[solved] Lost ethernet R8169 MSI B350 Tomahawk Arctic

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Tony0945 · Post by **Tony0945** » Sat Aug 28, 2021 12:27 am

The LAN has been acting up for a few days so I powered everything up and down. All is well, except the Workstation with the title board won't connect to the network. I checked both ends of the cable (cable runs through an outside wall) and connections are good. I booted sysrescuecd 5.3.2 but it hung booting at dbus. So I booted the Gentoo minimal CD and it also hung at "cp can't find ...(something). I tried booting memtest86+ but it won't boot. I previously ran the CD on this old Gigabyte AM4. Next up is putting in an Intel PCIe card that I had laying around. Right now I;m rebuilding the kernel, 5.10.52, to build the e1000 and e1000e modules. Before I insert the card I'll change /etc/modules.conf to load e1000e which I believe is the correct module. Everything in the computer is around two years old except the power supply, a Delta unit about 15 years old, the case including the fan that screechs at startup, and a ine year old DVD drive. I do have a spare power supply, a Seasonic Focus, still in the box.

Does anyone know of a problem with the built-in ethernet on this board? Or have any other trouble-shooting suggestions. The board comes up nicely (OpenRC) except for a pause and failure at netmount, of course no ethernet and no CIFS mounts. X runs nicely but no browser can reach the internet and I can't pin the LAN or the WAN.

EDIT:
dmesg reports R8169 PHY downrated to 100Mbs - check cabling
then "downrated to 10Mbps -> check cabling"
But it doesn't work at any speed. Still need to put the Intel card in in the morning.

CaptainBlood · Post by **CaptainBlood** » Sat Aug 28, 2021 5:49 am

IIUC, you're having trouble with old HW/Gentoo previously working...
you're trying to fix with additionnal network HW + bootable ISOs that are expected to use matching e1000* thingies accordingly?
IIANM this implies network HW concurrency, likely requiring manual discriminating setup, should the motherboard network HW not be somehow disactivated, e.g. in BIOS.

Besides, unsure if current bootable has ever been working (,but confident still).

Seems surprising power supply unit to issue failure for MB network subunit only...
Maybe r8169 got electric shock for some reason:
Has external HW to ISP chain been tested with alternate known to work rig?

As booting ISO for clearing HW condition, beside possible delay due to dl duration, couldn't be M$ bootable PE of any beneficial use?

Hopefully recreative to some OP geo location inspired politically sensitive R&B sound of the day, [network required

]
Thks 4 ur attention, interest & support.

Tony0945 · Post by **Tony0945** » Sat Aug 28, 2021 12:16 pm

CaptainBlood wrote:IIUC, you're having trouble with old HW/Gentoo previously working...

No. The case is old. The power supply is old. Motherboard, drives, and video are about three years old. Ryzen 2700X.

I'm adding an old PCIe board to see if it is hardware or cabling. During the night, I realized that in the next room I have an interior wall connection to my Raspberry Pi that is still working and I also have a spare five port ethernet switch. So, if it is cabling, I can route a new cable along the wall, around a corner, back behind the TV stand to where the pi sits, plug both the pi and the 2700X computer into the spare switch and plug the switch into the (interior) wall socket. That socket drops directly down (about five feet) to the 10 port switch that everything else is plugged into. Downside is a probable big screech from my wife at wires running over her carpet. BTW no carpet static involved here. The room that the 2700X is in has wood flooring. The family room where the TV and Pi are has nylon carpet.

EDIT:
Bad News. It looks like the only open slots are the legacy PCI slots. I think I have to take my sound card out to put in the NIC. Well, between network connectivity and sound, I'd rather have the network.

Anon-E-moose · Post by **Anon-E-moose** » Sat Aug 28, 2021 3:36 pm

Are you sure the network adapter didn't get accidentally switched off in the bios?

If you have a usb slot, the usb network adapters work pretty well and reasonably priced.

Tony0945 · Post by **Tony0945** » Sat Aug 28, 2021 10:57 pm

Anon-E-moose wrote:Are you sure the network adapter didn't get accidentally switched off in the bios?

Yes, I checked that. Finally, I attached a Win7 laptop to the ethernet wire. I was elated when I got to the internet with no problem.
Then I thought "maybe it's wireless". Sure enough. I clicked START, typed "net connection" (all this from internet instructions) and the wired network was shown as disconnected, check your wiring.
The wireless network was shown as green, connected. Could not make it connect wired. Took the laptop into the basement connected there with the cable from my latest computer and voils, connected wired.
So I went this route:

I can route a new cable along the wall, around a corner, back behind the TV stand to where the pi sits, plug both the pi and the 2700X computer into the spare switch and plug the switch into the (interior) wall socket. That socket drops directly down (about five feet) to the 10 port switch that everything else is plugged into.

I measured a mnimum oof 13.5 feet required. Cables at the store jumped from 10 feet to 25 feet. Bought the 25 footer and looped it up behind the TV stand. I only had one short cable and conected the pi to that. It's showing orange. The connection to the ryzen 3700X is white. Connection to the cat 6 wall socket is ORANGE.

I just used what's handy. I'll search AMZN for short cat 6 cables. Yeah, real men make their own cables. I even still have the crimp tool. Can't even type decently any more much less strip and layout tiny wires. An internet speed test (two different tests actally) show I'm getting my full 100/10 Meg speed from my ISP. Like to get my full Gig from the LAN though.

Internet has bee flaky for a week. I'm suspecting mice in the outer wall. The wall connection now in use is an interior wall. We have been having baking temperatures here. I always get mice when it's subzero. Looks like mice don't like saunas either.

Tony0945 · Post by **Tony0945** » Sat Aug 28, 2021 11:32 pm

Getting mostly 11553 KBytes/sec from iperf3. Not good, right?

Have some known cat 6 cables on order. Including a white one foot cable to connect the Pi to the switch.
Ran test from a machine directly connected to US government cat 6 to basement 10 port TP-link switch.
Ten times faster than this machine. Both to basement server. Could make a difference in video transfer times.

Tony0945 · Post by **Tony0945** » Fri Sep 10, 2021 3:43 am

That new white cable was labelled cat 8. the pi stills connects t 100Mbps (I think that's all the chip can handle) and the switch light is still orange but the line to the basement turned white after a few seconds so that the only orange light is from the pi to the switch, Need to rerun the iperf3 test.