I have updated the r8168 driver:

http://www.icjacobsen.com/dld/oem.tgz

It is now a backport to ESXi of the latest r8168.011.00 driver and on top of that has extra protection built in to avoid package dropping.

For anyone who has observed problems with the old r8168 driver, please test it.

You can upgrade by using a ubuntu live cd and a usb stick:

1. Copy the new oem.tgz file to your machine.
2. Make custom changes to it if needed.
(or rip out the r8168.o driver from the above file and copy it into you previously made custom oem.tgz file).
3. Copy the oem.tgz file to a usb stick.
4. Start your ESXi machine using the ubuntu live CD (boot into the live cd) and plug in the usb stick.
5. Copy new oem.tgz file from the usb stick to the partition that holds the existing oem.tgz file (I think it is partition 3, it is located in the root directory of the partition).
6. Shut down the server.
7. Start it up again normally and test.

Regards
Jens

Just to update quickly, after I re-integrated the r8168.o file into the oem.tgz, by using varazirs linux bash integration script, everything worked great. When I used the livecd replacement method, I did not have success. I do believe the reason I did not have success was due to permissions and ownership id's that were carried over when logged into the ubuntu livecd environment. I did not troubleshoot much further than this, frankly.

If there are specific steps that we can take, would you mind advising please?

Thanks so much...

Andy Slezak

Hi everyone:

Just updated it again to include changes from r8168.012.00

From looking at the original source this version adds about 100 bug fixes, performance enhancements and support for the latest realtek RTL8168DP NIC.

Same download link and install procedure as above.

Regards
Jens

Jens, could you make the same but for Realtek 8211B GbE Ethernet Controller ???

Hi!

Do you see a way compile the rtl-module also once for the esxi4? It's the only thing that stops me from using esxi4 - it's on a hosted server...

Perhaps you could hand over the sources if your machine is 32bit, i have got a 64bit machine running.

Regards from Bavaria/Germany,

Thomas