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I'm encountering an issue with my Ethernet connection after performing a system update on my Kubuntu machine. Following the update and a reboot, the Ethernet port has ceased to function, although Wi-Fi connectivity remains unaffected.

Here are the steps I followed during the update process:

#!/bin/bash

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt full-upgrade -y
sudo apt install ubuntu-drivers-common -y
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
sudo snap refresh
fwupdmgr refresh --force
fwupdmgr get-updates --force
fwupdmgr update --force
sudo apt autoremove -y
sudo apt autoclean
sudo apt clean

Post-reboot, the Ethernet is no longer operational. The output of lspci -nn | grep -i ethernet and sudo lshw -C network indicates that the system recognizes the Ethernet controller (Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller) but marks it as 'UNCLAIMED'.

I've tried the solution proposed in this Ask Ubuntu thread (Wired connection stopped working after update (Realtek Ethernet) - Ubuntu 20.04) which involves creating a "r8169_disable_msi" file and updating GRUB, but this hasn't resolved the issue. Additionally, I've attempted to resolve the problem by shutting down and starting the computer instead of directly rebooting, but to no avail.

I'm seeking advice or potential solutions to re-enable my Ethernet connectivity. Any guidance or troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your assistance,

Zap
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  • you should determine if the previous ethernet drivers was from the kernel or from a DKMS. if it was from the kernel, you could in a first step downgrade back to this kernel version to retreive you fonctionnality. if it was from DKMS try to recompile the drivers for your kernel and monitor any build errors. – dominix Jan 12 '24 at 18:13
  • Thank you for your response!

    I appreciate your advice about checking if the previous Ethernet drivers were from the kernel or a DKMS module. However, I'm not entirely sure how to determine this or proceed with the steps you mentioned, like downgrading the kernel or recompiling the drivers. Could you possibly provide a bit more detailed guidance or point me to a resource that could help me with these processes?

    I'm relatively new to managing these aspects of a Linux system, so any additional information would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks again!

     – Zap Jan 16 '24 at 08:15

1 Answers1

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to restore a previous kernel on Ubuntu 20.04 to try to restore lost Ethernet functionality:

  • Boot into recovery mode. When the GRUB menu appears during boot, select "Advanced options for Ubuntu" and then select a recovery mode entry.
  • Drop to a root shell prompt. From the recovery menu, select "Drop to root shell prompt".
  • List installed kernel versions: dpkg --list | grep linux-image
  • Install a previous working kernel version if one is available: apt install linux-image- Replace with the version you want to install.
  • Reboot: reboot
  • When the GRUB menu appears, select the newly installed older kernel version instead of the default latest kernel.
  • Check if Ethernet is working properly on the older kernel version. If the older kernel works, you can set it as the default kernel to boot into: grub-set-default "Advanced options for Ubuntu>kernel version"
  • Update GRUB: update-grub
  • Reboot again and ensure the selected older kernel boots and Ethernet works.

You can then investigate why the latest kernel broke Ethernet functionality but at least you'll have a working kernel to use in the meantime.

dominix
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