New IWL driver often loses connection.

[K. Lange]

I often find myself without a network connection on the IWL3945 driver in Hardy. NetworkManager applet still appears as if I'm connected, but any attempts to do anything (ie, browse in Firefox, run a git pull, etc.), timeout. If I reconnect to the network, all is well (until it happens again later). It's fairly unpredictable in when it loses the connection, sometimes it will happen a few seconds after connecting, other times I'll have been connected for a few hours before it goes out.

Steps to reproduce:
1. With an Intel 3945 using the iwl3945 driver, connect to a network.
2. Wait a while.
3. Attempt to open a web page.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3.

- Using newest modules as of May 10th.

Searching my syslog, I've found one line that may reveal the problem. About two minute after my connection completed, the log reads as follows:

iwl3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting 0x82000008
iwl3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.

[Sam Morris (yrro)]

This is not a duplicate of bug #185470. If it was, the wireless device would be totally inoperable.

It might be http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1620 or http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1593 however.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Kevin,

Sorry for the delayed response. Can you attach the following information:

1) dmesg > dmesg.log
2) sudo lspci -vvnn > lscpi-vvnn.log
3) modinfo iwl3945 > modinfo.log
4) cat /proc/version_signature > version_signature.log

Please attach each file separately. It would also be helpful if you'd wait to capture the dmesg output until after you experience the issue so that we capture any relevant debug information. Thanks.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

This bug report is being closed because we received no response to the previous inquiries for information. Please reopen it if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks.