rtl8188ee wireless driver high packet loss

[Bryan Quigley]

This is a toshiba c55d laptop. I've seen this issue since trusty, very bad packet loss,varrying in ping from 10%-45% to Verizon MI424WR-GEN3I AP with WPA2 running in Compatibility Mode(802.11b/g/n). No other devices on network have ever had this issue, in fact any loss of ICMP packets almost never occurs on other devices from same location.

Already tried mainline (3.18.0) with no noticeable improvement.

I will be trying the Realtek (from their website) - didn't work, not for this kernel.
https://github.com/FreedomBen/rtl8188ce-linux-driver - didn't help.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
Package: linux-image-3.16.0-28-generic 3.16.0-28.37
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-28.37-generic 3.16.7-ckt1
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-28-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: erica 2366 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: erica 2366 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Thu Dec 11 22:01:36 2014
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=47ff810c-172e-4cd8-b7b3-12f03d42cf70
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-05-29 (196 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
MachineType: TOSHIBA Satellite C55D-A
ProcFB: 0 radeondrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-28-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=3c0c45ee-7e15-45e4-988c-339d83805035 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.16.0-28-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.16.0-28-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.138
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to utopic on 2014-10-02 (70 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/25/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: Insyde Corp.
dmi.bios.version: 1.70
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: Portable PC
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: MP
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: OEM Chassis Manufacturer
dmi.chassis.version: OEM Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnInsydeCorp.:bvr1.70:bd12/25/2013:svnTOSHIBA:pnSatelliteC55D-A:pvrPSCFWU-04C031:rvnTOSHIBA:rnPortablePC:rvrMP:cvnOEMChassisManufacturer:ct10:cvrOEMChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: Satellite C55D-A
dmi.product.version: PSCFWU-04C031
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Bryan Quigley (bryanquigley)]

The FreedomBen driver doesn't appear to help.
Realtek's drivers on their site don't work on kernels >3.9... so I didn't test them.

New testing right next to the router, packet loss ~8%, latency average >8ms, tops in the 100+ range

Changing to legacy b/g only - still packet loss.
 -> channel 1 - no effect, still packet loss.
 -> channel 5 - tests show no packet loss!
 -> channel 6 - tests show no packet loss!
 -> channel 11 - no, effect, still packet loss

b/g/n retesting:
 -> channel 1 - still packet loss
 -> channel 6 - no packet loss (sometimes groups of 100 0-3 packets lost).. much better than other channels.
 -> channel 11 - still packet loss

If you have the same issue, try using Channel 6.

[Bryan Quigley (bryanquigley)]

BIOS update (deployed via CD) doesn't appear to have changed anything in regards to this issue.

$ sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date
1.80
01/27/2014

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Bryan Quigley, could you please provide the missing information following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LinuxWireless ?

[Bryan Quigley (bryanquigley)]

@penalvch
Is there anything you're specifically looking for? I went through that doc originally trying the items that were doable/made sense in my setup.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Bryan Quigley, thank you for the quick response. The information, while it's good you went through it all, is so that it is posted here in your report as well, so triagers/developers may review what this specifically applies to. Hence, the answer to your question is line item answers.

[Bryan Quigley (bryanquigley)]

So far I've tried:

sudo modprobe rtl8188ee debug=3 swenc=1 ips=0 fwlps=0 disable_watchdog=1
also tried with msi= 0.

tried compat-wireless, 3.19-rc4,

my new test that I'm using is a ping router -i 0.2 -c 100. I run it at least 3 times, generally it has 1-7% packet loss.

I've switched routers, I'm not using a Buffalo WZR-300HP running DD-WRT. Nothing changed, with laptop next to router I still get packet loss.

[Bryan Quigley (bryanquigley)]

Email sent to linux wireless mailing list.

[Tabris (theangeltabris)]

I'm a Chakra OS user and I have the same problem with the kernel 3.18. The 3.17 was ok.

[Bryan Quigley (bryanquigley)]

My next plan is to setup a packet dump on both a router (or laptop) and the laptop with the issue (RTL8188ee) and see if the packets are being dropped more on the send or receive side. It might be a while, so if anyone wants to get to it first :).

EMail to list: http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-wireless/msg132005.html, RTL8188ee works fine for the maintainer.

[Bryan Quigley (bryanquigley)]

The machine has been running on an external wifi card for a while, and it's working fine. I've swapped out the RTL8188ee card for an Atheros (mini pci) and this should let us see if it's really RTL8188ee to blame or not (or a antenna, location issue).

I did complete a series of wireshark tests and determined packets are only lost on the receive side.
I did ping -i 0.05 -c 1000 -s 512 to and from the machine in question, (to a machine <1 foot away). Over 4 runs (2 from, 2 to), 2-9 packets were lost, ALL when going -> RTL8188ee. No packets were ever lost sending from RTL8188ee to other machine.

[Bryan Quigley (bryanquigley)]

Does anyone still have this issue or should I close this?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Aditya Duggal (adityaduggal)]

I am facing this same issue of high packet loss in my Lenovo T430s. I am getting a packet loss of 30~50% which is absurd.

Here is lspci output:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev c4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev c4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation QM77 Express Chipset LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)
04:00.0 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd PCIe SDXC/MMC Host Controller (rev 07)

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Aditya Duggal, it will help immensely if you filed a new report with the Ubuntu repository kernel (not mainline/upstream) via a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

Please feel free to subscribe me to it.

For more on why this is helpful, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.