[gentoo-user] Re: Realtek R8168

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 12/04/14 18:53, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> Has anyone got =net-misc/r8168-8.028.00::gentoo to compile?
> [...]
> Can anyone advise me how to proceed here? I've been using the in-kernel R8169
> module with no problems until I installed Snort, but now I have to keep
> issuing "ethtool -K eth0 gro off" every minute

I had similar problems until I discovered that the in-kernel R8169 
driver actually tries to load firmware from disk. That firmware wasn't 
there. If that is your problem, then this:

   dmesg | grep -i firmware

would print something like:

   r8169 [...]: unable to load firmware patch rtl_nic/rtl8168e-3.fw

(Make sure to reboot your machine first in case that message is too old 
and wasn't kept in the kernel message log.)

Solution to the problem was fairly simple. I just emerged this package:

   sys-kernel/linux-firmware

and my network has been rock solid ever since. If you still get the 
"unable to load firmware" message from dmesg after emerging that 
package, then make sure you compile the driver as a module instead of 
in-kernel, since the firmware directory might not be available yet when 
the driver is loaded. Compiling it as a module results in the driver 
being loaded a bit later, so the directory will be available at that time.