On 21/04/12 18:55, Dale wrote:
Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
[...]
Also, make sure to emerge sys-kernel/linux-firmware. Without it,
RTL8111/8168B NICs will produce random connectivity hang-ups after a few
hours; they need firmware that was previously part of the kernel itself
but has now been split to sys-kernel/linux-firmware.
Do a:
dmesg | grep -i firmware
and check for firmware loading errors.
So that is what is wrong with my connection. I been having this issue
for a while and it is getting on my nerves. Is this fix OK even if you
don't build your drivers as modules? I build everything into the
kernel. I never did like modules much.
The kernel source doesn't have any firmware files in it, so it doesn't
matter whether you build the drivers into the kernel or as modules; the
firmware isn't there in either case.
However, this particular driver (r8169), says in its description that
building as a module is recommended. However, it doesn't give you any
explanation as to why this recommendation is made. I suppose the driver
developer was working for Apple previously :-P
Anyway, "dmesg | grep -i firmware" should tell you whether you actually
even need the firmware. If you don't get a firmware loading error in
dmesg, then you don't need it and your problem is not related. In that
case, you belong to the (quite large) group of people for which only the
net-misc/r8168 driver works reliably (which unfortunately doesn't always
support the latest linux kernel.)
