Re:The new and upgraded Framework Laptop
by nagisa on Thursday May 19, 2022 @09:38AM
(#31434483)
Could you elaborate on why realtek was chosen for the ethernet expansion card? It does tend to have a pretty bad rep, with one of the recent documentations being https://overengineer.dev/blog/2021/04/25/usb-c-hub-madness.h...
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Unfortunately, Realtek is the one and only choice for a USB 3.1 to 2.5Gbit Ethernet controller. We don't like it any more than you do, but there are several niches in the PC peripheral space where there is no alternative to using a Realtek part.
What about a Thunderbolt connection and a PCIe ethernet adapter - could that work?
The power consumption of this would be too high.
And the cost, probably. 40$ for 2.5Gbit is not that bad of an offering; at 80$, this would probably be even more niche.
How about Aquantia?
As far as we can tell, Marvell end of lifed the USB to Ethernet solutions. If anyone from Marvell can tell us otherwise, we'd like to know!
Seems to be that the realtek driver issues are mostly for Mac users, which will not be really an issue for Framework users.
As a long-time Linux user, every time I hear Realtek or see a rtlxxxx driver the blood drains from my head. Just a constant nightmare of crashy firmware and dkms hell. Maybe things have gotten better in the last couple years, but I've steered clear every time I've had the chance.
My ASUS lappy with rtl8xxx WiFi started having issues on newer kernel 5.10.x spewing bugchecks in the dmesg and is locked till reboot. Apparently it's a frequent issue, cause my searches showed it's been happening to others since at least 2018. It's 2022 and not much better.
However! Frame.work is Ina position to be an agent of change!
Realtek RTL8822 WiFi kills cheap soapbox routers, typical for AirBnB and cheap/small hotels. Known problems, no fixes.
I mean, it blocks such routers, not brick them permanently, but result is the same: you and your companion doesn't have internet. At all.
FWIW, I just had a realtek USB ethernet adapter take down my network twice last week when I was trying out with an Android tablet.
It's part of a powered USB hub, and it works fine while the tablet is connected, but after disconnecting the tablet, the ethernet controller stays active, and about half an hour later my entire home network stops working. I had to disconnect the realtek adapter and reboot my network switch each time.
So, their problems are not entirely limited to mac.
Re:The new and upgraded Framework Laptop
by howinteresting on Thursday May 19, 2022 @10:50AM
(#31435402)
That's not limited to Realtek:
Ok, maybe that one is partially the switch's fault.
Also, here's a better link for that: https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/qo6r3f/powere...
Re:The new and upgraded Framework Laptop
by philliphaydon on Thursday May 19, 2022 @09:48AM
(#31434608)
I have had many issues with Realtek over the years causing windows to wake. Just changing the network card in my laptop to Intel causes that issue to go away. I won’t buy a motherboard for my desktop if it’s Realtek.