r8168 vs r8169 - Tumbleweed

incedis

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I come to youse oh smart ones as I am unable to go any further in understanding the issue. Probably distro specific but unsure.
As you can see below I am using realtek RTL8111E. Driver r8169 crapped out too many times so installed r8168 as per guidance on some other forums and blacklisted r8169. Worked okish for a while. This morning made an upgrade (Rolling Tumbleweed) and that screw up my ethernet. Apparently it removed the r8168 (see below) and, it seems, I have to use r8169. Its blacklisted and don't want to use it anyways.
Why removing r8168. Doing a modprobe tells me it does not even exist anymore. I had been using it prior the update.. Why make my life so difficult :(
Just wanted to add that r8168 is installed as per OpenSuse Software Management

Code:
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 15)
DeviceName: Realtek RTL8111E Ethernet LOM
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:38fa]
Kernel modules: r8169
04:00.0 Network controller [0280]

Code:
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
        DeviceName: Realtek RTL8111E Ethernet LOM
        Subsystem: Lenovo Device 38fa
        Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 4
        IOMMU group: 11
        Region 0: I/O ports at 2000 [disabled] [size=256]
        Region 2: Memory at c2704000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=4K]
        Region 4: Memory at c2700000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel modules: r8169


Code:
modprobe: FATAL: Module r8168 not found in directory /lib/modules/5.14.11-1-default
 


PS: un-blacklisted r8169. Ethernet is back but very buggy.. Suffering from r8169 bug..
Any chance a Guru can tell me how to permanently replace r8169 with r8168 ? I mean, even with an update, I would still keep r8168. Using Opensuse Tumbleweed.
 
Whenever you update the kernel those r8168 drivers go away and in some cases new adapters don't get good support by Linux kernel immediately after they are released. In that case using r8168 makes sense as a temporary solution till Linux driver is fixed. Which from what I read is fixed on kernel 5.11
Some people get problems if they install r8168-dkms drivers and forget about it. Later they get a kernel upgrade to another major version and the r8168 driver doesn't re-build hence your error.
The only way I know to keep that driver is not to upgrade the kernel
 
Thanks for your reply.
Since latest update I did not reinstall r8168. Nor did I blacklist r8169. It seems the bug has gone, This is good news. I can now report that I have been using r8169 without issue. Fingers crossed :D
 

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