[RESOLVED] r8152 driver
Bopp
Status: Curious
Joined: 04 May 2022
Posts: 6
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Hi, sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. Is there any chance to get a newer driver for the Realtek r8152?

I'm using liquorix version linux-image-6.4.14-1-liquorix-amd64 and the r8152 driver is v1.12.13

This version makes it impossible to reach 2.5Gbps transfer rates in my setup. Installing the latest driver from https://github.com/wget/realtek-r8152-linux/ fixes the issue.

Unfortunately I don't know much about linux drivers, and if it's even related to the kernel package. All I know is that before upgrading to v2.17.1 it was maxing out at 1Gbps, and after upgrading it can use the full 2.5Gbps.

Thanks!
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damentz
Status: Assistant
Joined: 09 Sep 2008
Posts: 1126
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Hi Bopp,

The r8152 driver you're linking to is Realtek's out-of-tree driver. It's completely different than the in-kernel variation.

It's not clear to me why Realtek did this to themselves, but their driver is available as a DKMS driver. Someone has already flagged the AUR package to get it updated for 2.17.1: aur.archlinux.org/packages/r8152-dkms

As for being on a Debian/Ubuntu base, I'm not sure what your options are to backport the latest version.

If you have the ability to buy a separate network card, I recommend you get one based on an Intel chipset. But unfortunately, I did some research to see what your options were if you used a USB dongle, and the majority of all devices are using the R8156B chipset for 2.5gbps, which uses the r8152 driver (both in-kernel and out-of-tree DKMS). You'll have to upgrade to 5 or 10gbps to get hardware generously supported by in-kernel Linux drivers.
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Bopp
Status: Curious
Joined: 04 May 2022
Posts: 6
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Hi damentz,

Thank you very much for the detailed reply. I am indeed using a USB dongle and upgrading to 5 or 10 gbps isn't really an option, as it would exceed the bandwidth of my docking station.

I took your advice and looked at dkms modules, which led me to this project: `https://github.com/awesometic/realtek-r8152-dkms` . I was able to build and install the dkms module after updating r8152.c to support kernel >=6.4.10
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damentz
Status: Assistant
Joined: 09 Sep 2008
Posts: 1126
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Great, sounds like you were able to figure it out from the official repo. I'll close this out as resolved.
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