Realtek 8169 supported natively in 10.5.8 & 10.6.x?

[scalar]

I've read in some places that Realtek 8169 is supported OOTB (natively) but there is conflicting information on how stable this is. There are also a number of projects here that seem to support the 8169, as well as numerous kexts modified (from what I assume are Apple native) and labelled AppleRTL8139Ethernet.kext (to find versions I have to check plists internally.)

 

I currently have a Pro/100 using the various kexts I've found and I get freezing under a network load at times. If this is the case for 8169 that's not much of a step up, but since there's much more support on the various sites for this card I'm hopeful someone knows what the better options are? (native kexts or?) Basically I have an Encore ENLGA-1320 I'd like to get working better than my Pro/100 (Intel) which has lockup issues for the OS.

 

So, what are the most stable options for 10.5.8 & 10.6.2? (I have 2 installs)

Here's what I've collected so far:

 

RTGMac_v2.0.0.zip (containts RTGNICv2.0.0.pkg) comes directly from the Realtek site as a download for OSX and states "10.4 & 10.5 support" but according to iAtkos any 10.4 related drivers are unstable in 10.5 for this 8169 chipset?

 

The Realtek 8168/8111 solution thread has a lot of various info, seems to have solutions that work for some and not others. Post #722 has 10.5.8 & 10.6.2 kexts but am unsure what the source of these are (and hence if they're just modified 10.4 kexts are they stable?) 10.5.8 is v1.0.3/build 846 and the 10.6.2 kext is v1.1/build 584

 

Also have a AppleRTL8139Ethernet-141 version compiled from Xcode (pbdevelopment?) which says version 1.41, which I believe is for 10.5.8 judging by its dependancies (IONetworking & IOPCIFamily)

[Common Sense]

Is Realtek 8169 based pci cards such as netgear ga311 working oob without no issues in snow leopard? As the first post says there are some people having problems with it. I just ordered a cheap netgear ga311 on ebay and would like to know if anyone has any experience with this card in 10.6.2.

 

CS

[Mushishi]

The GA311 works OOB without any problems in both leopard and snow... i did use it in both my main hack before getting the onboard to work on that and on a osx86 server where the onboard did not support bonjour...

[kennoa]

Hi guys, I need help:

I have rtl8169 trendnet card that is in PCI slotC , and I try every possible kext found but everything I can see in system info is:

 

10ec,8169:

 

hardware type:ethernet controller

driver installed:NO

device ID:8169

vendor ID:10ec,

 

In network pref. panel there is no devices although I have modem installed properly.

 

I have G5 with 10.5.8, onboard ethernet card killed by storm.

[Slappysan]

I have a GA311 (RTL8169S chipset) and can't seem to get it working.

 

I've tried several different kexts and they do find the card and load the apropriate ones:

 

~# kextstat | grep -i ionet\\\|rtl

66 2 0x5d787000 0x16000 0x15000 com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily (1.9) <7 6 5 4 3 1>

76 0 0x5d7e5000 0xb000 0xa000 rtl.r1000.nic.ext (1.0.4) <66 14 11 10 5 4 3 1>

~#

 

the device and vendor ids are correct, but no "en0" or any interface comes up.

 

what sort of things can I do to debug this?

 

any help is appreciated.