Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC

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Hash1
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Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC

Post by Hash1 » 2008/02/01 14:01:13

Hi all, my first post so please bear with me.

I have a Gigabyte P35-DS3P mobo with the RTL8168/8111 onboard.

My install is the x64 version run from DVD. I've seen the wiki and read that for some reason this nic is not included in the standard driver support. Now I'm just discovering Linux and am a complete newbie.

Is there a Realtek driver install for dummies guide anywhere? For dummies I mean verbatim instructions?

I read about installing the devel .rpm for the kernel. Ran yum -Uvh *.rpm and it failed. Right there I had no idea why etc.

Could someone please shine a light on this for me? Else I'll have to wait until the driver is included in the standard install. Don't laugh I feel nub enough already.

Also should I be running x64 version or am I better off running the i386 version? Processor is Intel Core 2 Duo.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

gerald_clark
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Re: Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC

Post by gerald_clark » 2008/02/01 14:21:20

Check the How Tos in the Wiki.

Hash1
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Re: Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC

Post by Hash1 » 2008/02/08 05:02:03

[quote]
gerald_clark wrote:
Check the How Tos in the Wiki.[/quote]

Hi and thanks Gerald. Look maybe I shouldn't even attempt to install or understand with my knowledge on Linux because I can't understand what I'm supposed to do according to the wiki.

I've downloaded the files which have the make files in them but what do i need to do.

I need a very basic step by step "Get this working for Dummies" How to.

NedSlider
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Re: Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC

Post by NedSlider » 2008/02/08 12:56:57

As an alternative to trying to get the onboard nic running until you have sufficient knowledge, you may like to consider simply disabling the onboard nic and plugging in a cheap OEM realtek 8139 pci nic. Any card based on that chipset will work just fine out of the box and will save you a lot of grief. You should be able to pick one up for about $5

Hash1
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Re: Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC

Post by Hash1 » 2008/02/08 21:58:08

Hi NedSlider, ok sounds like a plan. A friend has a Intel Pro 100B so I'll try that also.

Thanks for the assistance.

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Re: Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC

Post by NedSlider » 2008/02/08 23:42:17

[quote]
Hash1 wrote:
Hi NedSlider, ok sounds like a plan. A friend has a Intel Pro 100B so I'll try that also.

Thanks for the assistance.[/quote]

When you're new to Linux, getting hardware working that's not fully supported out of the box can be a difficult task. I just mention the alternative as an option - afterall, we wouldn't want you to give up on CentOS before you've really even started :-)

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toracat
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Re: Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC

Post by toracat » 2008/02/09 04:43:21

I agree with Ned. You will eventually learn all those things. But in the very beginning, it is not really worth the hassle if you can buy a decent, inexpensive network card and get connected quickly.

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Re: Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC

Post by Hash1 » 2008/02/09 22:17:17

I dug out an old Intel Pro 100 B and here I type from 5.1. :-) So thanks for the suggestion.

Just as an additional question. This installl is mainly for desktop / fiddling learning / etc. My PC has an Intel Core Duo. Am I better off running the x86_64 or the 32 bit version? This is the 64 bit version running the virualisation kernel.

Thanks again.

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Re: Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC

Post by NedSlider » 2008/02/09 22:57:13

[quote]
Hash1 wrote:
I dug out an old Intel Pro 100 B and here I type from 5.1. :-) So thanks for the suggestion.

Just as an additional question. This installl is mainly for desktop / fiddling learning / etc. My PC has an Intel Core Duo. Am I better off running the x86_64 or the 32 bit version? This is the 64 bit version running the virualisation kernel.

Thanks again.[/quote]

Glad you're up an running :-)

To start with you'd probably be better off running the plain 32-bit version, but as you've already installed 64-bit it doesn't much matter. There are a few niggly problems on the 64-bit version like there not being a 64-bit version of the flash browser plugin (but you can just run a 32-bit browser instead), but it's mostly minor stuff. You also don't really need the "virtualization" xen kernel either unless you're planning on setting up virtual machines.

Good luck with the learning - the best way really is to have a machine you can play with and break, and then try to fix!

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Re: Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC

Post by toracat » 2008/02/09 23:36:07

I also recommend you run the standard kernel, not the xen kernel, unless xen is something you want to play with.

Now that you are connected to the network and you wish to learn things, would you be willing to challenge and install the driver as you initially intended? If so, I'd like you to try and see if you can do it by following procedure. [originally posted in other topic/card]

Go to: http://wolfy.fedorapeople.org/dkms-r8168/

and download dkms-r8168-8.004.00-1.noarch.rpm

In order to use this driver, you will need the dkms package available from rpmforge. Please add this repository by reading the instructions on:

http://wiki.centos.org/Repositories

and after that, run the following commands:

yum install dkms --enablerepo rpmforge

Then install the downloaded driver rpm by:

rpm -Uvh dkms-r8168-8.004.00-1.noarch.rpm

Let us know how this works.

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