Killer E5000 Linux Drivers?

[JimmyTexas]

Have an Alienware M18 R2 with the I9-14900 and have installed all the Intel Drivers for the chipset that I could find but cannot get the E5000 to work.  The Wifi works just fine (BE1750) on all bands even prior to me installing the drivers I did find.  Can someone point me in the right direction?  The Ethernet works just fine under Windows 11, so no hardware issues.

[Sazirah]

Hi JimmyTexas,

Thank you for contacting Intel.

We appreciate you reaching out to us regarding the reported issue. To ensure you receive the most specialized assistance, we have a dedicated forum that addresses these specific concerns.

Therefore, I will be moving this discussion to the respective team.

This will allow our knowledgeable community and experts to provide you with timely and accurate solutions.

Regards,

Sazzy_Intel

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JimmyTexas]

Many thanks!  Look forward to getting this to work.  I'm on the latest available kernel offered under Linux Mint 22.1 (kernel 6.11.0-17).

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi JimmyTexas,

Thank you for your patience. It seems that your Alienware laptop is only compatible with Windows 11 Home and Professional (64-bit), so I'm unsure if it can support a Linux distribution. For confirmation on which operating systems are supported by your laptop, I recommend reaching out to Dell Support for further clarification.

Additionally, I've found that there is no Linux-based driver available for the Killer Ethernet E5000; only Windows-based drivers are currently provided for this component.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JimmyTexas]

Thank you for the lack of help on that.  Anyone could see that Dell does not sell that unit with Linux pre-loaded.  These days I'm just not into operating systems that are more about selling things to me than they are being actual operating systems.  Guess I'm learning why Intel is pretty well "about to be sold for parts".  It is a shame that suggestions could not be provided  to help attempt to solve that minor issue.

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hi JimmyTexas,

I understand your frustration, and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Please allow me to investigate this further to find an appropriate solution and the correct driver for Linux.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JimmyTexas]

Thank you.  Intel used to be pretty good about getting their hardware drivers into the Linux kernel.  However, since the killer E5000 is just a rebranded RealTek (RTL8126 if I remember right) I'm sure something happened along the way and whomever ensures the inclusion overlooked it.  I'm considering trying the RealTek Linux driver for it since that is how it shows in a hardware query from the cli.  Hoping for a genuine Intel solution for this before I challenge the driver issue.  This laptop is used for all my in the field needs and the less dongles I have hanging from it, the safer it is from damage.

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hello JimmyTexas,

Thank you for your patience. I noticed you might have found some information online regarding the current issue. Could you please share the link with me? I understand your situation and would like to ask a few follow-up questions about your BE1750:

1. Could you confirm whether the BE1750 is a self-integrated wireless adapter or if it was pre-installed on your laptop?
2. Can you check your system to see if your BE1750 is an (i/s) or (x/w)?

Additionally, have you created any support tickets with Dell regarding Linux OS support on this hardware? If so, please share the details with us.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JimmyTexas]

The BE1750 was pre-installed on the laptop.  Here is the output from the "lshw" command when "-class network" is used to show just network interfaces.  The BE1750 seems to work good under kernel 6.8 or 6.11.  The E5000 (which shows as its RealTek counterpart) does not.  It shows "Unclaimed" meaning there is no driver.

description: Ethernet interface
product: Wi-Fi 7(802.11be) AX1775*/AX1790*/BE20*/BE401/BE1750* 2x2
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:6d:00.0
logical name: wlp109s0f0
version: 1a
serial: 44:a3:bb:cd:eb:05
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=6.11.0-17-generic firmware=92.67ce4588.0 gl-c0-fm-c0-92.uc ip=***.***.***.*** latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes
resources: irq:19 memory:a7200000-a7203fff
*-network UNCLAIMED
description: Ethernet controller
product: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:6e:00.0
version: 02
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: ioport:3000(size=256) memory:a7100000-a710ffff memory:a7110000-a7113fff

[ruin]

Same laptop, same issue, ethernet not working in Ubuntu, Manjaro, or openSUSE. Subscribing to thread in hopes of solution.

[JimmyTexas]

So far in all my searches, it seems an official solution may be as far away as kernel 6.15. https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Killer-E5000-Linux-6.15  The mainline kernel release version is 6.13.3 and there is a beta for 6.14.  I'm seriously considering taking a timeshift backup and trying out the RealTek drivers for the RTL8126 (or whatever it really is, not sure that's the right number).  The laptop was not happy on kernel 6.8.0-x so I moved to 6.11.0-17 (The Linux Mint 22.1 offered option).  Since LM 22.1 is based on Ubuntu 24.04, I may even try enabling their Mainline kernel PPA and trying that.  I can always roll back if I break it!

[ruin]

I am just setting up the laptop so if I break it, it's not a big deal. I unfortunately cannot use Mint because along with openSUSE it fails to recognize a 2nd monitor attached to the HDMI port. I'll post here with any results/updates of trying the RealTek drivers.

[JimmyTexas]

I run LM on every computer here.  No problems with four screens so far.  Two HDMI and two on USB-C to DP connections.  Make sure your NVIDIA drivers are up to date I suppose!  I'd love to know if those RealTek drivers function under kernel 6.11.0-x as it states they are for kernel 6.8.0-x.

[ruin]

I'm going to try again with LM as I like it much better. Two quick questions:

1. do you use Mate or Cinnamon? (I prefer Mate just checking if you were using Cinnamon and possibly Mate was the cause of the 2nd monitor issue)

2. If your workload involves CUDA, Pytorch etc, have you had any issues/pointers with any of the installs on Mint?

Thank you!

[JimmyTexas]

Using Cinnamon here on all PC devices.  Not doing any CUDA.  However I am using quite a bit of A.I. stuff as I am doing a lot with GPT4ALL with local docs and on device A.I. models (hence the Alienware machine).  Also do a lot with OBS Studio (online video streaming, but no I'm not a gamer).

As far as pointers goes I would suggest you keep it as absolutely slim and trim as you can.  Try not to load up on software you don't use.  Every so often I review what's on my systems and I check the output of Journalctl to see what errors may be happening (I filter just for warnings so the output is short).  Journalctl is how I uncovered my two newest PC's not liking kernel 6.8.0-53 very much!  I'm not a programmer/coder by any means.  More like a power user here.  Good with Linux, Windows, Android ... but no expert!  Many great guides online how to handle certain problems.  Oh, and ALWAYS enable TimeShift and run a backup with it before you mess with anything!

Take a look at PopOS as well if you want something "slimmer".  I'm playing with that distro on an older HP laptop that has about 7 years on it.  I've not put much time into it as of yet, that old HP is likely to become a cloud server here for me (replacing an older server stuck on LM 20.3 that won't play nice for upgrades due to my many "tweaks" that are best reversed by full wipe).

[DhannielM_Intel]

Hello JimmyTexas,

Thank you for sharing the information with me. I will take a closer look at the details you've provided to further investigate the issue.

Best regards,

Dhanniel M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[bmax1968]

Hi, I have the same problem, ethernet is not working in Ubuntu.

I have a desktop with MSI B860 GAMING PLUS WIFI motherboard with Intel Killer™ E5000 5Gbps LAN.
I tried even with the latest kernel version the 6.13.4

Best regards

[JimmyTexas]

Thank you very much for that.  One day here soon when I get daring I will image the system and then mess with the realtek drivers since the E5000 is just a rebranded realtek device.  There are some 6.14.x. Linux kernels out, have you tried them?  I'm wondering if some 6.15 alpha releases are floating around.

[bmax1968]

No, I have not gone beyond 6.13.4, because that is the latest in the Ubuntu repositories. I was honestly hoping for a helpful response from Intel. For now I will use a usb / lan adapter, but I would like to be able to use the Intel lan present on the motherboard.

[Earl_Intel]

Hello JimmyTexas,

Thank you for patiently waiting on us.

Here is the latest and stable kernel 6.13 and latest firmware version for BE1750(i/s).

• Source link: The Linux Kernel Archives

Best regards,

Earl E.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JimmyTexas]

Not sure if you forgot what we were having issue with here, but the BE1750 is NOT the E5000 Killer network card.   It's already been verified that kernel 6.13.x does not fix the problem we are having with the E5000.