Realtek 8125 driver -- r8169 will only support 100 mbit

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Browsing through the discussions here, I’m unable to figure out what is going on with support for the Realtek 8125 (supported through the r8169 driver?).

I’m seeing two different things in discussions, and I don’t know how pertinent, each is to the other. My first concern with the various topics I’ve seen discussing this, but I am running:

Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller (rev 04)

Other discussions I’ve seen revolving around this topic, have reported back showing something along the lines of “* 8111/8168/8411 *”. Do the comments about that chipset, still apply to this one?

I just rebuilt my Fedora 41 system, and added this new NIC, and I see that it is only connecting at 100 mbit; I’d be much happier if it would connect at 1000 mbit. I have tried manually changes the options with ethtool, and such, without much luck.

I have also tried the dkms* r8168 package, and it didn’t even recognize my NIC, and when attempting to use a dkms* r8125 package, it connected at that same 100 mbit.

Is there a proper solution to fixing the speed of the RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller (rev 04) NIC to support > 100 mbit?

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Hi Mike,

Welcome to Fedora!!!

When you run ethtool, are you seeing something like the following?

einer@msige76:~$ ethtool enp48s0
Settings for enp48s0:
	Supported ports: [ TP	 MII ]
	Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full <==
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full <==
	                        1000baseT/Full <==
	                        2500baseT/Full <==
	Supported pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
	Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
	Supported FEC modes: Not reported
	Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
	                        1000baseT/Full
	                        2500baseT/Full
	Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
	Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
	Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
	Speed: Unknown!
	Duplex: Unknown! (255)
	Auto-negotiation: on
	master-slave cfg: preferred slave
	master-slave status: unknown
	Port: Twisted Pair
	PHYAD: 0
	Transceiver: internal
	MDI-X: Unknown
netlink error: Operation not permitted
	Link detected: no
einer@msige76:~$
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Settings for enp5s0:
Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
2500baseT/Full
Supported pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Supported FEC modes: Not reported
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
2500baseT/Full
Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
Link partner advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
Link partner advertised pause frame use: Symmetric
Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Link partner advertised FEC modes: Not reported
Speed: 100Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Auto-negotiation: on
master-slave cfg: preferred slave
Port: Twisted Pair
PHYAD: 0
Transceiver: internal
MDI-X: Unknown
Supports Wake-on: pumbg
Wake-on: d
Link detected: yes

4

Ok Mike,

So, the driver is the right one for the card, all the speeds are supported. That leaves:

  1. the cable
  2. the switch/router used

The router/switch needs to support the higher speeds, looks like it might support 1Gbps … so … check the specs on that :slight_smile:

The cable should be at least CAT 5e or CAT 6 for the highest speeds. Look along the cable for writing and you should see the CAT (Category) rating in there some place. The ends should fit snugly into the connectors, no exposed wires at either end, no kinks or crushed points along the length of the cable. Also note that it needs to be wired for Ethernet. Some cables of unknown origins or “home made” are not correctly manufactured, putting all the pairs as groups of 2 instead of orange+orange-white, green+blue-white,blue+green-white, brown+brown-white.

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I had my switch blow-out too, and I replaced it. That’s got to be the problem, then. I don’t have any other systems to test it with, immediately; but I’ve got to assume there is a problem with my switch.