Network issues on 24.04 LTS server on r8169

I’m trying to get a ubuntu server running 24.04 LTS on a Lenovo ThinkCentre m70c. Whenever i get to the Network configuration section of the Ubuntu installer (USB boot) i get no connection and have to continue without network. I’ve made a couple of different USB installs at this point so i doubt its a bad iso install and i’ve done my checksums everything looks fine on that end. The rest of the install process was uneventful, everything just worked.

Bios has Secure boot disabled and Onboard Ethernet Controller enabled.

As for the physical part, I’ve changed wires and I’m currently using the wire for this PC, it’s good. I’ve also added an extra NIC to the PC in case the integrated card was faulty but similar results; no internet connection but the hardware is detected just not doing network stuff.

Whenever i launched the machine i always get two services failing:
i2c_designware controller timed out
Job systemd-networkd-wait-online-service timed out (after 2min retries)

I’ve ran a couple of commands to try and get more info here’s what i have so far:

dmesg | grep r8169 (enp1s0 returned the last line but that’s all of its activity)

[    0.666604] r8169 0000:01:00.0 eth0: RTL8168h/8111h, f4:6b:8c:04:d2:d3, XID 541, IRQ 132
[    0.667347] r8169 0000:01:00.0 eth0: jumbo features [frames: 9194 bytes, tx checksumming: ko]
[    0.676031] r8169 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: renamed from eth0

ethtool

driver: r8169
version: 6.8.0-53-generic
firmware-version: 
expansion-rom-version: 
bus-info: 0000:01:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: no
supports-eeprom-access: no
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: no

lshw

  *-network DISABLED
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       logical name: enp1s0
       version: 15
       serial: f4:6b:8c:04:d2:d3
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=6.8.0-53-generic latency=0 link=no multicast=yes
       resources: irq:18 ioport:3000(size=256) memory:b1004000-b1004fff memory:b1000000-b1003fff

ip a

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp1s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether f4:6b:8c:04:d2:d3 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

lspci

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
	Subsystem: Lenovo RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
	Kernel driver in use: r8169
	Kernel modules: r8169

netplan status

     Online state: offline
    DNS Addresses: 127.0.0.53 (stub)
       DNS Search: .

●  1: lo ethernet UNKNOWN/UP (unmanaged)
      MAC Address: 00:00:00:00:00:00
        Addresses: 127.0.0.1/8
                   ::1/128

●  2: enp1s0 ethernet DOWN (unmanaged)
      MAC Address: f4:6b:8c:04:d2:d3 (Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.)

Not exactly sure what to try at this point, It seems driver related maybe? Also, i can’t use apt install, the dream is to get there right now.

UPDATE::

I’ve installed an older version(20.04LTS) and it immediately recognized my network adapter, which enabled me to use apt and get net-tools and a few more packages. But then my feeble body needed sleep and that angered the machine spirit. Next day, all traces of having access to the network are gone, the netplan files are gone, resolve.conf empty, like a fever dream(I even checked the .bashhistory to double check i did have network capability at some point). Anyway, i may have a partial solution that works (for now):

https://documentation.ubuntu.com/server/explanation/networking/configuring-networks/

I copied a netplan file default config, dhcp config and added sudo ip addr add dev for good measures and bam we’re back on!

Will update after rebooting and trying this solution on 24.04