Problems with Ethernet RTL8111/8168B controller in Arch Linux
Posted by jason on Sept. 30, 2011, 7:34 a.m.
Problem
After a fresh Arch Linux install, I was having problems with my ethernet card: it kept flaking out and ifconfig was showing a ridiculous number of dropped packets and errors.
Here's the exact card I have, as described by "lspci | grep -i ethernet":
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
Solution
Install the "r8168" package from the AUR and blacklist "r8169" (yes, the 2 numbers are different--be careful!), and reboot.
To blacklist the r8168 package, just create a file in the /etc/modprobe.d/ directory (in my case, I just "jason_blacklist.conf") with the following line:
blacklist r8169
Hope that saves someone some heartache!
brooks #1