1969:2062 Atheros AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet (rev c1) stops working after some minutes

[Francesco Castellana]

After some minutes of booting up the ethernet card stops working without any evident reason. The same situation was described in the old Bug #680239 over kernel 2.6.35.
It works correctly in Ubuntu 12.04.2 and it worked without any problem in 12.10. Haven't tried with a clean installation (this was upgraded from 12.10), will try from a live media later.

WORKAROUND: When I disable the Wi-Fi the problem disappears.

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
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: xf 2061 F.... pulseaudio
Date: Fri Apr 26 18:23:53 2013
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=6d531763-ff5a-41f4-aa32-86a9981170c2
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-18 (189 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MachineType: Acer AO722
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 VESA VGA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic root=UUID=80518144-078c-4a1a-a0d8-23942013ee75 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: Upgraded to raring on 2013-04-25 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/06/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: V1.08
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: JE10-BZ
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Base Board Version
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: V1.08
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrV1.08:bd12/06/2011:svnAcer:pnAO722:pvrV1.08:rvnAcer:rnJE10-BZ:rvrBaseBoardVersion:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrV1.08:
dmi.product.name: AO722
dmi.product.version: V1.08
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer

[Francesco Castellana (xfranky)]

As described in Bug #680239, unloading and reloading the atl1c module gets the network back for some minutes then it stops working again.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v3.9 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.
Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.9-raring/

[Francesco Castellana (xfranky)]

I confirm bug still exists using latest mainline kernel: 3.9.0-030900-generic #201304291257 SMP Mon Apr 29 16:58:15 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Sometimes seems to work for a long time without intervention, sometimes works for just a few minutes.

[Stefano Pecchenino (pekke)]

This bug affects me in ubuntu 13.04 only with cable connection (ethernet Atheros 8152)
Wifi works perfectly in 13.04.
Ubuntu 12.10 works perfectly (WIFi and ETH.).

The problem is EThernet connection with 13.04 and Atheros 8152.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Francesco Castellana, thank you for testing the newest mainline kernel. As per http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers an update is available for your BIOS (v1.11). If you update to this, does it change anything?

[Francesco Castellana (xfranky)]

I updated the BIOS to the latest version but there was no difference.
Maybe related to Bug #1129251 ?

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Francesco Castellana, thank you for updating the BIOS. The next step would be perform a bisect from Quantal to Raring, in order to identify the regression. Could you please do this following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/KernelBisection ?

[unknown-username (unknown-username-deactivatedaccount)]

It seems to be a network-manager bug. If i stopped it and get IP with dhclient then work well.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

LordJoNil / freefd, if you have a bug in Ubuntu, the Ubuntu Kernel team, Ubuntu Bug Control team, and Ubuntu Bug Squad would like you to please file a new report by executing the following in a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please see the Ubuntu Kernel team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports

the Ubuntu Bug Control team and Ubuntu Bug Squad team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue

and Ubuntu Community article:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Please note, not filing a new report would delay your problem being addressed as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Arie Skliarouk (skliarie)]

I confirm findings of freefd - if I disable network-manager and start dhclient manually, the wired network works properly.

However something is still fishy: if I do iwconfig, it does not show eth1 WiFi adapter and causes kernel panic - I have screen shot if anyone is interested.

Interesting, after reboot the network-manager is working properly and ethernet is not disconnecting every couple of minutes.

[Arie Skliarouk (skliarie)]

Correction: the network-manager worked properly (ssh into the laptop from outside stayed connected for a long time) until GUI logon have been made.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Arie Skliarouk (skliarie)]

After more researching I got to conclusion that this is indeed kernel bug.. sorry for spamming. I am ready for bisecting. :)
I did this:
git checkout -b mybisect origin/master
...
git bisect start Ubuntu-3.8.0-26.38 Ubuntu-3.8.0-0.1
and got this:
warning: refname 'Ubuntu-3.8.0-0.1' is ambiguous.
Bisecting: a merge base must be tested
[9931faca02c604c22335f5a935a501bb2ace6e20] Linux 3.8-rc3
any clues?

[giorgio.01 (giorgio-ua)]

I've found a solution here:
http://forum.ubuntu-it.org/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=556489

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Arie Skliarouk / giorgio.01, if you have a bug in Ubuntu, the Ubuntu Kernel team, Ubuntu Bug Control team, and Ubuntu Bug Squad would like you to please file a new report by executing the following in a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please see the Ubuntu Kernel team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports

the Ubuntu Bug Control team and Ubuntu Bug Squad team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue

and Ubuntu Community article:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Please note, not filing a new report would delay your problem being addressed as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

[mario (marava1)]

This issue affect also 1 of my 3 pc with Ubuntu 13.04: the one with Atheros AR8152 v1.1 Fast Ethernet (rev c1), the others work ok.
In the past, with all the Ubuntu versions was all ok.
Reproducing the issue problem i can say that after the system is started the pc does some hundred of pings and then it stops showing me the connection "on" but it is not able to navigate, below is the result of the ping command (ping www.google.it -c1000) when it miss the capability of reaching urls:

64 bytes from mil01s17-in-f31.1e100.net (173.194.35.63): icmp_req=223 ttl=53 time=41.9 ms
64 bytes from mil01s17-in-f31.1e100.net (173.194.35.63): icmp_req=224 ttl=53 time=42.9 ms
64 bytes from mil01s17-in-f31.1e100.net (173.194.35.63): icmp_req=225 ttl=53 time=42.7 ms
64 bytes from (173.194.35.63): icmp_req=225 ttl=53 time=42.7 ms
From mariob-AOD255.local (192.168.1.65) icmp_seq=262 Destination Host Unreachable
From mariob-AOD255.local (192.168.1.65) icmp_seq=263 Destination Host Unreachable

If i shut down the connection (after it has stopped to ping) and restart it almost always reconnects but only for a similar amount of pings.
The pc works fine with Ubuntu 12.10 and kernel 3.5, 3.9 and 3.10
The same pc does not work with Ubuntu 13.04 and kernel3.8, 3.9 and 3.10 and so i think that it is an Ubuntu 13.04 problem.
I will be glad to give to you any further info you will ask me (possibly in a simple way because I an not a geek)
thankyou

[penalvch (penalvch)]

mario, if you have a bug in Ubuntu, the Ubuntu Kernel team, Ubuntu Bug Control team, and Ubuntu Bug Squad would like you to please file a new report by executing the following in a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please see the Ubuntu Kernel team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports

the Ubuntu Bug Control team and Ubuntu Bug Squad team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue

and Ubuntu Community article:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Please note, not filing a new report would delay your problem being addressed as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Timmie (timmie)]

Please see:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1175091

and:
http://kasunc.blogspot.de/2013/07/workaround-for-atheros-communications.html

[Francisco Fernandes (fernandesfrancisco222)]

Probably the problem isn't the ethernet, this is a WLAN problem. You can't run the ethernet and WLAN simultaneously, they are incompatible. When I disable the Wi-Fi the problem disappear.

[Luis Henriques (henrix)]

The fix for this issue is still being discussed upstream:

http://marc.info/?l=linux-netdev&m=137485728003941

[Stefano Pecchenino (pekke)]

The problem in ubuntu 13.04 is the network manager...in WIFI no problem.
The problem is only with the cable connection.

If i Unplug-Replug the cable the network works again...for only 1-2 minutes...

[Luis Henriques (henrix)]

Fix has been merged upstream (commit 7b70176421993866e616f1cbc4d0dd4054f1bf78 "atl1c: Fix misuse of netdev_alloc_skb in refilling rx ring") and should hit Ubuntu kernels soon.

[Stefano Pecchenino (pekke)]

Luis thanks....and keep me updated for this !! :-P

[Timmie (timmie)]

How could something like this happen?
A driver that worked well all the time is made worse in a newer Kernel ;-(

[Luis Henriques (henrix)]

This was a regression (not specific to Ubuntu kernels by the way), which has finally been fixed upstream with commit 7b70176421993866e616f1cbc4d0dd4054f1bf78.

It is currently under review on the 3.8.y stable kernel (v3.8.13.7) and should hit the Raring kernel in the next few weeks.

[Timmie (timmie)]

@Luis Henriques

Thanks for your explanation.

Is there not a code testing mechnism that prevens such things?

Is there any way how we could grab this earlier?
E.g. by using a development kernel from Ubuntu or alike?

[Luis Henriques (henrix)]

I've uploaded a Raring kernel containing the fix for this issue with the atl1c device driver here:

http://people.canonical.com/~henrix/lp1173279/

Feel free to use until the fix actually hits the Ubuntu Raring kernel. I'll update this bug when this happens.

[Mathew Roy (mathewroy007)]

@Luis.
Thanks for the upload.

 But is there a updated kernal for 32bit. Because I believe you have only uploaded 64bit version.

[Timmie (timmie)]

@Luis:
I installed your kenel packages yesterday.
My connection is up & running fine this morning !
Annoyance is stopped.

Thanks.
I hope that they'll add them to the ofical repos, too.

[Luis Henriques (henrix)]

Thanks a lot for testing this.

Mathew Roy: I've uploaded a 32bits version of the kernel here: http://people.canonical.com/~henrix/lp1173279/i386/

[Mathew Roy (mathewroy007)]

Hi Luis,
Thanks a lot for uploading the 32bit version also. It solved all the problems associated with my connection.

It works like a charm even when i set up hotspot. Earliear,Evenafter insatalling the driver for lan manually, i could not get my computer act as a hotspot.

Hope they will release the fix officially soon..

[FrancisT (francis-turner)]

I uploaded my information (at least I think I did, unfortunately I got hit by this bug int he middle of the upload...)

I have another workaround.

I've added

mii-tool -r

to a cronjob for root that runs every 5 minutes.

The kernel version I have appears to be one subversion newer than the one Luis (henrix) patched and linked to above (3.8.0-30.43 vs 3.8.0-30.44 ) which means that when I try to install that version I get gripes about a newer version already being installed

[Luis Henriques (henrix)]

FrancisT, the Raring kernel currently in the -proposed (3.8.0-31.46) pocket already contains the fix. It should be released soon, if no regressions are found.

[Stefano Pecchenino (pekke)]

RISOLTO !!

wget -c kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.11-rc4-saucy/linux-headers-3.11.0-031100rc4_3.11.0-031100rc4.201308041735_all.deb

wget -c kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.11-rc4-saucy/linux-headers-3.11.0-031100rc4-generic_3.11.0-031100rc4.201308041735_i386.deb

wget -c kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.11-rc4-saucy/linux-image-3.11.0-031100rc4-generic_3.11.0-031100rc4.201308041735_i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

[Luis Henriques (henrix)]

Since the Raring kernel currently in -updates (3.8.0-31.46) already contains the fix for this bug, I'm changing this bug to 'Fix-released'.

[Adriano Varoli Piazza (adrianovaroli)]

I have stopped experiencing this problem. I just noticed a stable network interface after updating to linux 3.8.0-34-generic on Ubuntu 13.04 64bit.