Onboard NIC conflicting with second NIC? (both Realtek, r8168/r8169 problem?)

[purps]

Have just bought this motherboard for my core, and am having some problems with the onboard NIC... in that it doesn't work.

I have never ever known an onboard NIC not to work out of the box on any OS that I have used, so I am at a bit of a loss. My second NIC (PCI card) works fine.

Don't even know what LAN chip it's using; how do I find this out?

I did a "lsmod", and I saw "r8168" (or similar), but that might have been my other network card for all I know. Did a "modprobe r8168" anyway, but it still didn't make the onboard NIC work.

I read this page, but is it relevant to the core itself? http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Unrecognized_NIC

Cheers,
Matt.

[purps]

I did a "lspci", and there are two mentions of ethernet controllers...

Code:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)

03:06.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)

I assume the first one refers to my second (working) NIC, but it's not PCIe (it's normal PCI), so I am confused there.

Now the second one - is that refering to the onboard NIC? But then I think that the onboard NIC isn't PCI, so how can it be? I just don't know.

[purps]

OK, now I am really confused.

Followed these instructions here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1091989

...and the onboard NIC works! But now the second PCI NIC does not! Aarrgghhh!

Any clues please? What does this mean?

Cheers,
Matt.

EDIT: Cannot access web admin either if that is relevant.

[purps]

...and it gets weirder.

Just started over with snapshot 23493. Haven't installed LMCE yet, just got the KDE desktop.

The onboard NIC works. Then I restarted, and it did not. Plugged cable into second NIC, and it works (as expected), then put it back into onboard NIC and it worked again.

What on Earth is going on.

[gtsupport]

Hi Matt,

I have no idea whats going on with your system, I was having similar problems during one of my installations.  I must have done a dozen format-&-installs over the last 2 weeks and sometimes the onboard NIC worked, sometimes it didn't, and sometimes I would have to swap the cables over every time I rebooted.

Anyway I just wanted to thank you for the link you posted earlier.  By trying the steps listed there I managed to get both my NICs working at the same time.

Oh, just thought, I'm sure you've already tried it but I did have some success at one point by swapping the interfaces over in the webadmin, and then swapping them back again.  Worth a shot??

Cheers.
Matt.

[purps]

I have just done the...

Code:

sudo su - #This might ask for the password you specified earlier during the install of kubuntu.
apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

...part of the installation, and the system froze towards the end. No choice but to do a hard reset, and then onboard NIC stopped working completely, despite much cable swapping and resetting.

Sound like something is getting overwritten, as you described.

[purps]

Oh FFS, whenever I get one working, the other one STOPS working.

Is it not possible to have two particular NICs working at the same time? Can two NICs work off the same module?

[purps]

Is it possible to have  both the r8168 and r8169 modules loaded at the same time, making both NICs work at the same time? Or does it have to be one or the other?

Is this page in any way relevant to my problem? http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/R8168

Cheers,
Matt.

[purps]

I am trying to do this http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Realtek_8168#Compiling_Realtek.27s_r8168_module

But I cannot even build the bloody module without it giving me...

Code:

purps@dcerouter:~/Desktop/r8168-8.020.00$ sudo make
make -C src/ clean
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/purps/Desktop/r8168-8.020.00/src'
rm -rf *.o *.ko *~ core* .dep* .*.d .*.cmd *.mod.c *.a *.s .*.flags .tmp_versions Module.symvers Modules.symvers Module.markers *.order
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/purps/Desktop/r8168-8.020.00/src'
make -C src/ modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/purps/Desktop/r8168-8.020.00/src'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.27-17-generic/build SUBDIRS=/src modules
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.27-17-generic'
scripts/Makefile.build:41: /src/Makefile: No such file or directory
make[3]: *** No rule to make target `/src/Makefile'. Stop.
make[2]: *** [_module_/src] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.27-17-generic'
make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/purps/Desktop/r8168-8.020.00/src'
make: *** [modules] Error 2

I've tried installing...

Code:

cmake checkinstall cvs subversion git-core mercurial

...but it's not getting me anywhere. Way out of my depth here, any tips anybody?

Cheers,
Matt.

EDIT: Just to round this thread off, I have thrown that PCI NIC out the window and got an older 10/100 one which works; see my setup for details if you are having this issue (still had to manually install the onboard one).