Realtek r8169 driver not working after reboot with ethernet cable plugged in

[Levi Portenier]

1) Description: Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS
Release: 18.04

2) Linux 5.0.0-25-generic

3) What you expected to happen
When rebooting the machine with the ethernet cable plugged in, I would expext the ethernet connection to be operational, or at least enable-able.

4) What happened instead
With ethernet plugged in during a reboot (either "restart" or doing a full shutdown then powering back on), the machine will boot up, but ethernet fails to connect a handful of times before giving up entirely. If the machine is rebooted with ethernet unplugged, then the cable is connected after rebooting to the desktop, the connection is established as expected.

I tried a handful of different kernel versions, and it seems that a fix was introduced between 5.2.3 and 5.2.4 (these were both installed via ukuu). I found a commit ( https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/3618e5919694df536f35b53e94416cb7163606aa ) that seems related, but I'm not certain if that's what fixed the issue in 5.2.4.

I've tested this on a System76 Darter Pro as well as a Galago Pro and can reproduce it pretty readily. If I can provide more information, please let me know.

Thanks!

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: linux-image-5.0.0-25-generic 5.0.0-25.26~18.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-25.26~18.04.1-generic 5.0.18
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-25-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.7
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Aug 26 12:50:05 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-08-23 (2 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: linux-signed-hwe
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Levi Portenier (leviport)]

To add a little more info, I was able to test with a fresh 19.10 install on the same hardware and the issue has not appeared. The fix from 5.2.4 must have made its way into Eoan.