[Outdated / Not maintained / Not needed anymore]

Check Network Driver for RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller - Arch Linux

I had this https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=257114 problem and this https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1917633#p1917633 solution helped me.

I wrote that script because I needed to compile and reinstall the network-driver everytime I updated my linux kernels (linux, linux-lts, zen). This script works only on an already installed system.

You can clone this project and with python3 update-network-driver-r8125.py it will install the r8125 network driver. Or you can put this folder in your ~/.bashrc, chmod +x update-network-driver-r8125.py and just run it like any other script.

Here is a guide if you are on a live-iso and your network-driver isn't loaded.

Because I had no internet connection I booted Arch from another USB on my laptop and used an external SSD. (Or you can boot Windows and do all this in a vm if you don't have another devices.) Follow these steps (the disk mount part is for both machines):

1. Mount Disk device

   • fdisk -l To find my external SSD and the right partition. Remember where it it located (e.g. /dev/sde1)
   • nano /etc/fstab and write in that /dev/[your device-partition] [Path like /media/ssd] auto auto 0 0
   • mkdir [path where you want to mount like /media/ssd] and mount [your device-partition] [path] To mount and use the external ssd

2. Download and compile on laptop with working network connection

   • pacman -S git gcc make fakeroot curl Download the necessary dependencies
   • useradd -G wheel -s /bin/bash username to create non root user
   • EDITOR=nano visudo uncomment the line %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL and save to be sudo
   • su username && sudo mkdir /tmp/driver && cd /tmp/driver change user to non root
   • git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/r8125.git && cd r8125/ Download the network driver, change dir
   • makepkg to compile
   • sudo cp ./r8125-9.003.05-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst [ssd path and a directory] to copy the installation package to ssd.
   • To be save, download a linux-header package for your version
     • uname -r to check your kernel version. Remember that.
     • curl -L -O [URL] You need to find the right linux-headers version for your kernel. Just google linux-headers [or linux-lts-headers if you want] [kernel version] archive and type the whole damn URL to that .zst
     • sudo cp ./[linux-headers-version.pkg.tar.zst] [ssd path and a directory] copy this to ssd too
     • pacman -U ./[linux-headers-version.pkg.tar.zst] to install it for the next step

3. Install package on non-working-live-machine

   • Do step 1 here too
   • mkdir /tmp/r8125 && cp [ssd path]/r8125-9.003.05-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst /tmp/r8125
   • cp [ssd path]/[linux-headers-version.pkg.tar.zst] /tmp/r8125 && cd /tmp/r8125 copy installation packages to machine
   • pacman -U ./[linux-headers-version.pkg.tar.zst] Install the linux-headers before the network driver
   • pacman -U ./r8125-9.003.05-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst Install the network driver finally
   • lspci -vv to check which network driver is currently loaded and disable it with rmmod [wrong_module]
   • modprobe r8125 activate the new module manually
   • Now you should install your main system until you reboot into it.

4. Install package on installed arch-machine

   After you installed your main system you will that the network driver wasn't loaded. You need to do step 3 again with some steps afterwards:

   • sudo bash -c 'echo "blacklist [wrong_module]" > /etc/modprobe.d/[wrong_module].conf' blacklist the wrong module from boot
   • sudo bash -c 'echo "r8125" > /etc/modules-load.d/r8125.cfg' Only forces the module to load on boot
   • sudo reboot reboot to check if the module is loaded