I bought a new computer with an Asus ROG STRIX Z270H GAMING motherboard having an Intel i219-v Ethernet chip. The first thing I’ve done was to install openSUSE Leap 42.2 with a network install. Everything went well, no problems at all. I’ve been using openSUSE for a few days, internet was working absolutely fine, no issues with anything.
Then I had to install Windows 10 to play games. I’ve installed it fine on another HDD, also no issues, internet worked all fine, no problems with anything. Except that it deleted Linux boot options.
So I’m booting into openSUSE again, opened YAST, changed the boot settings, saved them. The I open Firefox and… see no internet connection. I’ve been everywhere in the system but couldn’t find what was wrong. So, I went to YAST Network devices and see it says something like (I’m typing from Windows by memory) network can’t be set up because kernel modules couldn’t be found, eth0 or wlan0 interface couldn’t be found, something like that.
Ok, I tried different options in YAST - nothing. I boot into Windows - internet works just fine. I’m booting again with the install USB - can’t find online repositories, no network adaptor or interface found. I’ve downloaded a DVD image, boot with that - same story - no network interface found.
So, what could have possibly gone wrong with Linux, when and what can I do now? How come all worked before, then it all stopped? Windows can’t disable hardware for other systems, right?
Forgot to mention, I uninstalled all Asus bloatware which removed the network driver too, yes, I lost the network too, but then I installed a generic driver from Windows, went to Asus web site, downloaded the network driver, installed it, and now everything works fine in Windows. But could that have also uninstalled some UEFI or some other driver from somewhere so that it’s not loading during boot anymore? Just a thought.
Try a cold boot between changes of OS it is known that sometimes Windows makes odd changes to some hardware’s firmware that survives a warm boot and messes with the other OS’s ability to use the hardware.
Would have nothing at all to do with EFI boot
is that a wired network
I remember there was a similar bug (or feature) on some realtek chipsets there is a patched realtek driver not sure about intel tho
the issue was that windows put the lan chipset into some sort of low level power save that the linux kernel didn’t support I do believe there was an option in the windows driver to disable this
I am talking about the realtek chipset not sure about intel just thinking aloud
Ok, I’ve uninstalled all network drivers, uninstall all Intel related stuff from the Apps and Programs, disabled all power management options in the network adapter, did a cold boot - no network in Linux.
Could it be something in BIOS? I looked there but couldn’t find anything related to an Ethernet adapter.
Well, it turned out to be a pretty stupid problem with the easiest fix, although if you never came across such thing before, you’d be totally puzzled and waste days trying to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.
I don’t know what really changed my BIOS settings, Windows installation, BIOS update or myself, but the truth is one of the BIOS settings was changed and the one hidden deep in menus and that which you wouldn’t think makes a difference.
I’ve uninstalled all possible programs, drivers, anything related to network, changed all possible settings - nothing made no difference. One time I was going through my BIOS for the hundredth time, trying to find anything which would make my network card to be disabled during boot. All possibly related stuff was disabled already. Then, thank you BIOS programmers, I saw a Defaults button in BIOS settings and thought what the hell, let’s try to change all to factory defaults, nothing could be worse. Pressed the Defaults, then Save & Exit and it showed me a list of all changes which were going to happen AND THEN I saw one of the BIOS setting being changed makes sense that it could be IT. And it did really turn out to be IT! And IT was the
Advanced Mode => Boot => Secure Boot => OS Type => ‘Windows UEFI Mode’ will be changed to 'Other OS’
My setting was ‘Windows UEFI Mode’ and that thing disabled my network card during boot, which I guess Windows was somehow enabling after boot and Linux couldn’t. As soon as I changed the ‘Windows UEFI Mode’ to ‘Other OS’, rebooted - my network started working in Linux right away! What the?!
I reinstalled all Windows drivers, configured all required network options - all is good now in both Windows and Linux. Hope my experience is gonna save a big headache for someone. Now all my hardware works perfectly in Linux, openSUSE rocks!