On Sun, Oct 05, 2025 at 16:44:03 +0100, David wrote: > I realise that Debian 9 is very old, but it's the version that should > work with the application I'm trying to load. Newer versions don't > work. > > The issue I'm getting with Debian 9 is that the nic driver does not > load. > > The nic required is rt18168e-3 > > Can I load this separately?
The way I would approach this is to find the oldest Debian kernel package which includes this driver, and see if if works with Debian 9 in your configuration. Usually, there is a great deal of flexibility to use older or newer kernels with a given Debian version. You're not tied down to the kernel that comes with your release. It's just a matter of ensuring that the kernel and userland aren't so wildly far apart that they can't work together.
