Unable to use ethernet connection on Qubes OS 4.3.0-rc4

User Support Testing Release
1

Hi Forum,
I’ve tried to configure an Ethernet connection (Wi-Fi is working since installation),
but I’m unable to get it working. I’m on debian-13-xfce templates.

I configurated with the program ‘NetworkManager Applet’.Version 1.36.0, on sys-net:

  • Right-click on the applet panel icon (if Wi-Fi is working, its a signal strength symbol).

  • Then “Edit Connections…” → Menu: “Network Connection”, you may see:

    • Wi-Fi: is configured and working now.

  • Then left-click to the “+”-icon to “Add a new connection”

    • Menu to “Choose a Connection Type” appears.
    • Select Ethernet
    • Left-click to “Create…”-Button
      • Menu edit the connection appears (“Editing Ethernet connection 1” as default).
      • Tab “Ethernet” is automatically selected.
        • Change name to ‘eth0’
        • Select “Device”: In my case the is only one: vif6.0
        • Select “Cloned MAC address”: Random
        • MTU: automatic
        • Select “Wake on LAN”: ignore
        • Select “Link negotiation”: Automatic
      • Tab “IPv4 Settings”.
        • Automatic (DHCP)
        • Activate “Require IPv4 addresing for this connection to complete”
      • Tab “IPv6 Settings”
        • Select Method: “Disabled” (first)
      • Tab “Proxy”
        • Select Method: “Automatic”
      • Tab “General”
        • Set-on “Connect automatically with priority” 1 (I prefer ethernet, in that case)
        • Default: on: “All users may connect to this network”
        • Set: Metered connection to “No”
      • Rest-Tab with defaults (802.1 Security: No selection, DCB: No selection)

  • Left-click to “Save” Button (BTW it seems broken, as it shows an “X” as icon)

  • Menu “Network Connections”

    • Now shows the Ethernet classification and eth0 connection created
    • Close the menu

If I now left-click to ‘NetworkManager Applet’ and select “Disconnect”, then the icon
changes to “No connection” icon.
If I now right-click to that icon and deselect “Enable Wi-Fi” (“Enable Networking” is selected), the I would expect the eth0-connection to be used.

  • Restarting the cube, the OS does not bring a connection over eth0.

My laptop network specs are

network: |
  MEDIATEK Corp. Device [14c3:7925]
  Motorcomm Microelectronics. YT6801 Gigabit Ethernet Controller [1f0a:6801] (rev 01)

Other specs:
cpu: |
  AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 w/ Radeon 880M
chipset: |
  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Strix/Strix Halo Root Complex [1022:1507]
layout:
  'hcl'
memory: |
  97400
brand: |
  SLIMBOOK
model: |
  EVO15-AI9-STP

Those devices were configured to be always connected to sys-net cube automatically

Kernel: 6.12.59-1
Xen: 4.19.3

I fail to see a related error on sys-net dmesg, but just things in red like:

piix4_smbus 0000:00:01.3: SMBus Host controller not enabled
Error: Drive 'pcspkr' is already registered, aborting ...

For hints or ideas I thank you in advance

1 Like
2

Try Fedora as template for sys-net, it have more fresh drivers compare to debian.

1 Like
3

Just to learn on qubes, isn’t the case that the kernel is always the Red Hat one (I saw that claim on another topic related to rc4)?
Here is sudo dmesg start on sys-net:

[    0.000000] Linux version 6.12.59-1.qubes.fc41.x86_64 (mockbuild@83523eb769ad463199935c0aecf3b97e) (gcc (GCC) 14.3.1 20251022 (Red Hat 14.3.1-4), GNU ld version 2.43-2.fc41) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sun Nov 30 10:39:00 UTC 2025
[    0.000000] Command line: systemd.machine_id=6a48122b17b348f28b6ecad64f256e7c root=/dev/mapper/dmroot ro nomodeset console=hvc0 rd_NO_PLYMOUTH rd.plymouth.enable=0 plymouth.enable=0 clocksource=tsc xen_scrub_pages=0  apparmor=1 security=apparmor
1 Like
4

You can change kernel in Qube setting → Advanced, on right side.

1 Like
5

AFAIKU is already a fedora41 kernel by default: 6.12.59-fc41 (current)

1 Like
6
1 Like
7 
@dom0:~$ qvm-prefs -s sys-net kernel
6.12.59-1.fc41

@dom0:~$ rpm -qa 'kernel-qubes-vm*'
kernel-qubes-vm-6.12.54-1.qubes.fc41.x86_64
kernel-qubes-vm-6.12.59-1.qubes.fc41.x86_64
1 Like
8

Hi xiscu

What do you get, if you

  1. Open an terminal in sys-net (The blue qube at the top right, select sys-net and “Run Terminal”)
  2. Run the command ip a s

?

It should list the devices that sys-net knows about and their state.

:slight_smile:

1 Like
9 
@sys-net:~$ sudo ip a s
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
[...]
2: wls6: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff permaddr yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy
    altname wlp0s6
    altname wlxyyyyyyyyyyyy
    inet 192.168.178.90/24 brd 192.168.178.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute wls6
       valid_lft 855441sec preferred_lft 855441sec
[...]
3: vif6.0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group 2 qlen 1000
    link/ether fe:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.137.0.5/32 scope global vif6.0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::fcff:ffff:feff:ffff/64 scope link proto kernel_ll 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
1 Like
10

Hi xiscu

Looks like your sys-netqube doesn’t know about the ethernet port - you can also try:

lspci

and see if the qube believes it has an ethernet adapter?

Edit: Searching the forum for “YT6801 Gigabit Ethernet Controller” I found:

so maybe there are some issues with the driver for the ethernet card? – I don’t have a card like that - so I can only guess and sugges things … :-/

:slight_smile:

1 Like
11

From a random search:

Looks like steps for an apt based installation … so maybe simple to follow for a Debian based sys-net?

:slight_smile:

1 Like
12

Dom0 Setting: sys-net seems to see the device (default installation settings):

Screenshot_2025-12-19_18-24-58
Screenshot_2025-12-19_18-24-581717×276 36.6 KB

1 Like
13

To be able to run lspci on sys-net, for debugging purposes, one needs to install pciutils first, thus:

user@sys-net:~$ sudo apt install pciutils
Installing:                     
  pciutils

Summary:
  Upgrading: 0, Installing: 1, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 0
  Download size: 129 kB
  Space needed: 272 kB / 17.8 GB available

Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie/main amd64 pciutils amd64 1:3.13.0-2 [129 kB]
Fetched 129 kB in 0s (1,155 kB/s)  
Selecting previously unselected package pciutils.
(Reading database ... 150910 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../pciutils_1%3a3.13.0-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking pciutils (1:3.13.0-2) ...
Setting up pciutils (1:3.13.0-2) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1) ...

Then lspci:

user@sys-net:~$ sudo lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440FX - 82441FX PMC [Natoma] (rev 02)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371SB PIIX3 ISA [Natoma/Triton II]
00:01.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371SB PIIX3 IDE [Natoma/Triton II]
00:01.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
00:02.0 Unassigned class [ff80]: XenSource, Inc. Xen Platform Device (rev 01)
00:04.0 VGA compatible controller: Device 1234:1111 (rev 02)
00:05.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 10)
00:06.0 Network controller: MEDIATEK Corp. Device 7925
00:07.0 Ethernet controller: Motorcomm Microelectronics. YT6801 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 01)

AFAIKU, seems to be there

1 Like
14

Can you share the output of:

lspci -v | grep -A 10 Ethernet

?

:slight_smile:

1 Like
15 
user@sys-net:~$ lspci -v | grep -A 10 Ethernet
00:07.0 Ethernet controller: Motorcomm Microelectronics. YT6801 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 01)
	Subsystem: AIstone Global Limited Device 7011
	Physical Slot: 7
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 46
	Memory at f2218000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	I/O ports at c200 [size=256]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
1 Like
16

Hi xisceu

Looks like no kernel module/driver for the ethernet card.

:slight_smile:

1 Like
17

Looks like a really new obscure Ethernet controller with no drivers in mainstream Kernels. Your best bet is dkms and in-vm Kernel. There is a guide for Debian here. But I won’t recommend it as the author is not known and authenticity or security of the prebuilt one could not be confirmed. The situation is not better in Arch AUR.

Try looking at your original hardware vendor website. They might provide some Debian and/or Fedora drivers.

2 Likes
18

FWIW, there seems to be some instructions on the laptop vendors side (unable to check that on weeks, but I’ll after):
https://slimbook.com/en/blog/guides-2/post/ethernet-driver-installation-tutorial-on-evo-457
Thank your so far, have a good one!

1 Like