[SOLVED]Atheros AR8151 never connects to LAN!

[proton007]

I've tried for a few days now.
The networking has failed to work.
Motherboard : Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H

As of now, my PC sits unused, because I cannot use the network, which means I cannot install any applications from the repo.
I'm going to change it with an Asus P8Z77-V (Intel Ethernet Controller)

So there you go.
Do not use Gigabyte if you want linux to work. Try something with a Broadcom or Intel ethernet.

 

[skittle]

For real? what? really? you cant even tell us what particular chipset? You really think broadcom is better than atheros about open drivers? FALSE.

either quit trolling and tell us more information like WHICH MOTHERBOARD YOU HAVE or go away please.

 

[proton007]

For real? what? really? you cant even tell us what particular chipset? You really think broadcom is better than atheros about open drivers? FALSE.

either quit trolling and tell us more information like WHICH MOTHERBOARD YOU HAVE or go away please.

Hey,
Sry if I came accross as trolling. I'm really frustrated trying to get it to work.

Its Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H (rev 1.0).
Ethernet Controller: Atheros AR8151

The default driver atl1c *should* work, but so far, it hasn't with Ubuntu 12.4 or Fedora 17 (Updated kernel to 3.5).
I also tried building the module from source, still no luck.
I'll try building with the latest source.
If it doesn't work, I'm going to go for the Asus P8Z77-V with Intel Ethernet Controller. My experience with Intel has been always good, for Graphics/Wifi or Ethernet when it comes to linux. Using a Thinkpad R61 for 5 years with no issues.

MODS: Please change the title if possible. I don't want it to seem like a troll post.

 

[skittle]

Thanks for coming back to clear that up, btw its rather unfair to say don't buy gigabyte when you have just one problem with a *unsupported* OS! My EP45-DS3L, works just fine (with realtek of course!)

Thats a pretty old chipset, relatively anyway. Does the module even load? or you are just getting dropped connection? maybe its just a faulty ethernet controller?

also you wont be able to build the module without getting the kernel headers and other build essentials like gcc and make.

btw I also ran across this in my google search http://aptosid.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=printview&t=983

#add to end of rc.local
modprobe atl1c 
echo "1969 1083" > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/atl1c/new_id

 

[proton007]

Thanks for coming back to clear that up, btw its rather unfair to say don't buy gigabyte when you have just one problem with a *unsupported* OS! My EP45-DS3L, works just fine (with realtek of course!)

Thats a pretty old chipset, relatively anyway. Does the module even load? or you are just getting dropped connection? maybe its just a faulty ethernet controller?

also you wont be able to build the module without getting the kernel headers and other build essentials like gcc and make.

btw I also ran across this in my google search http://aptosid.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=printview&t=983

#add to end of rc.local
modprobe atl1c 
echo "1969 1083" > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/atl1c/new_id

Yeah, I did that. I have kernel source, headers and gcc installed.
By default, the module atl1c loads, if I do lspci -vnn I get that the driver in use is atl1c. Hardware is detected, and the ethernet is up if I check ifconfig.
Network Manager shows the Ethernet Controller, and keeps trying to connect, followed by disconnect.
I used this website to get the drivers: http://www.orbit-lab.org/kernel/ and tried to install one from May and another one from March, based on various solutions on the forums. Nothing has worked so far.

And I agree, its my fault I didn't check for compatibility. I mean, hardware wise, its probably the best mobo around for the money.
Hence the title includes do not buy *if you want to install linux*. But now what to do? Agreed I learnt a lesson from my mistake, but its a mistake thats going to cost me another $200 if I want to go for a Linux compatible motherboard.

 

[proton007]

I'm also in communication with the driver developers, and according to him, the hardware is supported. He's suggesting I use the latest drivers. I'll try that later this evening once I get home.
But, from what I found, there's a difference between mobo's Rev 1.0 and pre-revision releases: http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/Giga-byte/GA-Z77-D3H+rev.+1.0
The ethernet connectivity with this controller varies with different kernel versions and distros.

 

[skittle]

ok, why not use latest compat-wireless from 8/29?

also if it has random disconnects then maybe its just faulty hardware?

 

[proton007]

Ok, so I tried, using the compat-wireless-3.5.3 which is for kernel 3.5
I followed the instructions, the module builds, and I did a modprobe atl1c
Still the same.

If its hardware, then I'm having a pretty bad luck it seems. A faulty PSU, misdiagnosed leading to motherboard replacement, and now this.

 

[skittle]

well without further debugging and logs, its impossible to tell what the issue is. weather driver bug or hardware issue.

personally I would stay in contact with the driver developer and ask what logs they need to look at. if it is a driver issue, then they could potentially fix it.

 

[proton007]

well without further debugging and logs, its impossible to tell what the issue is. weather driver bug or hardware issue.

personally I would stay in contact with the driver developer and ask what logs they need to look at. if it is a driver issue, then they could potentially fix it.

Thanks skittle, you've been incredibly patient with me.
Here's what I tried:
1) Downloaded compate-wireless-3.5.3.tar.bz2
2) Extracted, then ran ./scripts/driver-select atl1c
3) make
4) make install
5) make unload --> there was error "FATAL: module alx not found"

After this I did a modprobe atl1c, and got the following on ifconfig:

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 16436
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host>
loop txqueuelen 0 (Local Loopback)
RX packets 956 bytes 69880 (68.2 KiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 956 bytes 69880 (68.2 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

p6p1: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::922b:34ff:fe39:f2be prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
ether 90:2b:34:39:f2:be txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 2 bytes 1056 (1.0 KiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 8 bytes 1152 (1.1 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 1 collisions 0


dmesg:
[ 6.866202] atl1c 0000:05:00.0: version 1.0.1.0-NAPI
[ 7.587172] atl1c 0000:05:00.0: vpd r/w failed. This is likely a firmware bug on this device. Contact the card vendor for a firmware update.
[ 17.569115] atl1c 0000:05:00.0: irq 49 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 290.763889] atl1c 0000:05:00.0: atl1c: p6p1 NIC Link is Up<100 Mbps Full Duplex>



I'm not sure if this was the correct driver, but its kinda mixed up with both atl1c and alx being included in the source. The alx was initially going to replace atl1c for both newer and older devices, but now they're planning to have the alx only for newer devices.


I also tried the Ubuntu 12.04 live cd, I read somewhere on the forums it was working with this ethernet controller:

Linux ubuntu 3.2.0-29-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 27 17:03:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
ifconfig:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 90:2b:34:39:f2:be
inet6 addr: fe80::922b:34ff:fe39:f2be/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:45 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:188 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:1
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:3039 (3.0 KB) TX bytes:42243 (42.2 KB)
Interrupt:47

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:136 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:136 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:11342 (11.3 KB) TX bytes:11342 (11.3 KB)

dmesg |grep atl1c:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ dmesg |grep atl1c
[ 3.664488] atl1c 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 3.664498] atl1c 0000:05:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 3.792495] atl1c 0000:05:00.0: version 1.0.1.0-NAPI
[ 104.825723] atl1c 0000:05:00.0: irq 47 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 104.825805] atl1c 0000:05:00.0: atl1c: eth0 NIC Link is Up<100 Mbps Full Duplex>


Again, it kept on trying to connect, followed by disconnection.
Anyways, I sent all these logs over to the developer, and he sent me the latest driver source, only for atl1c.
I hope it works.
Pls let me know if you can diagnose anything from these logs.

Thanks!

 

[paul65]

Don't know if this problem still exists, but anyway...

For me, the only way to get the Atheros controller working was to get http://www.orbit-lab.org/kernel/compat-wireless/2012/07/compat-wireless-2012-07-03-pc.tar.bz2,
compile it from the install directory with:

./scripts/driver-select
make
sudo make install

and then either reboot or load the driver with:

sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe -v alx

This is for the Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 PCI-E Gigabet Ethernet LAN Controller on an Asus P8H77-V MB.
Later versions of compat-wireless no longer have the alx driver...

Hope this helps,

Paul.

Thanks skittle, you've been incredibly patient with me.
Here's what I tried:
1) Downloaded compate-wireless-3.5.3.tar.bz2
2) Extracted, then ran ./scripts/driver-select atl1c
3) make
4) make install
5) make unload --> there was error "FATAL: module alx not found"

(..)

I'm not sure if this was the correct driver, but its kinda mixed up with both atl1c and alx being included in the source. The alx was initially going to replace atl1c for both newer and older devices, but now they're planning to have the alx only for newer devices.

(..)

Again, it kept on trying to connect, followed by disconnection.
Anyways, I sent all these logs over to the developer, and he sent me the latest driver source, only for atl1c.
I hope it works.
Pls let me know if you can diagnose anything from these logs.

Thanks!

 

[paul65]

./scripts/driver-select should read: ./scripts/driver-select alx

Paul.