[gentoo-user] Re: kernel 3.8 and external drivers

[Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@gmail.com>]

On 10/03/13 21:04, Daniel Wagener wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Mar 2013 12:49:02 -0600
> Canek Peláez Valdés <caneko@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Mmmh. What sources do you use? In vanilla-sources-3.8.2, there is a
>>>> r8169 driver:
>>>>
>>>> ./drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169.c
>>>>
>>>> config R8169
>>>>          tristate "Realtek 8169 gigabit ethernet support"
>>>>
>>>>           Say Y here if you have a Realtek 8169 PCI Gigabit
>>>> Ethernet adapter.
>>>>
>>>>            To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
>>>> module will be called r8169.  This is recommended.
>>>>
>>>
>>> oh great, so I actually mixed it up…
>>> the 8169 is in the Kernel yes, but what i need is the 8168
>>
>> The in-kernel drive (supposedly) supports 8168:
>>
>> r8169.c: RealTek 8169/8168/8101 ethernet driver.
>
> Thanks for encouraging me, the in-kernel driver actually works.

Note that you also need to emerge sys-kernel/linux-firmware.  The driver 
will work without it, but the ethernet connection can hang after an hour 
or so.

You can verify whether you need to install the firmware or not by 
inspecting the kernel log:

   dmesg | grep -i firmware

This should show the kernel trying to load the firmware for your R8168 
chip but failing.