network connectivity troubles on IBM T30

[fantasai]

I've been having a really awful time with networking on Ubuntu.
At the same time, networking works fine on Windows, and I didn't
have problems on Gentoo before. Both ethernet and wireless are
affected. mpt told me to attach the following output to a bug
report next time there was a problem:
   dmesg
   lspci
   cat /proc/interrupts

So I'm doing that now. I'll add to the collection as I can.

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5220)
wireless: no connectivity

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5221)
wireless: full connectivity

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Going into suspend and then resuming sometimes fixes the problem.
Sometimes the only way to fix it is to reboot the computer.
(And sometimes neither method is effective.)
It's been worse since I upgraded to 5.10. I tried installing
network-manager on someone's suggestion, but that didn't appear
to do anything.

The drivers are e100 for ethernet and orinoco_pci for wireless.
On Gentoo I used eepro100 and prism2_pci. But I don't think it's
a driver problem -- the chances of that being the cause of both
wireless and ethernet problems is pretty low.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Confirmed, --> kernel

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Notes from our network admins, which might be useful:

   Monitoring of our DHCP servers indicates that this DHCP client ask
   to renew its DHCP lease far too often. It seems to do so roughly
   once per minute.

   This unecessarily increases the load on the campus DHCP servers.

   (By way of comparison, a typical DHCP client obtains a lease once
   when it boots. If it left powered-up and attached to its home
   network on campus, it will renew this lease once every twelve hours.
   If it is left powered-up and attached to a campus network other
   than its home network (i.e. using OIT Mobile IP Service), it will
   renew this lease every three hours.

Basically, I need to install some other OS sometime in the next few days.
If there's anything else you need me to dump here, let me know soon.

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5227)
wireless: no connectivity (4)

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5228)
wireless: no connectivity (5)

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5229)
wireless: full connectivity (6)

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5230)
wireless: no connectivity (7)

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Monitoring of our DHCP servers indicates that this DHCP client ask
> to renew its DHCP lease far too often. It seems to do so roughly
> once per minute.
>
> This unecessarily increases the load on the campus DHCP servers.

Mine don't do that. One thing I know is that the dhcp client only does what it
is told. IOW, it should be respecting the lease time that the dhcp server gave it.

> Basically, I need to install some other OS sometime in the next few days.
> If there's anything else you need me to dump here, let me know soon.

Why not just edit /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf and set the lease time to something
hardcoded that suits your admins?

Also, I need to know which kernel you are using. If you are using dapper, might
I suggest unloading orinoco_pci, and loading hostap_pci.

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5251)
ethernet: no connectivity (1)

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5252)
ethernet: full connectivity (2)

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5253)
ethernet: no connectivity (3)

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5254)
ethernet: no connectivity (4)

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5255)
ethernet: full connectivity (5)

[fantasai (fantasai)]

I'm using Ubuntu 5.10.

> Mine don't do that. One thing I know is that the dhcp client only does what it
> is told. IOW, it should be respecting the lease time that the dhcp server gave it.

I didn't have this problem on a Gentoo 2.4 kernel or with Windows 2k. Did the 2.4
kernel /not/ respect the lease time that the dhcp server gave it? Does Windows also
ignore the lease time that the dhcp server gives?

How do I find out what lease time the dhcp server is giving? If it's a problem with
the network servers, I can certainly forward it to them. But I don't think anybody
else is having the same problems I am, which means it's a problem with the software
on my computer. (And I checked with the admins, it's affecting both ethernet and
wireless, so it's not a driver problem with orinoco_pci.)

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

> How do I find out what lease time the dhcp server is giving? If it's a problem
with
> the network servers, I can certainly forward it to them. But I don't think anybody
> else is having the same problems I am, which means it's a problem with the
software
> on my computer. (And I checked with the admins, it's affecting both ethernet and
> wireless, so it's not a driver problem with orinoco_pci.)

I know the lease time isn't related to orinoco, but your connectivity might be.
Please test this driver (hostap_pci).

Could you file a seperate bug against dhcp3-client concerning the dhcp issues?

[fantasai (fantasai)]

I've noticed that while I'm connected to the same line, the ethernet has
connectivitiy immediately after resume from suspend, but goes dead 10-15 seconds
afterward.

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

Thanks, this does give me some extra info to go on.

[fantasai (fantasai)]

hostap_pci loaded ok, but the wireless didn't work with it. But like I said,
this affects ethernet
too.

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5296)
ethernet: no connectivity (6)

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5297)
ethernet: no connectivity (7)

[fantasai (fantasai)]

Created an attachment (id=5298)
ethernet: no connectivity (8)

[Brett Clippingdale (brett-clippingdale)]

Are you still having this problem?

If so, you may not have done all that is necessary to enable the hostap driver, which is much better than the orinoco one.

See my posting (#2) on this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/104551

[fantasai (fantasai)]

I'm not using that computer anymore.. I remember it was working fine last spring, though.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Beginning with the Hardy Heron 8.04 development cycle, all open Ubuntu kernel bugs need to be reported against the "linux" kernel package. We are automatically migrating this linux-source-2.6.15 kernel bug to the new "linux" package. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition. Also, if you would be interested in testing the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release, it is available at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . Please let us know your results. 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.

[kernel-janitor (kernel-janitor)]

This bug report was marked as Confirmed a while ago but has not had any updated comments for quite some time. Please let us know if this issue remains in the current Ubuntu release, http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . If the issue remains, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Unassigned from Ben Collins. Marking Fix Released per comment #25

-JFo