• zer0
  • DriverPacks newbie
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-09-12
  • Posts: 2

Topic: [Solution] Realtek 816x/81x1 series NIC "No Link & WOL" Issues

This isn't a bug of DriverPacks per say but it's an issue in found in the Realtek 8169 NIC driver found in the DriverPack LAN pack.  If you have one of the affected NICs, use official Realtek drivers dated after May 2007 (as in the current DriverPack) then you will be affected by this.

Whenever you log out of windows these newer drivers disable the card (to disable Wake On Lan features).  Who cares your probably saying.. well if you you Dual Boot OS's or use Live CD's or anything that uses the network outside of Windows you will most likely not be able to get your NIC up and running.  If you use official Realtek drivers in Windows dated post May 2007 there seems to be a feature (or bug) where to help disable Wake On Lan the driver disables the card whenever Windows is not running.  You will notice this because the Link light will only be on when Windows is loaded. The normal status of the Link light should be always on while the system is on (after or during POST) on these NICs.

I'm a dual booter using Windows XP (with driverpacks) and Arch Linux.  I have tested this with a couple live CD's (Bart PE, Ubuntu, Puppy Linux, Knoppix) and the same issue comes up which is very frustrating!!  Unless your booted into your Windows install with the Official Realtek driver the hardware will remain disabled and the No Link light will be off.. 

It's a very annoying little known issue that will be sure to drive many people nuts, including fellow DriverPacks users.  I hope this will help someone!!

FIX
Right click my computer --> Hardware tab --> Device Manager --> Network Adapters --> "double click" Realtek ... --> Advanced tab --> Wake-On-Lan After Shutdown --> Enable.

Resources:

Gentoo Wiki on "RTL8168"
Ubuntu Disscusion on "no link detected Realtek 8168/8169"
Arch Wiki on " Realtek No Link / WOL issue"
Arch Posting on same issue.

Good Luck!

  • Registered: 2007-06-29
  • Posts: 140

Re: [Solution] Realtek 816x/81x1 series NIC "No Link & WOL" Issues

Hmmm, I was wondering why that was...  I had this same issue.

~TigerC10~
  • Jaak
  • Old Timer Rookie
  • Offline
  • From: Eeklo, in the East Flanders
  • Registered: 2006-07-23
  • Posts: 3,594

Re: [Solution] Realtek 816x/81x1 series NIC "No Link & WOL" Issues

should we not downgrade this then?

The answer was 42?
Kind regards, Jaak.
  • zer0
  • DriverPacks newbie
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-09-12
  • Posts: 2

Re: [Solution] Realtek 816x/81x1 series NIC "No Link & WOL" Issues

Maybe you should downgrade it to avoid the issue..  I wish I had some solid version numbers to pass along but I cant seem to find older drivers on the realtek site.  I know the realtek driver that is on the mobo CD works without this problem but I know that's not the latest one before this issue.

I'll get the version number/date of the one on my mobo CD.. and post it here later.

BTW.. I'm not sure that it's a bug in these drivers.. in fact I think it supposed to do that... It's a newer feature.  I was thinking of emailing Realtek to find out but not sure where to email and I doubt I'll get anywhere.

  • Helmi
  • Moderator & Translator (German)
  • Offline
  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2006-05-27
  • Posts: 1,799

Re: [Solution] Realtek 816x/81x1 series NIC "No Link & WOL" Issues

zer0 wrote:

BTW.. I'm not sure that it's a bug in these drivers.. in fact I think it supposed to do that... It's a newer feature.  I was thinking of emailing Realtek to find out but not sure where to email and I doubt I'll get anywhere.

Yes, from what I've read on another page, it is indeed an intended feature and not a bug.

The real problem is rather than Linux driver somehow are unable to re-write the EEPROM (or wherever the info is stored) after a warm start so you'll need to do a hard reboot to get it cleared.

http://d1syubgj0w3cyv.cloudfront.net/cdn/farfuture/AeXmpESLemRyQ4RE-dgdjRhN_hKaXMe7woWjOK2wsnk/perpetual:forever/userbar/moderator-3.png

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