Realtek Ethernet drivers

Realtek Ethernet drivers

[Heiko Bauke]

Dear Kernel-Developers,

in the last few weeks I spend quite some time trying to fix a network
problem on my home server which has two Realtek onboard ethernet cards,
lspci-output:

00:0c.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)

The problem was that sometimes one of the two cards or both obtained
«no link» status while all cables where pugged in correctly. After
unplugging the power supply and rebooting or after removing the module
r8169 and reloading it all links where up again (or maybe not).  

Searching the web I found that many other users have or had the same or
similar problems with this kind of ethernet card. Some users suggested
workarounds but none of these did work for me. Only after installing
drivers [1] as provided by Realtek my «no link» problems disappeared. 

Taking into account that the Realtek divers for RT8168 [2] and RT8169
[3] cards seem to be more reliable than the drivers in the Linux kernel
tree and that the Realtek drivers [2, 3] are distributed under the
terms of the GPL I wonder is there any good reason not to include these
drivers into the Linux main source tree?


	Regrads,

	Heiko


P.S. I am running 2.6.32-24-generic on a 32-bit Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS box.


[1] http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads
[3] http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=4&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true
[2] http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

-- 
-- Man könnte viele Beispiele für unsinnige Ausgaben nennen, aber keines
-- ist treffender als die Errichtung einer Friedhofsmauer. Die, die
-- drinnen sind, können sowieso nicht hinaus, und die, die draußen sind,
-- wollen nicht hinein. (Mark Twain, am. Schriftsteller, 1835-1903)

Re: Realtek Ethernet drivers

[Francois Romieu]

Please Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org for network related issues.

Heiko Bauke <heiko.bauke@snafu.de> :
[...]
> in the last few weeks I spend quite some time trying to fix a network
> problem on my home server which has two Realtek onboard ethernet cards,
> lspci-output:
> 
> 00:0c.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
> 00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)

It's probably fixed with one of :
- 81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e / 024a07bacf8287a6ddfa83e9d5b951c5e8b4070e
- 908ba2bfd22253f26fa910cd855e4ccffb1467d0
- 78f1cd02457252e1ffbc6caa44a17424a45286b8

[...]
> P.S. I am running 2.6.32-24-generic on a 32-bit Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS box.

Your 2.6.32-24-generic includes :
- 908ba2bfd22253f26fa910cd855e4ccffb1467d0
- 78f1cd02457252e1ffbc6caa44a17424a45286b8

But it misses 81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e and
024a07bacf8287a6ddfa83e9d5b951c5e8b4070e

Please upgrade.

-- 
Ueimor

Re: Realtek Ethernet drivers

[Heiko Bauke]

Dear Francois,

On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:37:25 +0200
Francois Romieu <romieu@fr.zoreil.com> wrote:

> It's probably fixed with one of :
> - 81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e /
> 024a07bacf8287a6ddfa83e9d5b951c5e8b4070e
> - 908ba2bfd22253f26fa910cd855e4ccffb1467d0
> - 78f1cd02457252e1ffbc6caa44a17424a45286b8
> 
> [...]
> > P.S. I am running 2.6.32-24-generic on a 32-bit Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
> > box.
> 
> Your 2.6.32-24-generic includes :
> - 908ba2bfd22253f26fa910cd855e4ccffb1467d0
> - 78f1cd02457252e1ffbc6caa44a17424a45286b8
> 
> But it misses 81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e and
> 024a07bacf8287a6ddfa83e9d5b951c5e8b4070e

I thank you for your reply. If there is time I will try a more recent
kernel. (For the moment the Realtek drivers are fine for me.) I
know how to (re-)compile distribution kernels and how to compile a
vanilla kernel from kernel.org. However, I have no idea what the
hex-codes you mentioned mean. Can you give me a hint?


	Regards,

	Heiko

-- 
-- Die glücklichen Sklaven sind die erbittertsten Feinde der Freiheit.
-- (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, öst. Schriftst., 1830-1916)
-- Number Crunch Blog @ http://numbercrunch.de
--        Heiko Bauke @ http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/personalhomes/bauke

Re: Realtek Ethernet drivers

[Tim Gardner]

On 09/13/2010 01:59 AM, Heiko Bauke wrote:
> Dear Francois,
>
> On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:37:25 +0200
> Francois Romieu<romieu@fr.zoreil.com>  wrote:
>
>> It's probably fixed with one of :
>> - 81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e /
>> 024a07bacf8287a6ddfa83e9d5b951c5e8b4070e
>> - 908ba2bfd22253f26fa910cd855e4ccffb1467d0
>> - 78f1cd02457252e1ffbc6caa44a17424a45286b8
>>
>> [...]
>>> P.S. I am running 2.6.32-24-generic on a 32-bit Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
>>> box.
>>
>> Your 2.6.32-24-generic includes :
>> - 908ba2bfd22253f26fa910cd855e4ccffb1467d0
>> - 78f1cd02457252e1ffbc6caa44a17424a45286b8
>>
>> But it misses 81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e and
>> 024a07bacf8287a6ddfa83e9d5b951c5e8b4070e
>
> I thank you for your reply. If there is time I will try a more recent
> kernel. (For the moment the Realtek drivers are fine for me.) I
> know how to (re-)compile distribution kernels and how to compile a
> vanilla kernel from kernel.org. However, I have no idea what the
> hex-codes you mentioned mean. Can you give me a hint?
>
>
> 	Regards,
>
> 	Heiko
>

If not already staged, please consider including these commits for 2.6.32.y:

024a07bacf8287a6ddfa83e9d5b951c5e8b4070e
81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e

They are already included in 2.6.33.y and up, so its curious that they 
are not also included in 2.6.32.y as they do apply cleanly.

rtg
-- 
Tim Gardner tim.gardner@canonical.com

Re: Realtek Ethernet drivers

[Ben Gamari]

On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:59:12 +0200, Heiko Bauke <heiko.bauke@snafu.de> wrote:
> > But it misses 81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e and
> > 024a07bacf8287a6ddfa83e9d5b951c5e8b4070e
> 
> I thank you for your reply. If there is time I will try a more recent
> kernel. (For the moment the Realtek drivers are fine for me.) I
> know how to (re-)compile distribution kernels and how to compile a
> vanilla kernel from kernel.org. However, I have no idea what the
> hex-codes you mentioned mean. Can you give me a hint?
> 
These are git (the version control system used for kernel development)
commit ids.

- Ben

Re: Realtek Ethernet drivers

[Francois Romieu]

Heiko Bauke <heiko.bauke@snafu.de> :
> Francois Romieu <romieu@fr.zoreil.com> wrote:
[...]
> > But it misses 81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e and
> > 024a07bacf8287a6ddfa83e9d5b951c5e8b4070e
> 
> I thank you for your reply. If there is time I will try a more recent
> kernel. (For the moment the Realtek drivers are fine for me.) I
> know how to (re-)compile distribution kernels and how to compile a
> vanilla kernel from kernel.org. However, I have no idea what the
> hex-codes you mentioned mean. Can you give me a hint?

They are commit ID. See :

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e

-- 
Ueimor

Re: Realtek Ethernet drivers

[dave b]

On 14 September 2010 03:41, Ben Gamari <bgamari@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:59:12 +0200, Heiko Bauke <heiko.bauke@snafu.de> wrote:
>> > But it misses 81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e and
>> > 024a07bacf8287a6ddfa83e9d5b951c5e8b4070e
>>
>> I thank you for your reply. If there is time I will try a more recent
>> kernel. (For the moment the Realtek drivers are fine for me.) I
>> know how to (re-)compile distribution kernels and how to compile a
>> vanilla kernel from kernel.org. However, I have no idea what the
>> hex-codes you mentioned mean. Can you give me a hint?
>>
> These are git (the version control system used for kernel development)
> commit ids.

Please add https://launchpad.net/~kernel-ppa/+archive/ppa
and install the latest kernel available from that repository if you
are unsure as to how to compile a kernel.org kernel.

Re: Realtek Ethernet drivers

[David Miller]

From: Tim Gardner <tim.gardner@canonical.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 10:14:34 -0600

> If not already staged, please consider including these commits for
> 2.6.32.y:
> 
> 024a07bacf8287a6ddfa83e9d5b951c5e8b4070e
> 81a95f049962ec20a9aed888e676208b206f0f2e
> 
> They are already included in 2.6.33.y and up, so its curious that they
> are not also included in 2.6.32.y as they do apply cleanly.

I'll take care of queueing these up to -stable, thanks.