8086:0082 Speed regression for Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 Wireless

[joehill]

Since upgrading to Raring, my wireless on my laptop has consistently been incredibly slow to non-functional. Every few minutes it stops working completely, I disable wireless by hardware switch and reenable, it works (albeit very slowly) for a few minutes, then gradually deteriorates, loading half web pages or just giving me a blank page saying the site is not found.

WORKAROUND: Disable wireless "n" in iwlwifi.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: linux-image-3.8.0-20-generic 3.8.0-20.31
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-20.31-generic 3.8.11
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-20-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: joseph 2170 F.... pulseaudio
Date: Tue May 7 16:59:52 2013
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=d621c6fd-0f7a-4286-9ab5-3d144e1880fa
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-09-24 (225 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120817.3)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude E6430s
MarkForUpload: True
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-20-generic root=UUID=9f662ce4-0587-4b5a-88f5-8ef3d2b3c38d ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.8.0-20-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.8.0-20-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.106
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-04-25 (12 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 05/02/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A00
dmi.board.name: 0N9T9J
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 9
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA00:bd05/02/2012:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeE6430s:pvr01:rvnDellInc.:rn0N9T9J:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct9:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude E6430s
dmi.product.version: 01
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[joehill (joseph-hill)]

So far I can say that disabling wireless "n" in iwlwifi seems to get me back to acceptable internet speeds. I'll update if this changes.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

joehill, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available with wireless N enabled following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the kernel in the mainline kernels archive directory daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.11-rc1

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, please comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it and add the following tags:
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

[joehill (joseph-hill)]

I'll give this a try. By the one at the bottom, do you mean the last raring kernel or the one completely at the bottom (saucy)? Thanks.

[joehill (joseph-hill)]

I've just installed today's build for saucy, 3.11.0-031100rc2-generic . So far wireless N is working, but I'll have to use it a bit longer to determine whether it degrades over time.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[joehill (joseph-hill)]

I forgot to update this one but I did indeed install the newest build at the time (the saucy one) and not long after rebooting with it I found that wireless was quite slow, although probably not as extremely and consistently slow as it was when I originally filed this bug. I soon reverted back to the official kernel and disabled wireless N again. I haven't tested an upstream or testing kernel though since then.

[joehill (joseph-hill)]

This is still an issue in 13.10. I tried enabling Wireless N and the wireless is still unbearably slow. I disabled it and so far it's back to acceptable speeds.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

joehill, as per http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/Product/latitude-e6430s an update is available for your BIOS (A11). If you update to this following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BiosUpdate , does it change anything?

If not, could you please both specify what happened, and provide the output of the following terminal command:
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

Please note your current BIOS is already in the Bug Description, so posting this on the old BIOS would not be helpful.

For more on BIOS updates and linux, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette .

Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[joehill (joseph-hill)]

I've updated the bios (after several hours of poking around for solutions--the links on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BiosUpdate are out of date and only work with older, floppy-sized bios updates--I was able to get the solution on this page using memdisk and FreeDOS to work though--http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1545929). I will turn on Wireless N and test again to see if the bios update fixes the issue.