e1000e driver questions

[chconnor]

I'm trying to sort out some network issues in a bug thread, and a developer suggested I install the latest e1000e to try it.

I haven't found any ppa that has the latest build of e1000e for kubuntu -- is there one that I have missed?

If not, it seems I will need to compile the latest myself. I've had very bad luck with this kind of thing in the past; in the event that the latest version of e1000e doesn't work for me, what will the procedure be to roll back to the repository version?

Thanks for any tips,
-c

[Snowhog]

See https://www.intel.com/content/www/us...-products.html

[chconnor]

Thank you -- I do know of that page; I'm wondering how to roll back if the new version doesn't work?

I've never fully understood how things work when you manually install a newer version of something that is part of the standard repo distribution. Especially as there isn't a package dedicated to e1000e, I need to know how to revert to the standard driver if there are issues, right?

[jlittle]

I'm trying to sort out some network issues ... a developer suggested I install the latest e1000e to try it.

I must suggest doing a backup of your system first, or at least have a snapshot of some kind (I use btrfs, and have recklessly plunged on, assuming I can revert any breakage.)

For another issue, bug 1785171, I've installed the newer e1000e driver.

Note if you want to be able to go back to the older 3.2.6-k driver, using my sketchy method, copy the old driver first, as the install script deletes it:

! cp /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/e1000e/e1000e.ko ~

I pretty much followed the instructions in the README, except as noted below:

# download the latest driver; e1000e-3.4.2.1.tar.gz from https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/15817
# extract it to e1000e-3.4.2.1
! cd e1000e-3.4.2.1/src
! make
# ensure that there's a file called e1000e.ko
! sudo make install
# ignore error about cannot write to /var/cache/man/cat7/e1000e.7.gz in catman mode
! sudo rmmod e1000e
! sudo modprobe e1000e
# ignore instructions about assigning an IP address; I think network manager "activated" the connection automatically
! sudo update-initramfs -u

Now, the module is compiled against the particular kernel you have. This means that if a new kernel arrives in updates, with these instructions to keep using the new driver one must recompile and reinstall it. In principle DKMS can be used to sort this automatically, but I don't know why it hasn't done it for me, or how.

Now, if you want to back that out, I don't know how to do it properly, other than reinstalling from a backup or using btrfs to go back to a snapshot made before mucking around. However, I did successfully experiment as follows:

! sudo rmmod e1000e
! cd # or whereever the old .ko file was copied to
! sudo install -D -m 644 e1000e.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/updates/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/e1000e/e1000e.ko
! sudo /sbin/depmod -a $(uname -r)
! sudo modprobe e1000e
! sudo update-initramfs -u

[chconnor]

Invaluable; thank you John. I do intend to do a partition-level backup first, yeah.

Have you had any problems using the latest versions of e1000e?

So if a new kernel comes down the repo pipeline, my "new" version of e1000e remains without being overwritten, thus necessitating the recompilation you describe? Or does it get overwritten in normal kernel updates?

e1000e.ko is apparently contained in the repo package linux-modules-X.X.X-X-generic -- could we simply do "apt-get install --reinstall linux-modules-X.X.X-X-generic" to go "back to normal"? Or maybe there are other potential gotchas there?

[jlittle]

Have you had any problems using the latest versions of e1000e?

No, other than that the original problem remains. The new driver resets and reconnects faster than the old one, so it helps.

So if a new kernel comes down the repo pipeline, my "new" version of e1000e remains without being overwritten, thus necessitating the recompilation you describe?

It is installed into a directory that is kernel specific. So if you boot a new kernel, the new driver is not there.

e1000e.ko is apparently contained in the repo package linux-modules-X.X.X-X-generic -- could we simply do "apt-get install --reinstall linux-modules-X.X.X-X-generic" to go "back to normal"?

I'm out of my depth, here. Running apt-get with no internet connection sounds problematic. I suppose one could boot to another kernel...