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Comment by bravetraveler | Hacker News Reader

I own one also, while I do recommend them... I would also recommend some caution if planning to use Linux

I'm not sure if this is a common/repeat thing, but for mine I need to maintain a build of the Realtek kernel modules out of tree

If I try to use the discovered/automatic/inline driver... it'll drop out if I try to saturate the link.

It's only when I blacklist this module and compile/use the one from Realtek that it works reliably

edit: This has been consistent through about a year of Fedora kernel releases, for what it's worth -- rather leading edge.

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What distro and kernel version are you running on there? The Realtek 2.5G NICs should work natively with a recent kernel.

Funny you ask! I just edited this in, realizing it was relevant.

It's quite odd, this is with Fedora -- the current/latest release for about the past year (34 through 36).

It's seen quite a healthy number of 5.x kernels, but every time I try to go without I reluctantly have to build it again

It'll work fine, for a time, but when I really put stress on that link it'll drop

Edit: This is trained at multi-gig too -- going to a 10GbE Mikrotik switch.

I haven't tried testing reliability at 1G -- it's probably better, but I'd like the speed... I still have yet to try a 6.y kernel on it

No guarantee that it'll fix it but for me it helped to disable ASPM, details in https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?t=39678

Certainly worth a try, thank you!

Seeing they have a kernel PPA makes me suspect too that there's some patchwork going on, where I'm using vanilla Fedora kernels

You can use dkms to automatically compile your out of kernel driver for you whenever you install a new kernel.

Indeed, I'm aware - that's what I typically use

When I say build it, I really mean allow dkms to function

Based on the UK reseller, Ubuntu 20.04 supports the ethernet chipset out of the box, while 18.04 doesn't.

I run on an unmodified 18.04 though (kernel v5.4), so I think that the support has been also added in a more recent 18.04 LTS patch version.

Interesting! I don't so much have an issue with support, but stability.

I'd be curious to know if you're connected at 1 or 2.5G, and if 2.5, how it does if held at that level for about a minute

An iperf3 test or two is usually enough to make it drop until I reboot

Where with the compiled module it's rock solid

Oof, speaking of the UK reseller; that £277 after tax ($320 US) is quite a markup from the $165 (presumably plus tax) on the hardkernel site.

On all Linux distros on all hardware , one should use the (latest(stable)) vendor drivers. :)

The distro drivers (and/or) kernel drivers, are almost always garbage. Also make sure the NIC firmware is up to date.

> On all Linux distros on all hardware , one should use the (latest(stable)) vendor drivers. :)

Care to provide any rationale?

> The distro drivers (and/or) kernel drivers, are almost always garbage.

My experience is the exact opposite, vendor drivers are almost always garbage, and the kernel drivers just work.

I appreciate you taking the time, but this isn't quite true

For some vendors or kernels, certainly

However, this completely disregards the work companies like Intel and AMD do to upstream their drivers, or the leagues of individual maintainers

In many cases there is no difference, the driver in the kernel is the upstream one

Nvidia has been a notable exception, but they're slowly improving by going (partially?) open source

Realtek specifically has problems due to their shared driver core. For example, it often can't reliably tell the difference between an r8125 and r8169

I must say the exact opposite.

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