[SOLVED?] Network issues after upgrade to Bullseye

[ticojohn]

I have a dual boot system with Buster amd64 installed on an SSD and an HDD. I just upgraded the HDD to Bullseye. Now I am experiencing a strange networking issue. If I select Bullseye as the boot option it starts up and the network connection is fine. However, if I then restart the computer (select restart from the xfce menu) and at grub now select the SSD when I arrive at the desktop the network icon just spins around and around. I have tried to restart the network. I have tried stopping and then starting the network. The only thing that works is to shutdown and turn off the UPS. I can then select the SSD in grub and the network connection will be made. I am assuming that there is something in the Bullseye configuration that is causing the problem. Any suggestions or guidance as to where to look would be appreciated.

[ticojohn]

I just tried an experiment. I plugged in my USB WiFi adapter and the problem appears to go away. So the problem seems to be related to the wired connection only. I will keep experimenting but it would appear that there might be an issue with the network software in Bullseye.

[ticojohn]

This might be interesting. I have the firmware-realtex package installed, and it has worked flawlessly on both of my Buster installs. However, with this problem raising its head I took a look at my actual hardware and see this:

Code: Select all

description: Ethernet interface
                product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller

I'm wondering if I should install the 8168-dkms package instead. This what I see in Synaptic

r8168 is the Linux device driver released by RealTek for their network
controllers with PCI-Express interface:
* 10/100/1000M Gigabit Ethernet: RTL8111B, RTL8111C, RTL8111D, RTL8111E,
RTL8111F, RTL8111G(S), RTL8111H(S), RTL8118(A)(S), RTL8119i, RTL8111L,
RTL8168B, RTL8168E, RTL8168H, RTL8111DP, RTL8111EP, RTL8111FP, RTL8411,
RTL8411B

I suppose it can't hurt anything to try. I will report back.

It did not help. But it did lead to a new discovery. If I am booted into Bullseye and restart it doesn't matter with I boot to Buster or back into Bullseye, the wired connection doesn't work. The WiFi connection does not exhibit any issues. Arrrggghhhh

[sunrat]

I have possibly the same Ethernet controller and have 5 Linuxes (including 3x Buster and a week-old Bullseye) and Windows 10 all installed on a 1TB SSD. Booting any of these brings up the network almost instantly.
Check journalctl for any clues but from the info you have posted I have no idea why yours misbehaves.

[ticojohn]

REALLY WEIRD !! I just turned on the computer this morning and started checking things to see what was causing the problem I was seeing, and everything is now working okay. I must have "daemons" in the computer. HAHAHA! The only thing I did this morning was to install the net-tools package on Bullseye. Can't imagine that that had anything to do with fixing the problem, but then again "I am but an egg". Or so said V.M. Smith.

Having worked with computers since the mid 70's (IMSAI 8080 and the like), it really freaks me out when thing fix themselves.

[yogiman]

Hi, I am struggling with this same problem on Bullseye, Initially it was a problem where it would not lock to 1gb and insisted on 100mb connection. However the problem has become worse and now I suffer from constant connect/disconnect issues. Have tried alternate switch and cables and have the same problem on multiple Realtek 8168 chipsets on different machines.

Are you still having this problem?

Thanks