The antenna isn’t connected. I have wifi but it’s the Ethernet I need. It works fine on Windows, so if there’s an issue with the Kernel, I’ll help you find it.
There wired connection is not showing up suggesting that the chip is not supported by Linux kernel.
What is the output of lspci -nn and lsusb?
From that we can get the chip identified and research the driver support.
You have a Realtek R8125 and it seems that there are issues with the driver.
You could try this command to see if the ethernet device is detected.
sudo modprobe r8168
ip address
Do you see a new network interface?
sudo modprobe r8168
output:
modprobe: FATAL: Module r8168 not found in directory /lib/modules/6.12.5-200.fc41.x86_64
I guess you send this off to whoever makes the kernel and let them fix it?
Odd I tested that modprobe command before posting to make sure I had the module name correct.
Let’s see if other people can explain what is needed.
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Yes, but then new users would have to go through the effort of decompressing and installing them.
Isn’t the ultimate purpose of flatpak to be a distribution tool that works on all distros? Now shoving drivers into a flatpak may be a bit impractical (though I hear snap isn’t so bad for this sort of thing), but OP also mentioned GUIs that often come with the hardware. I doubt a .tar.gz file is the most reliable or user-friendly way to distribute such an app. So wouldn’t the ideal situation be a friendly flatpak app with a big red button that installs (non-flatpak) drivers for you?
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Can you check sudo modprobe r8169
The ideal situation would be that manufacturers submit their drivers to the kernel, instead of distributing their own proprietary drivers through other methods like flatpaks. The kernel drivers are checked and tested by trusted maintainers and reside in a central repository.
Flatpak isnt a standard, it’s just one of many competing package formats to distribute containerized userspace applications. There is no guarantee of security, and distributions that use their own formats like Snap or Appimage would require alternative packages. So you would end up with the same kind of fragmentation that you were trying to address initially.
The kernel submission proces meanwhile is an existing central, standardized and tested approach to include drivers for all distributions.
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My internet stopped working on Fedora 41 even though it works fine on Windows.
This is a misunderstanding.
I had an expensive printing machine. Windows moved from a major version to the next. No new drivers. I was told I had to buy a new printing machine or I had to stay with the end of life - not supported version of Windows.
If Fedora updates to a new version and something breaks I can stay with the current Fedora until the next version comes out. Or I can try some other distribution, that either is less “bleeding edge” or has got some different combination of software that by chance works for me. From Fedora’s perspective that is not ideal but for “linux” as a whole it works fine.
There is the usual elephant in the room that is hardware vendors not supporting “linux”, that is not related to “fragmentation” and cannot be worked around because even if reverse engineering was possible, it takes a lot of resources and it never ends.
??? Nothing happened.
any change to ip address
thanks
Hmh? Something did change, in the last line.
It went from:
link/ether 9e:a3:34:5a:29:aa brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff permaddr 44:fa:66:ae:5b:c1
To:
link/ether 56:d9:91:70e1:0a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff permaddr 44:fa:66:ae:5b:c1
Yea, but for whatever reason the companies aren’t going to make their proprietary drivers open source. The best we can hope for is if they put them in sandboxes. Whichever container they use (flatpak, snap, ect) can be installed in any distribution.
The proprietary parts of the drivers can be distributed in binary firmware packages, so they don’t need to open source every part. This is how most of the current kernel drivers work.
e.g.:
# Realtek ethernet drivers in the kernel
$ ls /lib/modules/6.12.5-200.fc41.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/realtek
8139cp.ko.xz
8139too.ko.xz
atp.ko.xz
r8169.ko.xz
# Realtek wifi drivers in the kernel
$ ls /lib/modules/6.12.5-200.fc41.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/realtek
rtl8xxxu
rtl818x
rtlwifi
rtw88
rtw89
# Firmware packages
$ dnf search firmware | grep realtek
realtek-firmware.noarch: Firmware for Realtek WiFi/Bluetooth adapters
So the Realtek network drivers and firmware are already there. If they don’t work for your system that means there is a problem with the drivers themselves, but a flatpak or other container wouldn’t solve that.
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You would be surprised, even nvidia is now releasing open source drivers for the newer GPUs.
Realtek has been supporting linux with developers maintaining drivers for decades. But it can take time to see newer chips supported.
Intel supports its chips in linux kernel before the chips ship.
Hi all, First post 
Fedora 41 with KDE Plasma is the closest I ever got to leave Windows, but still can’t. I’ve been test driving various distros for about a year. NVIDIA install was a breeze… but yeah, this is the unfortunate conclusion I arrived at too. I run two Linux servers and they’re rock solid. But the desktop Linux experience lacks “appeal”. Desktop Linux is not faster than Windows, it’s nowhere nearly as stable as Windows.
It’s a constant struggle with getting the simplest things to work properly or at all. I want to dump Windows because I don’t like the direction Microsoft is taking but Windows “just works” which I can’t say about Linux on the desktop 
It’s fun to tinker with but as soon as you start using apps and try to actually do anything it becomes much less fun and loses all appeal. In two weeks of running Fedora 41 I had to hard reset my PC several times, not sure where the problem was: Plasma, Wayland, NVIDIA, whatever, but I don’t remember the last time any of my Windows PCs crashed so hard as to require a hard reset.
So yeah, not so good. Still hopeful though.
To add an important data point. Wayland was created to replace X-windows but it is NOT yet mature. Systems using Wayland and NVIDIA hardware seem to be having some issues. Before giving up on Fedora, I would suggest trying a spin that does not currently use Wayland such as Fedora Cinnamon.
I know that, I know that very well but how much longer until Wayland gets there? How long until it matures? It has been 16 years since the initial Wayland release. It’s somewhat discouraging. I installed X11 on Fedora 41 KDE and Plasma was noticeably more stable and some features such as window shade worked again. It’s a painfully long transition process from X11 to Wayland.
Cinnamon is fine, but I much prefer KDE Plasma for its customization options. Mint Cinnamon was my previous top choice.