Context: I have a freshly built Ubuntu 18 machine. From a separate Macbook Pro laptop, I created a bootable USB stick with Ubuntu 18.04.4 which I did by following the instructions here for Mac OS. The installation seems to have worked, but I have no Internet. I have an Ethernet cable that is plugged directly into the machine, and I have been using this same Ethernet cable for the last four months on a different machine, and the wired connection worked fine. The network I am using is also the same one I use on my Macbook Pro laptop (which I'm using to type this) so the Internet is working.

First, after the fresh Ubuntu 18 installation, I saw that my wired connection was not working. (And, neither can I connect using WiFi.) Here is what I see:

$ sudo lshw -C network

  *-network                 

       description: Wireless interface

       product: Intel Corporation

       vendor: Intel Corporation

       physical id: 14.3

       bus info: pci@0000:00:14.3

       logical name: wlo1

       version: 00

       serial: ac:67:5d:f6:f7:a7

       width: 64 bits

       clock: 33MHz

       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless

       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=5.3.0-28-generic firmware=48.13675109.0 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11

       resources: irq:16 memory:51214000-51217fff

  *-network UNCLAIMED

       description: Ethernet controller

       product: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

       physical id: 0

       bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0

       version: 05

       width: 64 bits

       clock: 33MHz

       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list

       configuration: latency=0

       resources: ioport:3000(size=256) memory:51100000-5110ffff memory:51110000-51113fff



$ uname -r

5.3.0-28-generic

This seems to be an issue with drivers, judging from these questions:

• Question. The top answer (with one vote) suggests "the adapter will be managed by the kernel in-tree module" but I don't know what this means, and I cannot uninstall r8168-dkms as it isn't on the machine.


• Question. The top answer suggests to use something called dkms. I get a command not found when typing dkms.


• Question. This seems related but is talking about WiFi. I am trying to get my wired connection to work, which I was hoping would be as simple as plugging my Ethernet cable in the machine.

I tried to follow the designated answer to the first question (this answer specifically). I downloaded the latest version of the driver here on my Macbook, put it on my USB stick, then transferred it to my Ubuntu machine. Then I ran it:

$ tar xfvz r8168-8.048.03.tar.gz 

r8168-8.048.03/

r8168-8.048.03/Makefile

r8168-8.048.03/README

r8168-8.048.03/autorun.sh

r8168-8.048.03/src/

r8168-8.048.03/src/Makefile

r8168-8.048.03/src/Makefile_linux24x

r8168-8.048.03/src/r8168.h

r8168-8.048.03/src/r8168_asf.c

r8168-8.048.03/src/r8168_asf.h

r8168-8.048.03/src/r8168_dash.h

r8168-8.048.03/src/r8168_fiber.h

r8168-8.048.03/src/r8168_n.c

r8168-8.048.03/src/r8168_realwow.h

r8168-8.048.03/src/rtl_eeprom.c

r8168-8.048.03/src/rtl_eeprom.h

r8168-8.048.03/src/rtltool.c

r8168-8.048.03/src/rtltool.h



$ cd r8168-8.048.03/



$ sudo ./autorun.sh 

Check old driver and unload it.

Build the module and install

./autorun.sh: 30: ./autorun.sh: make: not found

Unfortunately this doesn't work because my machine doesn't have make or build-essentials.

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

Package build-essential is not available, but is referred to by another package.

This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or

is only available from another source



E: Package 'build-essential' has no installation candidate





$ sudo apt-get update

Err:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease

  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'

Err:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease

  Could not resolve 'security.ubuntu.com'

Err:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease

  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'

Err:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease

  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'

Reading package lists... Done

W: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic/InRelease  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic-updates/InRelease  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic-backports/InRelease  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic-security/InRelease  Could not resolve 'security.ubuntu.com'

W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

So then I am curious about how to get all of these installed (build-essential, make, and similar commands, perhaps dkms) on a machine that doesn't have Internet working? Searching results in these questions:

• Question. This one says to do a sudo apt install command, but as shown above, that is not working.

  
  



• Question. This one didn't get much attention and the answerer only has several imperfect solutions.

  
  



• Question. The answerer suggests running another sudo apt command. Here it is:

  
  

  $ sudo apt-get -qq --print-uris install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r) | cut -d' -f 2 > urls.txt
  
  E: Package 'build-essential' has no installation candidate
  
  

  
  

  As shown there, I am running into errors since it comes down to lacking build-essential.

  
  



• Question. This old question and the discussion here seems to suggest using apt-offline. However, it requires a sudo apt install apt-offline to install in the first place. :)

  
  

Just to be clear, when people build new machines and then install Ubuntu 18 with a bootable USB, how exactly is Internet "enabled" on the machine? Is there a step I am missing in the process? I thought I just needed to plug in my Ethernet, so I must be misunderstanding something.

TL;DR: I am looking for the simplest way to get wired Internet connection (as well as build-essential, since that seems heavily related) on a freshly built Ubuntu 18.04 machine, perhaps by downloading something on a USB stick on my Macbook Pro, but I will take any solution that works. Thanks!

Update 1: to be specific, I downloaded the Desktop version onto my USB stick. I downloaded the .iso version highlighted here, the one that is 2.0G:

And you can find the list here.

Update 2: Here are some potentially relevant commands:

$ cat /etc/network/interfaces

# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback



$ cat /etc/netplan/*.yaml

# Let NetworkManager manage all devices on this system

network:

  version: 2

  renderer: NetworkManager

Update 3: here are some relevant machine specifications:

• Intel i7-10700k CPU


• Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Elite Motherboard (this is what I ordered)

Update 4: I ended up buying this cheap USB WiFi adapter, and all I had to do to get WiFi was to just plug it in my computer. No other things necessary. Whew ... now I just need to figure out how to get the Ethernet working ...

Update 5: I tried following these instructions to run sudo apt-get install r8168-dkms and rebooted, but the wired ethernet is still not working.

Update 6: resolved. :) I bought a USB to Gigabit Ethernet adapter, and this caused the wired connection to work right away. This is the one I got, since I saw that it was compatible with Linux. I did not upgrade the BIOS.