Cable Ethernet stopped working Xubuntu 19.04

Afternoon all.

Yesterday (11th Oct) at midnight, my laptop lost connection to the internet via ethernet cable. I can still connect via wifi.

I have a second laptop, which dual boots with Xubuntu 19.04 and Windows 10. This second laptop can still connect to ethernet in both Windows 10 and Xubuntu 19.04, so it is not a modem / router issue.

I had managed to restore the ethernet by deleting the auto eth0 settings, and reconfiguring, but now that too has stopped working (and I cannot restore auto eth0!).

Can anyone help walk me through troubleshooting this issue please?

@heynnema: the information you requested.

dkms status
digimend, 8, 5.0.0-29-generic, x86_64: installed
digimend, 8, 5.0.0-31-generic, x86_64: installed

sudo lshw -C network
[sudo] password for bac: *-network description: Ethernet interface product: RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0 logical name: enp7s0 version: 07 serial: b0:5a:da:c9:aa:2a width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical configuration: broadcast=yes driver=r8169 latency=0 multicast=yes resources: irq:18 ioport:4000(size=256) memory:b4000000-b4000fff memory:b4800000-b4803fff *-network description: Wireless interface product: Wireless 3165 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:0d:00.0 logical name: wlp13s0 version: 81 serial: 94:65:9c:b9:9a:ba width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=5.0.0-31-generic firmware=29.1044073957.0 ip=192.168.1.114 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11 resources: irq:44 memory:b2000000-b2001fff

cat /etc/network/interfaces
# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

cat /etc/netplan/*.yaml
cat: '/etc/netplan/*.yaml': No such file or directory

@heynnema: The second run at sudo lshw -C network:

 *-network description: Ethernet interface product: RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0 logical name: enp7s0 version: 07 serial: b0:5a:da:c9:aa:2a width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical configuration: broadcast=yes driver=r8169 latency=0 multicast=yes resources: irq:18 ioport:4000(size=256) memory:b4000000-b4000fff memory:b4800000-b4803fff *-network description: Wireless interface product: Wireless 3165 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:0d:00.0 logical name: wlp13s0 version: 81 serial: 94:65:9c:b9:9a:ba width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=5.0.0-31-generic firmware=29.1044073957.0 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11 resources: irq:44 memory:b2000000-b2001fff

@heynnema: Third times the charm!

sudo lshw -C network *-network description: Ethernet interface product: RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0 logical name: enp7s0 version: 07 serial: b0:5a:da:c9:aa:2a width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical configuration: broadcast=yes driver=r8169 latency=0 multicast=yes resources: irq:18 ioport:4000(size=256) memory:b4000000-b4000fff memory:b4800000-b4803fff *-network description: Wireless interface product: Wireless 3165 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:0d:00.0 logical name: wlp13s0 version: 81 serial: 94:65:9c:b9:9a:ba width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=5.0.0-31-generic firmware=29.1044073957.0 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11 resources: irq:43 memory:b2000000-b2001fff

But still no auto eth0. How would I know if I have a cat5 or cat6 cable?

@heynnema: This should hopefully be the last one:

sudo lshw -C network *-network description: Ethernet interface product: RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0 logical name: enp7s0 version: 07 serial: b0:5a:da:c9:aa:2a size: 100Mbit/s capacity: 100Mbit/s width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 duplex=full firmware=rtl8106e-1_0.0.1 06/29/12 ip=192.168.1.195 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s resources: irq:18 ioport:4000(size=256) memory:b4000000-b4000fff memory:b4800000-b4803fff *-network DISABLED description: Wireless interface product: Wireless 3165 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:0d:00.0 logical name: wlp13s0 version: 81 serial: 94:65:9c:b9:9a:ba width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=5.0.0-31-generic firmware=29.1044073957.0 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11 resources: irq:43 memory:b2000000-b2001fff

1 Answer

From the comments...

After lengthy troubleshooting using the sudo lshw -C network command, it looked like no cable was connected to the computer, or the cable was defective (user was not using a cat 5e or cat 6 cable), or the switch/hub/router/modem wasn't connected.

It was determined that the computer really saw a enp7s0 ethernet device, not a eth0 device. By creating a new fresh NetworkManager GUI connection script using enp7s0, and testing with kernels -29, -30, and -31, it all seems to work again. Old connection scripts using eth0 were deleted.

If it fails again, you'll need to boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB and retest the ethernet network interface.