #326408 reported by NotMike on 2009-02-07

This bug report is a duplicate of: Bug #326891: 2.6.27.11 kernel breaks r8169 support for rtl8102e. Edit Remove

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	linux (Ubuntu)	New	Undecided	Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: linux-image-2.6.27-11-generic

I recently installed Ubuntu 8.10 on my Acer Aspire One from the Live CD. The Live CD properly supported the built-in ethernet adapter, and NetworkManager was able to configure a connection via Live CD.

After installing, the RTL8101E continued to work properly with the installed kernel (2.6.27-7) until I updated the kernel to 2.6.27-11 and rebooted.

After rebooting, NetworkManager was unable to configure the interface, despite the kernel loading the r8169 module, and eth0 showing up in ifconfig.

lspci reports the following:
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)

This appears to have been solved by using the updated drive available from Realtek, but I have not yet attempted this fix.
(courtesy http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?s=661a34976a5f7bec778dc8b8186ceb1b&t=782267&page=2)

Booting from the old kernel (2.26.27-7) from the GRUB menu allows me to use the ethernet adapter again.

Revision history for this message

Damiano (ubuntu-engidea) wrote on 2009-02-08:

I also had this problem.
lspci -n reports the board as being
01:00.0 0200: 10ec:8136 (rev 02)
Aparently with kernel 27-11 there is a module called r8101 that should be more appropriate, the question is how to load that module instead of the r8169
You have to go into /lib/modules/2.6.27-11-generic and edit the file modules.alias
add a line like the following
alias pci:v000010ECd00008136sv*sd*bc*sc*i* r8101
that means that when a pci id 8136 is found the module r8101 should be loaded.
Look at http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ModaliasPrimer for further info.
Then you have to recreate the ram image (I think), this should work
depmod -a
mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-`uname -r`
I hope it helps

Revision history for this message

Damiano (ubuntu-engidea) wrote on 2009-02-08:

I think I have to correct myself, regarding tha availability of r8101.
I dnd't realize that I had actually installed the driver I downloaded from realtek, sorry.
Not only that !, but I also found someone else that had already written a nice page about it !
(Amazing how a correct google search yelds a good result)
http://www.surrey.lug.org.uk/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?InstallIntelAtom

Revision history for this message

Damiano (ubuntu-engidea) wrote on 2009-02-08:

dmesg.txt Edit (29.3 KiB, text/plain)

I must report that I have a system hang (after all is safe and the CPU should be halted) when shutting down the system after I have loaded this driver.
Beside this the network works.

Now I have no time to check further but if any of you is wondering of the machine I am using, then you can find the dmesg report attached to this message.