e1000e cannot connect on Lucid, Maverick (regression)

[Joseph Mark Jarvis]

Binary package hint: network-manager

I just installed a clean copy of 10.04 LTS Lucid on a desktop PC. Network-manager cannot connect to the wired network. I was successfully running 9.10 Karmic before.

I tested the 10.04 LiveCD, and the same problem exists. I downloaded 10.10 Maverick alpha 3 and booted into the LiveCD. Network-manager could not connect under Maverick either.

The computer has an Intel DG965WH motherboard with integrated Intel 82566DC gigabit ethernet.

In Lucid, there is no "auto eth0" or other entry listed when clicking on the taskbar icon. When I choose "Edit Connections", there is an "auto eth0" entry and its properties look normal.

In Maverick, there is an "auto eth0" entry when clicking on the taskbar icon. Clicking on it fails to connect after a minute or two. Syslog for this is attached.

To verify the network cable and plug/connector are still good, I successfully connected a laptop to it.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Hi!

Is there a DHCP server available on the network to give out addresses? The attached syslog shows that eth0 is enabled and loaded but fails to receive (or maybe send DHCP responses/requests. If there is no DHCP, then you may want to set a static IP address on the interface, which can be done from the connection editor.

[Joseph Mark Jarvis (joejarvis)]

@Mathieu Trudel,

Hi Mathieu. Thank you for replying.

There is a DHCP server on the network. It successfully assigns the same IP to the machine for every lease based on the machine's MAC address. I'm running 9.10 Karmic on the machine now, and it picks up an IP just fine.

[Jonas Huber (public-hubjo)]

I have the same symptoms with this hardware. It might be an upstream probelm of kernel 2.6.35 as I encountered the same behaviour on Arch Linux after the kernel was upgraded from 2.6.34->2.6.35.

Thus, I don't think this is an network-manager issue. Probably this bug is a duplicate of #591707 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/591707).

[Albert Bicchi (bicchi)]

In case this is a duplicate, but the fix from 2.6.35-rc6 worked for me.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/619841

[Travis Lawall (travis-lawall)]

I'm having the exact same problem with my Dell XPS 410 and its Intel Pro 1000 NIC. Its definitely a e1000e kernel driver issue. I too had no problems with networking the NIC running Ubuntu version 9.04 but can only get the NIC to work after a warm boot with version 10.10. Kind of disappointing.

[panther_d (dk-mailbox)]

Affects my box as well, Intel DG965OT mainboard.
Between about 20 reboot cycles (warm and cold), I managed to get a connection exactly once. I played with network settings, fixed IP addresses, but wasn't able to get the nic to transfer any data at all.

Had to revert to Karmic because this is my main machine. Fixing this would be essential for me to be able to move onto Lucid.

[Joseph Mark Jarvis (joejarvis)]

Thanks to Albert, I can confirm this was an upstream kernel issue. I tried Natty Alpha 1 with a 2.6.37 kernel and my network works again. I've marked this bug as a duplicate of #619841.