[SOLVED] Motherboard ethernet UNCLAIMED - what am I missing?

[sasu]

EDIT: Solution - updated kernel with buster-backports.
---------------------------------

I am doing my first ever Linux installation.

I cannot get the motherboard ethernet working. What am I missing?

lshw shows this

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*-core
   description: Motherboard
   product: PRIME Z490M-PLUS
   vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
...
*-pci
   *-pci:1
      ...
      *-network
         description: Ethernet interface
         product: 82574L Gigabit Network Connection
         vendor: Intel Corporation
         ...
         logical name: enp2s0
   ...
   *-pci:2
      *-network
         description: Ethernet interface
         product: 82574L Gigabit Network Connection
         vendor: Intel Corporation
         ...
         logical name: enp3s0
   *-network UNCLAIMED
      description: Ethernet controller
      product: Intel Corporation
      vendor: Intel Corporation
      physical id: 1f.6
...   

As you can see I have two pci network cards and they work just fine. But the third one in the listing, the motherboard one is UNCLAIMED.

The ethernet on the motherboard is Intel I219V. It uses the same driver e1000e as the two other Intel ethernet cards.

modinfo e1000e shows the latest version I downloaded from Intel and installed:

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filename:        /lib/modules/4.19.0-9-amd64/updates/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/e1000e/e1000e.ko
version:         3.8.4-NAPI

/etc/network/interfaces contains this:

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source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto enp2s0
allow-hotplug enp2s0
iface enp2s0 inet dhcp

auto enp3s0
allow-hotplug enp3s0
iface enp3s0 inet dhcp

auto eno1
allow-hotplug eno1
iface eno1 inet dhcp

ip a shows this:

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1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,...
   ...
2: enp2s0: <BORADCAST, MULTICAST...
   link/ether ...
   inet 192.168.3.31/24 brd 192.168.3.255 ...
   ...
3: enp3s0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST, ...
   link/ether ...

There is no eno1 in there. The eno1 appeared after I installed the new version of the e1000e driver according to instructions on the Intel web site, but as soon as I rebooted the computer the eno1 disappeared. The old version that the Debian installer gave me was 3.2.6, and it had the same problem, that is why I upgraded the driver.

lspci -k | grep -i eth shows:

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00:1f.6  Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Device 0d4d
02:00.00 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection
03:00.00 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection

uname -v shows:

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#1 SMP Debian 4.19.118-2+deb10u1 (2020-06-07)

dpkg --list | grep linux-image shows:

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ii   linux-image-4.19.0-9-amd64     4.19.118-2+deb10u1 ...
ii   linux-image-amd64              4.19.105+deb10u4 ...

What configuration step or item am I missing to keep the motherboard ethernet in UNCLAIMED state?

Why did it appear for a while but the disappeared after a reboot?

The computer does have a working net connection via the enp2s0, but I want to have all three ethernet connections active.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I have been fighting this problem for three evenings now and am getting desperate. I am a total novice with Linux so may be missing something very obvious.

[p.H]

Maybe the old e1000e module is still included in the initramfs. Try to rebuild it with

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update-initramfs -u

You may also consider installing a newer kernel from backports.

[sasu]

Yippee! Updating the kernel helped.

Now I have kernel 5.6.14 and the motherboard ethernet eno1 appeared.

That also solved my second problem, X server failing to start. Now I have desktop, too.

Baby steps of a newbie.

The Intel e1000e driver version had nothing to to with this, it did not work wiith either old or new version. But the kernel version made the diffence.

Thank you!

[p.H]

The Intel e1000e driver version had nothing to to with this, it did not work wiith either old or new version.

That seems to contradict what you wrote earlier :

The eno1 appeared after I installed the new version of the e1000e driver

[sasu]

The motherboard ethernet NIC remained UNCLAIMED no matter what I tried. The e1000e driver version was 3.2.6.

Then I upgraded the e1000e driver to the newer version 3.8.4 I found on Intel site. After running the commands to update the e1000e driver the eno1 ethernet device appeared. As I now had the device name, eno1, I added it to the /etc/network/interfaces file. Then I rebooted the computer and the eno1 had disappeared again.

The eno1 motherboard NIC device appeared again only after upgrading the kernel.

So no luck at all with e1000e driver version 3.2.6.
A momentary celebration with e1000e driver version 3.8.4.
A permanent solution, it seems, by upgrading the kernel version.

[p.H]

After running the commands to update the e1000e driver the eno1 ethernet device appeared.

So it did make a difference. What were these commands ? Did they include updating the initramfs ? Did you do it ?

[sasu]

After running the commands to update the e1000e driver the eno1 ethernet device appeared.

So it did make a difference. What were these commands ? Did they include updating the initramfs ? Did you do it ?

No initframs, just the "block buster" aka backports update of the kernel, by running a set of commands duckduckgo found for me.

I am very happy that the X server started also working after the kernel update. Before that it terminated with errors "no connection to bus or socket", "no devices", "no screens".

EDIT: I forgot that while doing the kernel upgrade I ran some firmware uogrades, too. I do not remember the commands but there was a parameter 'linux-firmware'.