10ec:8179 [HP Pavilion 17-e171nr Notebook PC] RTL8188EE driver regression in 3.13.0-24. Extremely slow network performance

[Brett Johnson]

I'm experiencing excruciatingly slow wireless performance on upgrading to Trusty. There are numerous reports of simlar symptoms on the forums, and the solution seems to be to download/install a newer or older kernel, or build a new version of the rtl8188ee driver.

Here are some examples:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2218096
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2218521
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2219896

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic 3.13.0-24.47
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-24.47-generic 3.13.9
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: brenda 1725 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: brenda 1725 F.... pulseaudio
Date: Wed May 21 20:47:12 2014
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=c076696b-2637-49fd-8981-21402ab2c94f
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-12-28 (144 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Release amd64 (20131016.1)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion 17 Notebook PC
ProcFB: 0 EFI VGA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic.efi.signed root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
PulseList:
 Error: command ['pacmd', 'list'] failed with exit code 1: Home directory not accessible: Permission denied
 No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.13.0-24-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.13.0-24-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.127.2
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-05-07 (14 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 09/26/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: Insyde
dmi.bios.version: F.22
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 1985
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: 01.13
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnInsyde:bvrF.22:bd09/26/2013:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPPavilion17NotebookPC:pvr0976110000405E00000620180:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn1985:rvr01.13:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: HP Pavilion 17 Notebook PC
dmi.product.version: 0976110000405E00000620180
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Brett Johnson (linuxturtle)]

I verified that booting off the Saucy kernel still on the system (3.11.0-20) restores wireless performance.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Brett Johnson, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Could you please provide the full computer model as noted on the sticker (ex. HP Pavilion 17-e002xx Notebook PC)?

[Michael Murphy (mmstick)]

Also getting severe issues with RTL8188EE in my HP 15-g029wm. It works a lot better in Arch Linux which uses 3.14(although still suffers), but Ubuntu with 3.13 is suffering from slow performance and a ton of Reason 2 disconnects every now and then. It's been a bug with as far as I can remember on 3.13.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Michael Murphy, thank you for your comment. So your hardware and problem may be tracked, could you please file a new report with Ubuntu by executing the following in a terminal while booted into a Ubuntu repository kernel (not a mainline one) via:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please read the official Ubuntu documentation:
Ubuntu Bug Control and Ubuntu Bug Squad: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue
Ubuntu Kernel Team: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports
Ubuntu Community: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[Brett Johnson (linuxturtle)]

My notebook is a "HP Pavilion 17-e171nr Notebook PC". Although, based on the various forum postings I've seen, this problem is far from unique to this model. It seems to be pretty much any notebook with a Realtek RTL8188EE wifi chip.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Brett Johnson, as per http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=4158&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=6669953#N1115 an update to your BIOS is available (F.33). If you update to this following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BiosUpdate does it change anything? If it doesn't, could you please both specify what happened, and provide the output of the following terminal command:
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

Please note your current BIOS is already in the Bug Description, so posting this on the old BIOS would not be helpful.

For more on BIOS updates and linux, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette .

Thank you for your understanding.

[Brett Johnson (linuxturtle)]

OK, after spending hours attempting to upgrade the BIOS on this pile of crap laptop, I give up. Apparently, the only way it's possible is if I'd not installed Linux on it, and still had the original w8 partition to boot from.

In any case, given that the only thing "fixed" in the new firmware version is:

"- Provides support for additional notebook models."

..and further given that there are many reports of this same problem with different laptop models (but all with the same wireless chipset). And further given that it works fine if I just boot from the saucy kernel.. I'm going to venture a guess that even if I could update the firmware, it wouldn't change anything.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Brett Johnson (linuxturtle)]

Well, that's a nice way to close bugs. Just ignore them for 60 days, and the janitor bot does it automatically. Good way to pad the quality stats :)

[Brett Johnson (linuxturtle)]

Well, now the Saucy kernel has expired, and been automatically uninstalled, so this problem is back with no workaround :(.

[Brett Johnson (linuxturtle)]

The realtek driver in the rtlwifi_new repository appears to fix the problem. I built the driver and installed it, and now have apparently normal network connectivity.

  git clone http://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new.git
  cd rtlwifi_new
  make
  sudo modprobe -rv rtl8188ee
  sudo make install
  sudo modprobe -v rtl8188ee

[Brett Johnson (linuxturtle)]

Same bug reported by someone else against Fedora https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1108801