Kernel 4.19.xx Realtek network support

[AdrianW]

We have been using FOG 1.2 for a couple of years now without any problems. We recently upgraded to 1.55. and the latest Kernel 4.19.6 64bit. The issue we are having is that some of our terminals will not reimage now. They receive an IP address and load the default menu but then when we select the image to load it fails to bring the network card up. Works fine with kernel 4.18.11
Network cards are Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (RTL8167) - has support for these cards been removed permanently ?

[Sebastian Roth]

@AdrianW Well that’s interesting. We don’t remove drivers from the kernel usually, at least not by intention to cut out user’s hardware. I think the only time we removed a driver so far was when we saw it conflicting with another one.

I can’t find much information about RTL8167 and linux drivers on the web. It’s really strange. Do you still have your 1.2.0 FOG server around? Could you boot into a debug session and run readlink -f /sys/class/net/eth0/device/driver (make sure you have the correct network interface ethX in the command. Possibly run ip a s beforehand to see which interfaces you have.

[AdrianW]

@Sebastian-Roth unfortunately the 1.2 server has been ‘recommissioned’ but surely the ‘readlink’ command will only tell me the driver of the interface on the server. The issue we have is with the devices we are trying to re-image. They all re-image fine apart fom one make of terminal which uses the RTL8167 chipset

[george1421]

@AdrianW said in Kernel 4.19.xx Realtek network support:

which uses the RTL8167 chipset

From a windows computer can you collect the hardware ID of this network adapter? Are you sure its 4.18.x where the network adapter is working or is it 4.10.x? (there was a kernel change regarding realtek around the 4.10.x release)

If you (in the fog Web UI) manually register this computer with FOG then schedule a capture or deploy to this computer. But before you hit the schedule task button you tick the debug check box then schedule the task. PXE boot the target computer. After a few enter key presses you will be dropped to a linux command prompt. At the linux command prompt key in ip addr show. See if the network adapter in question is displayed and has a mac address. If it does see if it has an IP address. Finally key in lspci -nn -k | grep -i net and post the results here.

[AdrianW]

Hi Sebastian - interestingly when I switch to the 32bit kernel everything woks fine so as far as were concerned the problem is solved