Realtek Ethernet driver lost after update to kernel 4.15.0-24

[Juan Calero]

After automatic update to kernel 4.15.0-24 from 4.13 in my Ubuntu 16.04 desktop installation, the ethernet driver r8168 dissapears and the device is not recognized by the system.

This issue appears every time my kernel is updated. I assume this is because I installed the latest version from the vendor manually. (8.45)

It is usually solved rebuilding the driver. But with this kernel update, now the driver update procedure fails in the compilation phase.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: linux-image-4.13.0-45-generic 4.13.0-45.50~16.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-45.50~16.04.1-generic 4.13.16
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-45-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.18
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: i3
Date: Sun Jul 8 17:39:03 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-06-04 (399 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20170215.2)
SourcePackage: linux-hwe
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Juan Calero (juanitocalero)]

This is the output from the driver installer script:

```
Check old driver and unload it.
Build the module and install
Makefile:976: "Cannot use CONFIG_STACK_VALIDATION=y, please install libelf-dev, libelf-devel or elfutils-libelf-devel"
/home/j.calero/Downloads/r8168-8.045.08/src/r8168_n.c: In function ‘rtl8168_request_esd_timer’:
/home/j.calero/Downloads/r8168-8.045.08/src/r8168_n.c:22967:9: error: implicit declaration of function ‘setup_timer’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
         setup_timer(timer, rtl8168_esd_timer, (unsigned long)dev);
         ^
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[3]: *** [/home/j.calero/Downloads/r8168-8.045.08/src/r8168_n.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [_module_/home/j.calero/Downloads/r8168-8.045.08/src] Error 2
make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
make: *** [modules] Error 2
```

[Nukie Nukien (nukien)]

Confirmed here as well. 4.15.0-24 is not usable with the r8168 8.045.08 driver.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.18 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.18-rc5

[Juan Calero (juanitocalero)]

I tried after installing upstream kernel, and the error is the same:

j.calero@pckoon:~/Downloads/r8168-8.045.08$ sudo ./autorun.sh
[sudo] password for j.calero:

Check old driver and unload it.
Build the module and install
Makefile:938: "Cannot use CONFIG_STACK_VALIDATION=y, please install libelf-dev, libelf-devel or elfutils-libelf-devel"
/home/j.calero/Downloads/r8168-8.045.08/src/r8168_n.c: In function ‘rtl8168_request_esd_timer’:
/home/j.calero/Downloads/r8168-8.045.08/src/r8168_n.c:22967:9: error: implicit declaration of function ‘setup_timer’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
         setup_timer(timer, rtl8168_esd_timer, (unsigned long)dev);
         ^
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[3]: *** [/home/j.calero/Downloads/r8168-8.045.08/src/r8168_n.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [_module_/home/j.calero/Downloads/r8168-8.045.08/src] Error 2
make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
make: *** [modules] Error 2

j.calero@pckoon:~/Downloads/r8168-8.045.08$ uname -r
4.18.0-041800rc5-generic

[Jefferson Tweed (jtweeder)]

I am getting the same exact bug on Ubuntu 18.04.1 with linux kernel 4.15.0-38

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

Do you have any special reason to use r8168-dkms instead of the default one, r8169?