Realtek 8169 drops to 100 Mbps

[Systech65]

I have an Untangle server at home, which is basically a Dell Optiplex 745 machine with two nics in it. The external nic (Wan) which is onboard always gives me a 1 Gbit connection but the Internal network nic (LAN)which is a Realtek 8169SC chip keeps dropping to 100 Mbps. I know the Realtek 8169 does not work well with the older Kernel versions and there is a ton of information on installing/configuring R8168 as a solution.
I have tried this solution https://www.unixblogger.com/the-pain-of ... rnet-card/ which seems to be very popular. Unfortunately for me it doesn't work because my PCI vendor and device ID don't seems to be in the modinfo (10ec:8169)

Please see information below:

[root @ untangle] ~ # lspci -nn -vv

04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8169 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8169] (rev 10)
Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8169/8110 Family PCI Gigabit Ethernet NIC [10ec:8169]
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64 (8000ns min, 16000ns max), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
Region 0: I/O ports at dc00
Region 1: Memory at fe4fff00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Expansion ROM at fe500000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0-,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169

[root @ untangle] ~ # uname -r
4.9.0-7-untangle-amd64


I have tried several other sources but I am now desperate as I am a linux newbie and don't know where else to look?
I would really appreciate any help or if someone could point me in the right direction?

Many thanks in advance.

[sunrat]

Did you try the solution on the updated page from your link?
Enable the non-free repo and

Code: Select all

apt install r8168-dkms

Wouldn't hurt to install firmware-realtek as well. You may still need to blacklist r8169.
Also try a different network cable, CAT5e or CAT6.

[p.H]

RTL8169 and RTL8168 are different families.
RTL8169 is PCI.
RTL8168 is PCIe.
Originally the kernel driver r8169 was written for RTL8169, and support for RTL8168 was added later.
The out-of-tree r8168 driver from Realtek is for the PCIe family so I doubt that it supports RTL8169.
There appears to be an r8169 out-of-tree driver from Realtek too. I don't know how it is different from the in-kernel driver.

[Systech65]

Many thanks Sunrat and PH for the quick responses.
Yes I have tried the updated link and apt install r8168-dkms as well

I might try the r8169 out-of-tree driver from Realtek , do you have a link for it?

Thanks

[p.H]

Go to Realtek's website and search for RTL8169 related software.

[Systech65]

Have tried that numerous times. The r8168 module loads and I have tried blacklisting r8169. I think the r8168 doesn't apply to my device 10ec:8169

[p.H]

Tried what ? Go to Realtek's website and search for RTL8169 related software ? How does it relate to r8168 ?
http://www.realtek.com/downloads/search ... rd=rtl8169

[Systech65]

Yes I've tried the 6.026 version before and I got some errors when I was running the make file. May be I did not remove the r8169 using rmmod before I did it.
Let me do it again please. I may need some help. Thanks again.

[Systech65]

Sorry for my ignorance. Now I am confused, there are 3 URLS and I know my actual chip has "RTL8169SC" printed on it, so which one should I be downloading?


1)RTL8110S-32/RTL8110SB(L)/RTL8169SB(L)/RTL8169SC(L)
RTL8169 (Software)

2) RTL8110S-32/RTL8169S-32/RTL8110SB(L)/RTL8169SB(L)RTL8110SC(L)/RTL8169SC(L) (Software)

3) RTL8110SC(L) (Software)

Thanks again.

[p.H]

All lead to the same page, and there is only one driver package for Linux there.

[Systech65]

Installed the driver following the instructions but it still only does 100 Mbps.
Actually it stayed on at 1 Gbps for hours but dropped back to 100 Mbps again so that there must be some power saving feature I could turn off so I made the entries acpi=off and apm=off in /etc/default/grub.
I don't know what else to do and I have been struggling with this for more than a month - swapping out cables, reinstalling Untangle and so on. Any other suggestions?

/etc/default/grub
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Untangle"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="net.ifnames=0 ramdisk_size=100000 lang=us apm=power-off nomc
e nodhcp nofstab panic=5"
GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=y
GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"
acpi=off
apm=off

[Systech65]

The last thing I have tried was this

nano /etc/default/acpi-support
SUSPEND_METHODS="none"
and rebooted.

It now stays at 1 Gbps but I am not sure for how long.

[p.H]

I made the entries acpi=off and apm=off in /etc/default/grub.

These are kernel parameters which must be appended to the kernel command line, through GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX or GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. The latter does not apply to the rescue boot entry, but you disabled it with GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true" so it does not matter.
Defining them as shell variables as you did won't have any effect.
Remember you must also run update-grub for changes in /etc/default/grub to take effect.

[Systech65]

acpi=off
apm=off

nano /etc/default/acpi-support
SUSPEND_METHODS="none"
and rebooted.

These are the only entries I have made. The rest were already in there

[Systech65]

acpi=off
apm=off

nano /etc/default/acpi-support
SUSPEND_METHODS="none"
and rebooted.

These are the only entries I have made. The rest were already in there

[p.H]

Maybe I was not clear enough.
I was not commenting on the usefulness of acpi=off and apm=off as kernel parameters to solve your issue.
I was just saying that the way you added them to /etc/default/grub as shell variable definitions has no effect. To disable ACPI and APM you must append the parameters in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX or GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT, e.g.

Code: Select all

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=off apm=off"

and run update-grub.

[Systech65]

Thank you so much. I am already learning stuff from you. I shall try this and update.

[Systech65]

Unfortunately it is back to 100 Mbs again. This what I have I have in my /etc/grub/default


GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Untangle"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=off apm=off"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="net.ifnames=0 ramdisk_size=100000 lang=us nomce nodhcp nofstab panic=5"
GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=y
GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

[p.H]

You can check in /proc/cmdline that the kernel parameters have been taken into account.

[Systech65]

The nic is again at 100 Mbps. I was wondering if it has anything to do with the firmware.

[root @ untangle] ~ # cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.9.0-7-untangle-amd64 root=UUID=c6a9f1a9-b9e7-411f-a4f0-00257662d366 ro net.ifnames=0 ramdisk_size=100000 lang=us nomce nodhcp nofstab panic=5 quiet splash acpi=off apm=off

ls /lib/firmware/rtl_nic
rtl8105e-1.fw rtl8106e-2.fw rtl8107e-2.fw rtl8168d-2.fw rtl8168e-2.fw rtl8168f-1.fw rtl8168g-1.fw rtl8168g-3.fw rtl8168h-2.fw rtl8411-1.fw
rtl8106e-1.fw rtl8107e-1.fw rtl8168d-1.fw rtl8168e-1.fw rtl8168e-3.fw rtl8168f-2.fw rtl8168g-2.fw rtl8168h-1.fw rtl8402-1.fw rtl8411-2.fw

[root @ untangle] ~ # apt-get install firmware-realtek
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
firmware-realtek is already the newest version (20161130-3).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.