Hi all,

I believe I have figured out this issue, however it is unideal. I seems that between Kernel 5.15.68 and Kernel 5.15.93 there must have been some update to Realtek Driver R8169. As such, this driver now has degraded performance on my Dell G15 5510 machines.

I have also tested a machine with a intel NIC, which runs the e1000e driver in the FOG-OS environment. It works beautifully.

For other issues with similar issues out there, I would suggest for you to consider these 2 steps to resolve this issue:

• You can purchase PXE enabled USB to Ethernet adapters. Each brand of laptops will have their specified version that it allows use of (Dell’s is here: https://www.dell.com/en-au/shop/dell-adapter-usb-30-to-ethernet-pxe-boot/apd/492-11726/pc-accessories). I have tested this and it works beautifully, however would get costly above a certain amount.
• You can also roll you own Linux Kernel with your own selected drivers (ie. using R8168 instead of R8169). I also did this and it is fairly simple, but… in my case the time-cost benefit was not up to par.

Also just to put it out there, FOG debug mode is very very useful and can be found in the advanced tasks menu:

Let me know if there are any follow up questions out there.

@rodluz Success!

As we know the pre-release kernel did not work:

However the experimental OEM driver did work:

Let me know if you need any further tests

@olivier-bonnici This kernel works:

Can you please describe what has changed so that @rodluz can make changes for next release?

@rodluz Unfortunately still no better:

@olivier-bonnici I cannot test with link below as you have not allowed me access.

@olivier-bonnici That link does not work for me. Can you please provide it another way (Google Drive open link or GIT etc.)?

@olivier-bonnici Could you please provide this image, as it will help make my life easier. Also could you provide it to the devs so they can integrate it into FOS?

@CwillQCA I also image multiple models of Dell machines using FOG. A couple of things to check:

• Dell USB Adapters support MAC passthrough, but some Dell machines require this to be enabled in BIOS.
• In my experience, machines with Secure Boot turned off and Bitlocker disabled work the best. Try decrypting the harddrive / disable secure boot (if not already done).
• There are USB C Dell Ethernet Adapters also, those may work better.
• It doesn’t make sense that FOG worked without Option 66 and 67 being setup, but presumably you are say it is setup on the router (just not firewall?). Double check that both your router and DHCP server (whether this is FOG server or something else) is setup appropriately.
• May be worth getting one of the Lenovo machines and checking what the ipxe menu (image above) spits out different.

It says that DHCP fails, so I would assume it is something to do with the DHCP server or network setup. I am not overly experienced in FOG but hopefully my thoughts have helped.

@rodluz Unfortunately this changes nothing. I received the “eee unchanged” message, which I assume the Realtek Environmental Ethernet policies are already off.

Any other thoughts?

@Tom-Elliott Yes correct, if its not to do with R8169, then I am unsure what is going on.

@rodluz I have tried this kernel in debug mode and below is the results. Still unsuccessful:

I tested again on 5.15.68 released October 9, 2022, and back to working. Same experience on earlier kernels:

Same machine, same network connection, same FOG Server version. It is just FOS version from what I can tell.

Hi all,

I believe I have figured out this issue, however it is unideal. I seems that between Kernel 5.15.68 and Kernel 5.15.93 there must have been some update to Realtek Driver R8169. As such, this driver now has degraded performance on my Dell G15 5510 machines.

I have also tested a machine with a intel NIC, which runs the e1000e driver in the FOG-OS environment. It works beautifully.

For other issues with similar issues out there, I would suggest for you to consider these 2 steps to resolve this issue:

• You can purchase PXE enabled USB to Ethernet adapters. Each brand of laptops will have their specified version that it allows use of (Dell’s is here: https://www.dell.com/en-au/shop/dell-adapter-usb-30-to-ethernet-pxe-boot/apd/492-11726/pc-accessories). I have tested this and it works beautifully, however would get costly above a certain amount.
• You can also roll you own Linux Kernel with your own selected drivers (ie. using R8168 instead of R8169). I also did this and it is fairly simple, but… in my case the time-cost benefit was not up to par.

Also just to put it out there, FOG debug mode is very very useful and can be found in the advanced tasks menu:

Let me know if there are any follow up questions out there.