Issues with Realtek RTL8168 and 4.19.48 kernel

Enki213

Got a bunch of Dell Optiplex 3070s and Latitude 3500 laptops all of which have the RTL8168 NICs in them.
I’ve tried updating to the latest Kernel for fog (4.19.68) to no avail. Scoured the internet to try to find a fix

I’m not incredibly well versed in Linux but I’m competent enough in most cases.

I looked onto trying to use the kitchen sink kernel in hopes of getting things going, but I haven’t had any luck

Hoping to get some help in the matter of getting things running

Sebastian Roth

@Enki213 Can you please take a picture of the error you get on screen so we get to know what you see…?

george1421

Ugh, realtek…

I would like you to try this kernel https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wZwwOwbEr0nR3mnPLKg7AsulwJaGhO0A

Download it as bzImageRT (watch or case, because to linux case IS important) and place it into /var/www/html/fpg/service/ipxe directory on the fog server.

Manually register this 3070 (as a test). After you manually register it go into the host management page for this 3070 and key in bzImageRT into the kernel field. Then pxe boot this computer and run the host compatibility checker or attempt to image it.

This kernel has an updated realtek 8168 driver in it. See if that one boots and has the network functions.

I can’t seem to find my original post on this, only the copies that were pasted in: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/13203/l390-yoga-lenovo/4

Enki213

@Sebastian-Roth Currently it immediately reboots, but that’s probably because I was playing with the kernel settings in fog
Previously it was showing this under compatibility test This

Enki213

@george1421 tried the suggest bzImageRT Kernel to no avail
But it seems it’s more of an issue on what I’ve messed with now… as I’m getting exec format errors at this point

seen here

george1421

@Enki213 said in Issues with Realtek RTL8168 and 4.19.48 kernel:

getting exec format errors at this point

These are from iPXE not understanding what was sent to it.

If you are just trying to boot into the iPXE menu and you are getting that then you can key the following into a browser window to see the commands behind the ipxe menu. http://<fog_server_ip>/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php and it will print out a screen of text. If you were trying to image that computer via a deploy image if you key in the same with the mac address http://<fog_server_ip>/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php?mac=00:00:00:00:00:00 where 00:00:00:00:00:00 is replaced with the real mac address of the computer you were trying to image we can see the ipxe menu there. That will tell us what was changed.

Enki213

@george1421 That’s definitely some code soup to the untrained eye, which mine are not…

Are there particular lines that I should be looking for to try to figure out what went wrong

and in-case this matters

the boot file is currently set to undionly.kpxe

I had temporarily tried IPXE.efi but that didn’t change anything so i went back to undionly

george1421

@Enki213 If you could post the code soup we can take a look at it.

In regards to the undionly.kpxe and ipxe.efi. Those are only the boot loaders to the iPXE menu. If you don’t have the right one you will not see the boot menu. You can not mix up boot loader (bios/uefi) on different firmware because you will not boot a bios (undionly.kpxe) on a uefi computer. The same goes the other way around too. So if you get to the ipxe menu then is not a pxe booting problem.

Enki213

@george1421

#!ipxe
set fog-ip 10.0.0.1
set fog-webroot fog
set boot-url http://${fog-ip}/${fog-webroot}
cpuid --ext 29 && set arch x86_64 || set arch i386
goto get_console
:console_set
colour --rgb 0x00567a 1 ||
colour --rgb 0x00567a 2 ||
colour --rgb 0x00567a 4 ||
cpair --foreground 7 --background 2 2 ||
goto MENU
:alt_console
cpair --background 0 1 ||
cpair --background 1 2 ||
goto MENU
:get_console
console --picture http://10.0.0.1/fog/service/ipxe/bg.png --left 100 --right 80 && goto console_set || goto alt_console
:MENU
menu
colour --rgb 0xff0000 0 ||
cpair --foreground 1 1 ||
cpair --foreground 0 3 ||
cpair --foreground 4 4 ||
item --gap Host is NOT registered!
item --gap -- -------------------------------------
item fog.local Boot from hard disk
item fog.memtest Run Memtest86+
item fog.reginput Perform Full Host Registration and Inventory
item fog.reg Quick Registration and Inventory
item fog.deployimage Deploy Image
item fog.multijoin Join Multicast Session
item fog.sysinfo Client System Information (Compatibility)
choose --default fog.local --timeout 3000 target && goto ${target}
:fog.local
sanboot --no-describe --drive 0x80 || goto MENU
:fog.memtest
kernel memdisk initrd=memtest.bin iso raw
initrd memtest.bin
boot || goto MENU
:fog.reginput
kernel bzImage32 loglevel=4 initrd=init_32.xz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=275000 web=http://10.0.0.1/fog/ consoleblank=0 rootfstype=ext4 storage=10.0.0.1:/images/ storageip=10.0.0.1 loglevel=4 mode=manreg
imgfetch init_32.xz
boot || goto MENU
:fog.reg
kernel bzImage32 loglevel=4 initrd=init_32.xz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=275000 web=http://10.0.0.1/fog/ consoleblank=0 rootfstype=ext4 storage=10.0.0.1:/images/ storageip=10.0.0.1 loglevel=4 mode=autoreg
imgfetch init_32.xz
boot || goto MENU
:fog.deployimage
login
params
param mac0 ${net0/mac}
param arch ${arch}
param username ${username}
param password ${password}
param qihost 1
isset ${net1/mac} && param mac1 ${net1/mac} || goto bootme
isset ${net2/mac} && param mac2 ${net2/mac} || goto bootme
param sysuuid ${uuid}
:fog.multijoin
login
params
param mac0 ${net0/mac}
param arch ${arch}
param username ${username}
param password ${password}
param sessionJoin 1
isset ${net1/mac} && param mac1 ${net1/mac} || goto bootme
isset ${net2/mac} && param mac2 ${net2/mac} || goto bootme
param sysuuid ${uuid}
:fog.sysinfo
kernel bzImage32 loglevel=4 initrd=init_32.xz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=275000 web=http://10.0.0.1/fog/ consoleblank=0 rootfstype=ext4 storage=10.0.0.1:/images/ storageip=10.0.0.1 loglevel=4 mode=sysinfo
imgfetch init_32.xz
boot || goto MENU
:bootme
chain -ar http://10.0.0.1/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php##params ||
goto MENU
autoboot

george1421

@Enki213 I’m not seeing any errors in that code. What were you doing when it threw that execute error? Just booting into the ipxe menu and picking compatibility test?

george1421

@Enki213 Did it throw that error before you loaded that bzImageRT kernel?

Possibly you can try that second URL where it has the mac address of the computer you are tying to pxe boot.

Enki213

@george1421

#!ipxe
set fog-ip 10.0.0.1
set fog-webroot fog
set boot-url http://${fog-ip}/${fog-webroot}
cpuid --ext 29 && set arch x86_64 || set arch i386
goto get_console
:console_set
colour --rgb 0x00567a 1 ||
colour --rgb 0x00567a 2 ||
colour --rgb 0x00567a 4 ||
cpair --foreground 7 --background 2 2 ||
goto MENU
:alt_console
cpair --background 0 1 ||
cpair --background 1 2 ||
goto MENU
:get_console
console --picture http://10.0.0.1/fog/service/ipxe/bg.png --left 100 --right 80 && goto console_set || goto alt_console
:MENU
menu
colour --rgb 0x00567a 0 ||
cpair --foreground 1 1 ||
cpair --foreground 0 3 ||
cpair --foreground 4 4 ||
item --gap Host is registered as Girl-Scouts-DT!
item --gap -- -------------------------------------
item fog.local Boot from hard disk
item fog.memtest Run Memtest86+
item fog.keyreg Update Product Key
item fog.deployimage Deploy Image
item fog.multijoin Join Multicast Session
item fog.quickdel Quick Host Deletion
item fog.sysinfo Client System Information (Compatibility)
choose --default fog.local --timeout 3000 target && goto ${target}
:fog.local
sanboot --no-describe --drive 0x80 || goto MENU
:fog.memtest
kernel memdisk initrd=memtest.bin iso raw
initrd memtest.bin
boot || goto MENU
:fog.keyreg
login
params
param mac0 ${net0/mac}
param arch ${arch}
param username ${username}
param password ${password}
param keyreg 1
isset ${net1/mac} && param mac1 ${net1/mac} || goto bootme
isset ${net2/mac} && param mac2 ${net2/mac} || goto bootme
param sysuuid ${uuid}
:fog.deployimage
login
params
param mac0 ${net0/mac}
param arch ${arch}
param username ${username}
param password ${password}
param qihost 1
isset ${net1/mac} && param mac1 ${net1/mac} || goto bootme
isset ${net2/mac} && param mac2 ${net2/mac} || goto bootme
param sysuuid ${uuid}
:fog.multijoin
login
params
param mac0 ${net0/mac}
param arch ${arch}
param username ${username}
param password ${password}
param sessionJoin 1
isset ${net1/mac} && param mac1 ${net1/mac} || goto bootme
isset ${net2/mac} && param mac2 ${net2/mac} || goto bootme
param sysuuid ${uuid}
:fog.quickdel
login
params
param mac0 ${net0/mac}
param arch ${arch}
param username ${username}
param password ${password}
param delhost 1
isset ${net1/mac} && param mac1 ${net1/mac} || goto bootme
isset ${net2/mac} && param mac2 ${net2/mac} || goto bootme
param sysuuid ${uuid}
:fog.sysinfo
kernel bzImage32 loglevel=4 initrd=init_32.xz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=275000 web=http://10.0.0.1/fog/ consoleblank=0 rootfstype=ext4 storage=10.0.0.1:/images/ storageip=10.0.0.1 loglevel=4 mode=sysinfo
imgfetch init_32.xz
boot || goto MENU
:bootme
chain -ar http://10.0.0.1/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php##params ||
goto MENU
autoboot

Sebastian Roth

@Enki213 From what I see in the picture you posted below (ref) there is no network problem but the kernel cannot find your disk! Is the disk mode set to AHCI or RAID in BIOS?

Enki213

@Sebastian-Roth hadn’t thought to check that, It’s currently set to RAID for the NVME drive

george1421

@Enki213 said in Issues with Realtek RTL8168 and 4.19.48 kernel:

It’s currently set to RAID for the NVME drive

Do you have more than one nvme disk in a raid configuration?

Enki213

@george1421 yes it did,
Would it be worth to do an “upgrade” to set everything back to default settings?

george1421

@Sebastian-Roth said in Issues with Realtek RTL8168 and 4.19.48 kernel:

there is no network problem but the kernel cannot find your disk!

Ugh, I was too quick to blame the realtek nic this time. Yes its the disk controller that wasn’t found.

george1421

@Enki213 said in Issues with Realtek RTL8168 and 4.19.48 kernel:

yes it did,

Are you using both nvme disk configured as a raid setup or only you just have 2 nvme drives installed? The answer is important.

Enki213

@george1421 just the one, it’s how they came from Dell for intel rapid storage technology

george1421

@Enki213 The issue is linux + uefi firmware + dell disk controller in raid-on mode means that FOG will not see the disk. If you change any of the three it will work. Normally if you are not specifically running a raid configuration you can change the disk mode back to ahci mode any everything will work. I’m doing that right now with a batch of 7050s

Issues with Realtek RTL8168 and 4.19.48 kernel

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