New Realtek Driver Development

[MacMan]

Attention SandyBridge users... New Lnx2Mac RTL81xx available

Lnx2Mac has not abandoned this driver and is currently working on a new improved version.


Stay tuned for details.

 

[Mieze]

Attention SandyBridge users... New Lnx2Mac RTL81xx available

Content moved to http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/287161-new-driver-for-realtek-rtl8111/

 

[adener]

Attention SandyBridge users... New Lnx2Mac RTL81xx available

Hey Mieze, maybe you can point me in the right direction with this minor problem I've been having.

I use Lnx2Mac's latest package for my network adapter (I believe 0.90 beta?). I get intermittent but very predictable latency spikes probably because of...

This is just a packet loss due to a temporary resource allocation failure.

I've tried to install a variety of different kexts that are supposed to be compatible with my RTL8169 (such as the R1000SL or the official Realtek drivers) that all resulted in loss of connectivity. Lnx2Mac's package is the only one I could find that works. Packet loss issue isn't a big deal when browsing but it's starting to get pretty unbearable for gaming purposes.

My hardware:
- Core i7 2600K
- ASRock P67 Extreme4 Gen3
- Gigabyte nVidia GTX 680

It's not really a crucial issue because after all, everything DOES work on my system right now. But if you can think of any suggestions off the top of your head, I'd really appreciate a little guidance. Do I just wait for Lnx2Mac to release the new version (which he's reportedly working on) or do you know of a working kext that's actually going to address this problem?

Cheers!

 

[Mieze]

Attention SandyBridge users... New Lnx2Mac RTL81xx available

Content moved to http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/287161-new-driver-for-realtek-rtl8111/

 

[sica]

I built another Hackintosh, this time with a Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3P Board (tried BIOS F3 and F6 as it should boost Realtek Compability). Your driver recognizes the card on it, but I can't get upload rates higher than a few kb/s. There are no debug messages in the logs. Just

11.03.13 22:53:35,000 kernel[0]: Ethernet [RealtekRTL8111]: PCI power management capabilities: 0xffc3.
11.03.13 22:53:35,000 kernel[0]: Ethernet [RealtekRTL8111]: PME# from D3 (cold) supported.
11.03.13 22:53:35,000 kernel[0]: Ethernet [RealtekRTL8111]: RTL8168DP/8111DP: (Chipset 11) at 0xffffff81d05f6000, 90:2b:34:6a:6e:de
11.03.13 22:53:35,000 kernel[0]: Ethernet [RealtekRTL8111]: MSI interrupt index: 1

and

11.03.13 22:54:06,000 kernel[0]: Ethernet [RealtekRTL8111]: replaceOrCopyPacket() failed.

 

[adener]

Mieze,

Thank you for providing this! This new driver fixed two problems I was experiencing:
1. Bonjour appears to work correctly now - other devices on the network are discovered immediately in finder.
2. There was a bug that I've seen other reporting here in which a large transfer of data over the network device would make the network simply 'die'. Nothing would ping out to the network and renewing DHCP would result in the generic 'I can't give you anything' IP address.

For reference:

1. Mainboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3
2. CPU: Intel i5 (the 3.4GHz one that everyone is buying these days)
3. OS X version: 10.8.2
4. Version of the Realtek chip: RTL8168E-VL/8111E-VL: (Chipset 16) at 0xffffff80f0f85000

I just installed Mieze's latest version (or at least the one posted here) on my system successfully.

Mainboard: ASRock P67 Extreme4 Gen3
CPU: Intel i7 2600K 3.4GHz
OSX: 10.8.2 Mountain Lion
Chipset: RTL8111E/8169E (8169:10ec)

Everything's working flawlessly. There's a very noticeable performance improvement over the old driver. It also seems to have fixed the excessive amounts of packet losses I was experiencing.

I haven't tested WOL and sleep functionality. The OSX installation on this machine is pretty new (weeks old) and I haven't yet figured out fixing this functionality for Sandy Bridge. I'll report on this as soon as I'm able to put the machine to sleep.

EDIT: The RealtekRTL8111.kext consistently fails to load on a fresh boot. When I boot in with Lnx2Mac's RealtekRTL81xx.kext, unload them, rebuild cache, repair permissions, and then load RealtekRTL8111.kext, internet works and it works really well. After restarting (with the -f option to ignore boot cache), Ethernet is still there, and it claims to have connectivity, but the router doesn't see it and the OS not only can't get to the internet, it can't even connect to the router's config page (192.168.0.1). When you unload it, rebuild cache, repair permissions and load the Lnx2Mac drivers again, internet still doesn't come back. In fact the Ethernet adapter goes into Self-Assigned IP problem. You have to restart, disable LAN in the BIOS, boot with -f, restart again, enable LAN and boot with -f to get the network adapter fully functional again.

 

[lofie]

Lnx2Mac has not abandoned this driver and is currently working on a new improved version.


Stay tuned for details.

That is wonderful - we are all grateful for how far the lnx2mac driver has progressed.

But why is Mieze suspended? Can he not develop his own driver?

Does this thread not show there are many willing talented people who would like to contribute too this driver - if they could!


Calling for a spirit of co-operation.

Regards
A

 

[ModBot]

Mieze's suspension had nothing to do with the development of this driver, it was for violating multiple forum rules http://www.tonymacx86.com/faq.php.

This suspension is currently scheduled to end on March 18th, 2013.

 

[undeadlegion]

Hello undeadlegion,

thanks for the test run. In case you can't access certain Apple domains this post http://www.tonymacx86.com/network/29866-attention-sandybridge-users-new-lnx2mac-rtl81xx-available-14.html#post555862 might solve your problem. As drivers aren't aware of domains a driver bug can be ruled out in case only certain domains are affected. Another possibility is an IPv6 issue because I discovered that TCP Segmentation Offload with IPv6 isn't working properly but I'm already working on a bug fix.

This is just a packet loss due to a temporary resource allocation failure. There is no need to worry about that as long as you don't get an excessive number of error messages.

Yeah I was really confused why only the developer site wouldn't load. I didn't know if it was reproducible on your end.
I'll reinstall it again and give those steps try. I Just realized that I do have access to another machine with a 8111E-VL chipset so I'll try it over there too and let you know how that goes.

Lnx2Mac has not abandoned this driver and is currently working on a new improved version.


Stay tuned for details.

If the driver isn't abandoned could you talk to Lnx2mac about releasing the source?

 

[Mieze]

Content moved to http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/287161-new-driver-for-realtek-rtl8111/