[Technical tips] Configuring RTL8111x LAN chip in Linux

This article will talk about configuring RTL8111x LAN chip in Linux.

On Vortex86 CPU board, some application may face a problem about configuring the Realtek LAN on the board after installing the firmware for it.

In this situation, the main reason will be the PCI device setting in the GRUB; to configure the Realtek RTL8111X chip in Linux, we have to disable MSI(Message Signaled Interrupts) interrupt system by nomsi parameter, and make sure RTL8111X could be working fine.

What is MSI?

Message Signalled Interrupts (MSI) are an alternative in-band method of signalling an interrupt, using special in-band messages to replace traditional out-of-band assertion of dedicated interrupt lines. Because our hardware does not support MSI, so we have to use nomsi parameter to disable it to make sure to hardware is workable. For more information, please click here.

Adding the nomsi parameter to the kernel

• The target Device - VDX3-6755
• Requires OS: Linux OS
  (In this article, we used Debian 8 as an example.)

1. Access the Linux OS and open the terminal or access the recovery mode under Linux. (In this article, we implement it under recovery mode.)
2. Give root password to access root.
   
3. Run command:

   $sudo nano /etc/default/grub

4. add “pci=nomsi” after GRUB _CMDLINE_LINUX= and save it.
   
5. Run command:

   $sudo updage-grub

6. Reboot the device, and you will see the LAN is working if you have installed the firmware.

Install Realtek firmware under Linux

1. Turn on non-free repository.
   By text mode: run command.

   $sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

   
   Add non-free at the end of main contrib and save it.
   
   By GUI interface:
   Select Non-DFSG-compatible software (non-free under Software&Updates).
   
2. Run command:

   $sudo apt-get update && apt-get install firmware-realtek

3. Installation & update check of the firmware complete.