Ubuntu 11.10 / 12.04 & Realtek network card RTL8111/RTL8168B driver installation

My HP Pavilion dv7-6190ed uses a Realtek Lan adapter (RTL8111/RTL8168B PCI Express Gigabit), known to cause trouble with Ubuntu 11.10 & 12.04  (automatically installs RTL8169 drivers)

The default RTL8169 driver seems to work at first, but keeps loosing connection, and has high packet losses. *Not very useful.

Solution:

Install the correct driver (from the manufacturer)

1. Find out first if you indeed have a Realtek LAN card (8168 or 8168B) and if the default r8169 driver is installed.

sudo lspci | grep RTL

this should give you:

Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)

sudo lsmod | grep r81

The result should be :  r8169

2. Download the latest driver here (should be version r8168.8.038.00 or newer)

Older version might work but need more work to install, you will have to uninstall the old driver first, and then compile the new driver manually. This version is as simple as running a single script.

3. Unpack the downloaded file

4. Direct to the directory where you have unpacked the file.

5. run the script:

sudo ./autorun.sh

6. Blacklist the old driver

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Add the following to the file at the bottom

#blacklist r8169 driver (the default kernel driver)
blacklist r8169

7. check if you have installed the new driver correctly:

sudo lsmod | grep r81

The result should be :  r8168

NOTE:

You will have to repeat this procedure after every new Kernel update until the driver problem has been fixed upstream. And since you have blacklisted the default driver for RTL81xx, there will be no lan driver installed at all after a kernel upgrade. So either disable the blacklisting temporarily, or simply keep the correct driver at hand on your hard drive for re-installation the kernel module after every kernel upgrade. BTW, If your Wlan, as it is on my HP dv7, has another chip-set, that one will keep working properly.