[arch-general] Realtek 8111/8168/8411 Blues - cannot get dhcpcd address (link UP)

[David C. Rankin]

All,

   As a continuation of the disc controller failure/system rebuild, I have the 
new box built and a pair of fresh drives waiting for a new Arch install. This 
motherboard has the Realtek 8111/8168/8411 chipset. (Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 
motherboard).

   I am booting with the latest install medium which boots fine in legacy or 
EUFI mode. No matter what I do, I cannot get an IPv4 address. I have read:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_configuration#Realtek_no_link_.2F_WOL_problem

(that's not the problem, link light is on, activity indicator is flashing, and 
link is reported 'Up' by 'ip link')

   I have read:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_configuration#Realtek_RTL8111.2F8168B

  - installed (pacman -U r8168-8.040.00-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz)
  - blacklisted r8169
  - loaded r8168
  - confirmed the NIC is using r8168 w/lspci -v
  - systemctl restart dhcpcd (many times)
  - systemctl status dhcpcd reports
       no IPv6 Routers
       no IPv4 Leases
       request timeout

It's not the cable or my dhcpd server, I boot the box with the failed disc 
controller, and it is assigned an address just fine. (same cable)

I'm stuck, looking at the log on my dhcp server, the requests are never seen. 
It's like the card isn't sending, but the link light is fine and the activity 
light on the NIC is flashes when it sees traffic?

What else can I try?


-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.