linux-firmware updates breaks Intel 9260 on Bionic

[Stéphane Verdy]

Bug 1852512 pulls new firmware blobs for 5.3 hwe kernel upgrade, and iwlwifi-9260-th-b0-jf-b0-46.ucode is included. This new version doesn't seem to be compatible with Bionic OEM kernels, and will fail WiFi initialization leaving the system booted without wireless connection.

The previous version (1.173.12) has iwlwifi-9260-th-b0-jf-b0-43.ucode instead.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: linux-firmware 1.173.13
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-1065.75-oem 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-1065-oem x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.9
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Dec 11 14:18:01 2019
Dependencies:

DistributionChannelDescriptor:
 # This is the distribution channel descriptor for the OEM CDs
 # For more information see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistributionChannelDescriptor
 canonical-oem-somerville-bionic-amd64-20180608-47+berlinetta-cfl-r+X77
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-07-11 (152 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic" - Build amd64 LIVE Binary 20180608-09:38
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: linux-firmware
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Stéphane Verdy (sverdy)]

Running somerville (somerville-bionic-amd64-iso-hybrid-20180608-47) on a Dell Precision 5540 with Intel 9260 wifi.
Upgrading linux-firmware from 1.713.12 to 1.713.13 introduced a regression where wifi stops working

lspci -vnnn|grep -i wireless:
3b:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless-AC 9260 [8086:2526] (rev 29)

uname -r:
4.15.0-1065-oem

dkms status:
fwts-efi-runtime-dkms, 19.12.00, 4.15.0-1064-oem, x86_64: installed (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!)
fwts-efi-runtime-dkms, 19.12.00, 4.15.0-1065-oem, x86_64: installed (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!)
nvidia, 410.93, 4.15.0-1036-oem, x86_64: installed
nvidia, 410.93, 4.15.0-1064-oem, x86_64: installed
nvidia, 410.93, 4.15.0-1065-oem, x86_64: installed
nvidia, 410.93, 4.15.0-70-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia, 410.93, 4.15.0-72-generic, x86_64: installed
oem-wifi-iwlwifi-mainline-5.1rc1, 2, 4.15.0-1036-oem, x86_64: installed
oem-wifi-iwlwifi-mainline-5.1rc1, 2, 4.15.0-1064-oem, x86_64: installed
oem-wifi-iwlwifi-mainline-5.1rc1, 2, 4.15.0-1065-oem, x86_64: installed
oem-wifi-iwlwifi-mainline-5.1rc1, 2, 4.15.0-70-generic, x86_64: installed
oem-wifi-iwlwifi-mainline-5.1rc1, 2, 4.15.0-72-generic, x86_64: installed

[Stéphane Verdy (sverdy)]

downgrading linux-firmware to 1.713.12 fixes the issue.

[You-Sheng Yang (vicamo)]

Emergency work-around steps:

1. remove the problematic firmware manually:

  $ sudo mv /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-9260-th-b0-jf-b0-46.ucode $HOME

2. reload the iwlwifi:

  $ sudo modprobe -r iwlwifi; sudo modprobe -r iwlwifi

[You-Sheng Yang (vicamo)]

So this issue happens on 9260 platforms with OEM DKMS modules that are not compatible with -46 fw. Luckily(?) enough, we have another regression in bug 1855825 that we're planning to fix those DKMS with same version used in Eoan, which happens to be compatible with -46 fw per my local test.

[You-Sheng Yang (vicamo)]

Confirmed this can also be fixed by proposed fix in https://launchpad.net/~vicamo/+archive/ubuntu/ppa-1855825 for bug 1855825.

I also noticed that although WiFi is up with 7906 + 5.3 kernel, the authentication will never be completed on 9260, but I think there should be already a public bug for this, and now we can finally have a chance to reproduce it. Since this is already out of the scope here, I will address such issue in another bug.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

I'm guessing this has been fixed since