Home Assistant OS Ethernet connection repeatedly drops on Beelink EQR7 – Realtek r8169 / NO-CARRIER

Installation
1

Home Assistant OS Ethernet connection repeatedly drops on Beelink EQR7

Problem

I am trying to set up Home Assistant OS on a Beelink EQR7 mini PC.

Home Assistant boots successfully and reaches the CLI, but I cannot access the Home Assistant web interface because the Ethernet connection becomes unusable.

The mini PC is connected directly to my router using Ethernet.

Hardware/setup

  • Beelink EQR7 mini PC

  • Home Assistant OS installed on the internal storage

  • Built-in Ethernet connection

  • Realtek Ethernet controller using the Linux r8169 driver

  • Connected directly to my router

  • No VLANs or complicated network configuration are being used at this stage

I have tested the Ethernet connection using more than one Ethernet cables. The router port and cables have also been confirmed to work with another computer.

What Home Assistant initially reported

Home Assistant initially reported that the Ethernet connection was not ready:

  • connected: false

  • enabled: false

  • IPv4 address empty

  • Gateway empty

  • DNS/nameservers empty

  • ready: false

Later, when the Ethernet link temporarily came up, Home Assistant reported:

  • connected: true

  • enabled: true

  • ready: true

However, it still did not obtain an IPv4 address automatically.

Linux findings

Using the HAOS Linux shell, the Ethernet controller is detected and is using the:

r8169

driver.

Checking the Ethernet interface has produced:

NO-CARRIER

and:

state DOWN

However, the interface intermittently comes up and reports:

LOWER_UP

The kernel messages show the Ethernet link repeatedly changing state.

The connection has successfully negotiated a Gigabit/full-duplex connection but subsequently drops again.

The pattern appears to be approximately:

Link Down → Link Up → Link Down → Link Up → Link Down

Eventually the interface returns to NO-CARRIER.

Static IP test

I also configured a temporary static IPv4 address instead of relying on DHCP.

Home Assistant accepted the configuration and reported:

  • connected: true

  • enabled: true

  • IPv4 address configured

  • ready: true

However, another computer on the same local network could not ping the Home Assistant machine and could not access the Home Assistant web interface.

The test resulted in:

Destination host unreachable

This makes me think the problem may be below the normal Home Assistant DHCP/web-interface layer.

BIOS checks

I checked the BIOS/UEFI settings.

The onboard PCIe LAN functionality appears to be enabled, including LAN power.

I did not change any advanced PCIe, AMD CBS, overclocking, or other low-level settings.

Windows Recovery testing

The machine also has Windows available.

From the Windows Recovery Environment, ipconfig /all did not show a usable Ethernet adapter, and attempts to enumerate network devices through the recovery environment did not return network devices.

I don’t know whether this is significant because this was the Windows Recovery Environment rather than a normal Windows installation.

What I am trying to determine

I would appreciate help determining whether this is:

  1. A known Realtek r8169 / HAOS compatibility issue with the Beelink EQR7;

  2. An Ethernet link-negotiation problem;

  3. A driver or firmware issue;

  4. A BIOS/UEFI issue;

  5. A hardware fault with the Beelink Ethernet controller;

  6. Or something else in HAOS.

I would particularly appreciate advice on the next diagnostic step rather than reinstalling Home Assistant, as I would like to establish the cause first.

I am happy to provide additional diagnostic output, but I will redact or omit any information that could identify or provide access to my private network or devices.

A quick note: I am very new to Home Assistant and have very limited technical/Linux knowledge. I have been using GPT to help me troubleshoot the installation and understand the commands I am being asked to run. I don’t fully understand the technical details myself, so I may need instructions given in simple, step-by-step terms. I have included the results of the troubleshooting as accurately as I can and would really appreciate guidance from someone who can help identify the actual cause rather than simply reinstalling HAOS.

Thank you.
Dee

2

Please tell us more about which method you are using to install HA OS that also has Windows available and where you got it from. Because the supported official installation method uses a build root system. Unless you are installing in a VM?

3

Like with all PC have you find any new and updated BIOS/UEFI ?

4

Probably Linux driver issue: r8169 vs r8168

5

Hi, thanks for replying. I am very new to this, so I may have misunderstood part of the installation.

I am using a Beelink EQR7 mini PC. My intention was to install Home Assistant OS directly onto the mini PC and use it as a dedicated Home Assistant machine. I am not intentionally running Home Assistant in a VM or trying to dual-boot Windows and Home Assistant.

I downloaded the Home Assistant OS image from the official Home Assistant website and used a USB drive to install/boot it. The image I used was the generic x86-64 Home Assistant OS image.

During troubleshooting, I discovered that Windows/Windows Recovery was still accessible through the boot/recovery options, which is why I mentioned that Windows was available. I have not set up a VM, and I don’t believe I deliberately installed HA alongside Windows.

I may have made a mistake during the installation process or misunderstood what was installed where. If helpful, I can provide the exact installation steps I followed.

6

I have checked the BIOS/UEFI settings, but I have not yet checked whether there is a newer BIOS/UEFI update available for my specific EQR7.

Could this potentially affect the built-in Ethernet connection? If so, I am happy to check my current BIOS version and compare it with the latest version recommended by Beelink for my exact model.

I am new to this, so I would prefer to confirm that any BIOS update is the correct one for my exact machine before installing it.

7

Thank you. That sounds possible based on the troubleshooting so far.

HAOS is detecting the built-in Realtek Ethernet adapter and it is using the r8169 driver. The link has intermittently come up at Gigabit/full duplex but then dropped back to NO-CARRIER.

Would you recommend testing whether the Ethernet adapter works with the r8168 driver in another Linux environment first, or is there a supported way to test this with HAOS?

I am very new to Linux and Home Assistant, so I would appreciate simple step-by-step instructions and do not want to manually change or replace drivers unless it is safe and appropriate.

8

You could try soft tweaks.

You need “Advanced SSH & Web Terminal” app/addon,
and ethtool.

/sbin/ethtool --set-eee eno1 eee off
/sbin/ethtool -K eno1 rx off tx off gso off tso off

Replace eno1 with your interface

9

Thanks. This sounds like a sensible test. Before I do it, can you confirm that Advanced SSH & Web Terminal will give me the required access to run these commands against the HAOS network interface, and that the changes are temporary and will be reverted on reboot unless explicitly made persistent?

My interface is enp2s0, so I understand I would substitute that for eno1.

GPT does not want me to try this first. Do you have any other suggestions, please?

10

Does anyone else have any other suggestions please? I really want to get started with Home Assistant.

11

In post 5, you mentioned that you could provide the exact installation steps/resource you used - those details could help the more experienced folks around here identify any possible flaws in them.

I’m an idiot when it come to practical familiarity with computer/network architecture stuff, so I cross-checked several bare-metal installation resources that I found online for consistency before I did mine on my Beelink ~1 year ago. Thankfully, it went perfectly smooth and I’ve had no hardware issues since.

12

Thank you Chris. The image I used was the official Home Assistant OS Generic x86-64 image:

https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/18.2/haos_generic-x86-64-18.2.img.xz

I checked with GPT beforehand that this was the correct image for my Beelink EQR7.

I followed the Home Assistant Generic x86-64 installation documentation from an Ubuntu environment. I downloaded the image above and wrote it to a USB drive, then booted the Beelink from the USB using the UEFI boot menu.

The Beelink then booted into Home Assistant OS and eventually displayed the HA CLI/system ready screen.

My intention was for HAOS to be installed directly onto the Beelink’s internal SSD as a dedicated Home Assistant machine. I am not using a VM.

During the subsequent troubleshooting, however, I discovered that Windows/Windows Recovery was still accessible through the boot/recovery options. This has made me wonder whether I actually installed HAOS to the internal SSD or whether I have only been booting HAOS from the USB.

I may therefore have misunderstood part of the installation process. If the installation method I used is important to diagnosing the networking issue, I’m happy to go back through exactly what I did and provide any details you need.

13

I tested to see if the HAOS installed on my mini PC but it did not. I started again and asked GPT to run me through the steps. It suggested trying to install HAOS through Ubuntu. However, I cannot get it to connect to the internet. As I have tried 3 ethernet cables and different ports on my router and used all the cables in another PC to check the connection I know my router and ports are fine. So, I believe there could be an issue with my Beelink. Any thoughts please?

14

FWIW, I found the video I ended up using for my Beelink’s bare-metal installation… Following these steps exactly, my installation went great - no surprises or any bumps-in-the-road at all. But I did mine a year or so ago, so I can’t vouch for anything that may have changed between then and now.

15

Can you try switching Homeassistant from ethernet to WiFi to see if that’s stable? Can you create a bootable linux USB drive and boot the Beelink from that and see if the ethernet connection works and is stable?

16

Thank you Chris. I will give this ago. Fingers-crossed it works.

17

I will definitely give this a try if I still get stuck. Thank you Counsellor