e1000e MII no workie without AC power being applied first on some ThinkPad models

[Adam Conrad]

As debugged and bisected in person with Andy and Colin, here's a formal bug report to SRU for this:

On some ThinkPad models (X220 and T420, at least), the e1000e adapter appears to not power on its PHY until one applies AC power to the laptop. The effect of this is that you never get a wire link when you plug in a cable on battery.

This was bisected to upstream commit d7dab4dbbb2d1b0c903378d6bade2e4ae161804e

The list of affected machines could be a fairly narrow window, hard to say for sure. Colin's X230 didn't display the issue, but two X220s of slightly different vintage and my T420 could reproduce the issue. Could be SandyBridgeish?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: linux-image-3.8.0-19-generic 3.8.0-19.29
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-19.29-generic 3.8.8
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-19-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: adconrad 2523 F.... pulseaudio
Date: Fri Apr 26 06:11:39 2013
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=73040efa-baec-458a-8307-3bca07b26c3c
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-12-09 (137 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Alpha amd64 (20121209)
MachineType: LENOVO 4173LPB
MarkForUpload: True
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic root=UUID=2222aad5-ef31-4428-973f-71740fc7cb6a ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.8.0-19-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.8.0-19-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.106
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 09/13/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 8CET55WW (1.35 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 4173LPB
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr8CET55WW(1.35):bd09/13/2012:svnLENOVO:pn4173LPB:pvrThinkPadT420s:rvnLENOVO:rn4173LPB:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 4173LPB
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T420s
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Adam Conrad (adconrad)]

Confirmed that the test kernel at http://people.canonical.com/~apw/lp1173157-raring/ solves the issue on my T420.

[Stephen (realakshun)]

I can confirm this behaviour is present on my Dell Latitude E6430. No link until power is applied to the laptop.