Question

How do I get my on-board Intel PRO/1000 PL ethernet controller to load and work in Ubuntu Linux?

Asked by: fnillc

The computer is an AOpen MP945-X Mini-PC (http://minipc.aopen.com/europe/spec_945X.htm -- the one in the middle of the listings).

I have it dual-booting into Windows XP Pro and Kubuntu. In XP Pro the on-board ethernet controller / NIC functions just fine. It's using the XP driver I downloaded from Intel's website, and it shows up correctly as Intel PRO/1000 PL Network Connection in Device Manager.  It's on a 945GM Mobile Express Chipset (this is a mini-PC "desktop" computer but it uses laptop mobile hardware).

I installed Mythbuntu on this computer, which is supposed to load the drivers for the NIC during installation, but it did not. I tried to manually install the Intel NIC drivers for Linux but it would not recognize and install the NIC.  Then I formatted and install Kubuntu Desktop, which also failed to load the NIC during installation. I tried the e1000e drivers and the e1000 drivers. I downloaded these drivers:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProductID=2247&DwnldID=15817&strOSs=39&OSFullName=Linux*&lang=eng

And followed the steps in the README ( http://downloadmirror.intel.com/11960/ENG/e1000.htm ) ---- (basically: untar the file, go to /src/, run make install, then run rmmod e1000e to remove the previous version (if any), then run modprobe e1000e to install the NIC. Also tried insmod e1000e -- and also insmod using the full path to the drivers). Every time the modprobe/insmod commands take less than a second to run, show no output, and when I run an ifconfig -a it only reports the lo loopback interface. No eth0, or anything else. And the mythbuntu and kubuntu network managers both reported no network connection.

Here are the results of running dmesg and lspci (the parts that relate to the NIC anyway):

dmesg:

[  734.796835] e1000e: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - 0.4.1.7-NAPI
[  734.796845] e1000e: Copyright (c) 1999-2008 Intel Corporation.
[  734.870953] e1000e: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -5
[ 1018.717355] e1000e: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - 0.4.1.7-NAPI
[ 1018.717365] e1000e: Copyright (c) 1999-2008 Intel Corporation.
[ 1018.718591]  [<e07c2bb9>] e1000_get_phy_id+0x69/0x90 [e1000e]
[ 1018.718625]  [<e07b361e>] e1000_set_interrupt_capability+0x3e/0x140 [e1000e]
[ 1018.718649]  [<e07bbc3e>] e1000_init_phy_params_82571+0x1ce/0x1e0 [e1000e]
[ 1018.718673]  [<e07b6aa4>] e1000_probe+0x384/0xd30 [e1000e]
[ 1018.718836]  [<e0265048>] e1000_init_module+0x48/0x60 [e1000e]
[ 1018.790729] e1000e: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -5

(and when I grep e1000 instead of e1000e it gives me the same exact error... "failed with error -5" -- so it looks like it is trying to load both the e1000 driver and the e1000e driver and encountering the same problem).

lspci:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller
 

Not sure what the line "[  734.870953] e1000e: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -5" means but I doubt it's good! (Also after a reboot I get the same errors, and the NIC / ethernet interface does not show up). ifconfig -a just shows the lo interface.

I also tried modprobe and insmod with the e1000 driver (in addition to the e1000e driver), and the e100 driver. The download page on Intel's site for the e1000e drivers does not explicitly state support for the PRO/1000 PL controller, but it does say that the drivers are for the PRO/1000 family of network controllers. And in the README there is a section about Jumbo Frames and it explicitly lists the PRO/1000 PL Network Connection in the list. So I -think- this e1000e driver from Intel is supposed to work for this PRO/1000 PL NIC but I'm not sure.

This AOpen mini-PC came loaded with Linux and the NIC worked on it (I confirmed it). But I wanted to put Ubuntu on it, so I formatted the hard drive then installed XP Pro then Ubuntu. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Asked On
2008-08-15 at 10:47:42ID23652057
Tags

Intel

,

Ethernet controller

,

PRO/1000 PL

,

in an AOpen MP945-X Mini-PC, on-board 945 Mobile Express NIC

Topics

Ubuntu

,

Network Cards & Adapters

Participating Experts
2
Points
0
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: pointerstopPosted on 2008-08-15 at 11:19:48ID: 22240454

I don't like the idea of recompiling modules from source trees until you actually establish that the ones Ubuntu provides - compiled for your current kernel - really don't work.

You should have had modules in:

/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/e1000/e1000.ko
/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/ubuntu/e1000e/e1000e.ko

If they're not the same ones that you've now compiled, I'd want to "sudo modprobe e1000e" and see exactly what _that_ does before using a self-compiled driver.

This is already _supposed_ to work and you certainly can't expect one you've compiled yourself to work any better.

 

by: fnillcPosted on 2008-08-15 at 12:16:49ID: 22240943

Thanks for the info pointerstop.

From what I've read the Ubuntu installation process is supposed to detect the NIC and install the built-in kernel drivers for it automatically.  But when I was done with both the Mythbuntu and Kubuntu installations (each after a full format onto an ext3 partition), there was no Network Connection detected or present. I didn't manually try to "sudo modprobe e1000e" (or e1000) after the installation of Ubuntu and before I manually compiled the drivers provided by Intel, but I could try this.

 

by: fnillcPosted on 2008-08-15 at 12:34:41ID: 22241109

I may just bite the bullet if I can't get this on-board wired NIC to work in Ubuntu... and just install a wireless network adapter as a workaround.

Anybody have any suggestions on good wireless-G adapters that work well with Ubuntu? (I know this is kind of hijacking my original question for workaround suggestions... but basically all I need is to get this sucker on my network any way possible).

 

by: jozef_maresPosted on 2008-08-15 at 17:17:18ID: 22242613

ralink rt2500 based, intel pro 3945 works good too.

 

by: fnillcPosted on 2008-09-05 at 08:58:56ID: 22400411

I'm just going to go with Windows XP Pro and some 3rd party media center software.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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