Workaround for unusable Intel I226-V Ethernet controller (igc) without rebooting

Recently, our laboratory assembled a new computer to use as a server, but after some time elapsed following booting, the Ethernet suddenly became nonfunctional. In this article, I will show an automated workaround for this problem.

Note: I usually write articles in Japanese, but since few people have reported this problem and there are no articles showing a workaround even in English, I decided to write this article in English. Please forgive my bad English.

Environment

The environment in which we observed the problem is as follows:

• OS: Ubuntu Desktop 24.04.1
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-A GAMING WIFI
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D

The motherboard’s Ethernet controller, an Intel I226-V, has become dysfunctional.

Related articles

I found some related articles, but they do not provide an appropriate workaround that works in our environment.

• Network card (Intel Ethernet Controller I225-V, igc) keeps dropping after 1 hour on linux - solved with kernel param

Detailed procedure to solve the problem without rebooting

Here, I will show the procedure I tried that works in our environment. All commands shown below are executed in bash.

1. Obtain the Ethernet controller’s device ID

$ lspci | grep I226-V | awk '{print $1}'

This command retrieves the I226-V’s PCI device ID using the lspci command.

2. Identify the PCI device path

Second, identify the PCI device path of the Ethernet controller:

$ ls -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/* | grep ${intel_id}

This command lists all PCI device paths and filters them. Replace ${intel_id} with your I226-V’s PCI device ID.

3. Remove I226-V from system

This command requires root permission.

# echo 1 > ${device_path}/remove

${device_path} is obtained in step 2.

4. Rescan all PCI devices

This command also requires root permission.

# echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/rescan

After a moment, the network will work again.

Note: I tried modprobe -r igc and modprobe igc and it not fixes the problem, but there is a possibility that these commands affect the result.

Automate execution of these commands when the network is down

Here, I will show a script that automatically executes these procedures.

#!/bin/bash

function reset_device() {
    local intel_id=$(lspci | grep I226-V | awk '{print $1}')
    echo "Network device is ${intel_id}"
    local device_path=$(ls -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/* | grep "${intel_id}")
    echo "Resetting device..."
    echo 1 > "${device_path}/remove"
    echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/rescan
    echo "Network device reset"
    sleep 300
}

while true; do
    ping -q -c 1 your_host_here || reset_device
    sleep 3
done

This script sends a ping to another machine, and if it returns an error, then it tries to reset the Ethernet controller.

Conclusion

In this article, we confirmed that on Linux (Ubuntu 24.04.1), there is a problem with the Ethernet controller, Intel I226-V (igc), and we provided a workaround for this issue without rebooting.

TL;DR: BUY A NEW NETWORK CARD