Ubuntu 20.04.2 and Onboard Intel I219-V

I recently purchased an ASROCK Z590M board with an Intel I219-V onboard network controller. However, the latest Focal 20.04.2 won't detect the onboard NIC. This is a known issue with Linux, as ASROCK doesn't have the drivers. Intel doesn't show any drivers on their site either.

Some people have disabled the onboard adapter and added an extra NIC, but, because of my application, that would create problems, so I would like to use the onboard card.

So how can I do that?

After reading and tweaking, this is what worked for me. I hope this helps all the others getting to configure the new boards with Intel and Ubuntu.

1. Download this driver either directly to a directory on your Ubuntu server with the onboard NIC if you have a secondary network connection or to a USB drive: https://downloadmirror.intel.com/15817/eng/e1000e-3.8.4.tar.gz

2. Once you get the file in the system do the following:

   sudo tar zxf e1000e-3.8.4.tar.gz
   sudo cd e1000e-3.8.4/src/
   sudo apt install make
   sudo apt install gcc
   sudo make install
   sudo modprobe e1000e insmod e1000e
   sudo reboot
   

3. Do an:

   ip a
   

   and grab the name of the adapter, in my case enp0s31f6.

4. Edit the network settings:

   $ sudo nano /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml
   
   network:
     ethernets:
       enp0s31f6:
         dhcp4: true
     version: 2
   

5. Save with Ctrl+X.

6. Enter at the shell prompt:

   sudo netplan apply
   sudo reboot
   

That should do it, hope it helps so you don't have to waster part of your Sunday figuring it out.

^{Answer moved here from the OP's question.}

I'm hitting this issue on 20.04.2 server so it appears these drivers have not yet landed there.

Kernel is 5.4.0-65-generic

This indeed is a helpful post but if you are stuck with no network, and you do not have onboard WiFi or a WiFi adapter, you can't install make/gcc to compile the driver. Additionally, these are the latest drivers available for this NIC: http://e1000.sourceforge.net. This resource is officially recommended by Intel, per the readme in release 25.2 (latest) of Intel's driver bundle:

Release 25.2 is the last release that contains the Linux e1000e driver. Maintenance for this driver will be continued by the community.

and additionally (also per Intel):

Due to the continuous development of the Linux kernel, the drivers are updated more often than the bundled releases. The latest driver can be found on http://e1000.sourceforge.net and on http://downloadcenter.intel.com

The easiest way to solve this issue is to install Ubuntu 20.04.2 HWE, which includes the drivers for this NIC out of the box, but if you can/want to compile the latest drivers, use the Sourceforge repository.

The HWE kernel can be installed with the following command:

 sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-20.04 

PS: Use these cmds to check for HW type and driver version:

lspci -nnk | grep -A2 Ethernet

OR

modinfo e1000e

In the interim, I found that this adapter works to get you up and running with internet. You're just sacrificing a USB/C port.

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter/dp/B0109IY8PA/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3NU9B7QZ49HYQ&keywords=usb-c+to+ethernet+startech&qid=1641682005&sprefix=ethernet+to+usb+c+star%2Caps%2C79&sr=8-3

$ sudo lshw -C net
  *-network UNCLAIMED       
       description: Ethernet controller
       product: Ethernet Connection (7) I219-V
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 1f.6
       bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.6
       version: 10
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:a3200000-a321ffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: 2
       bus info: usb@2:4
       logical name: enxa0cec8cb9183
       serial: a0:ce:c8:cb:91:83
       size: 1Gbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       capabilities: ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8152 driverversion=v1.11.11 duplex=full firmware=rtl8153a-4 v2 02/07/20 ip=192.168.240.250 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=1Gbit