WiMAX - Intel Centrino Wireless-N + WiMAX 6150 BGN [8087:07d9] was detected as a Wired Network

[Po-Hsu Lin]

CID: 201203-10656

The WiMAX device [8087:07d9] on this system was detected as a Wired Network device in Network Manager.
However, the wireless itself works fine.

Output from nm-tool:
- Device: wmx0 -----------------------------------------------------------------
  Type: Wired
  Driver: i2400m_usb
  State: unavailable
  Default: no
  HW Address: 50:2D:A2:03:D8:0D

  Capabilities:
    Carrier Detect: yes

  Wired Properties
    Carrier: off

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: linux-image-3.5.0-34-generic 3.5.0-34.55~precise1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-34.55~precise1-generic 3.5.7.13
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-34-generic x86_64
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.25.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.3
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: Cirrus Analog [Cirrus Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ubuntu 1659 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA:
 country TW:
  (2402 - 2472 @ 40), (3, 27)
  (5270 - 5330 @ 40), (3, 17), DFS
  (5735 - 5815 @ 40), (3, 30)
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xd0610000 irq 43'
   Mixer name : 'Intel PantherPoint HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:10134213,1028055b,00100100 HDA:80862806,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 17
   Simple ctrls : 6
Date: Mon Jul 1 18:15:44 2013
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=39885c42-cc6e-470c-8243-c5bff690d130
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20130213)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 5323
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-34-generic root=UUID=120f977a-db0c-40b4-86a8-0c92c9a84fc8 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.5.0-34-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.5.0-34-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.79.4
SourcePackage: linux
StagingDrivers: rts5139
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/24/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: X48
dmi.board.name: A3E3C3
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: X00
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 0.1
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrX48:bd07/24/2012:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron5323:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rnA3E3C3:rvrX00:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr0.1:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 5323
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

Verified with the latest mainline kernel, v3.10-rc7
Only Ethernet and Wireless could be found in the Network Manager, no option for WiMAX

And the eth0 interface in ifconfig was replaced by wmx0:

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
          RX packets:158 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:158 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:17163 (17.1 KB) TX bytes:17163 (17.1 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 40:25:c2:0f:be:1c
          inet addr:10.101.46.128 Bcast:10.101.46.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::4225:c2ff:fe0f:be1c/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:7478 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2253 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:6506883 (6.5 MB) TX bytes:204136 (204.1 KB)

wmx0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 50:2d:a2:03:d8:0d
          UP NOARP MTU:1400 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:20
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Was there a prior kernel version that did not exhibit this bug? If so, we can perform a bisect to identify the commit that introduced the regression.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

I would expect wmx0 to show up in ifconfig anyway, unless you blacklist the i2400m_usb module. This is a 4G broadband device.

The actual network card on this system is an Atheros, which is still seen by lspci:
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8162 Fast Ethernet [1969:1090] (rev 10)
 Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:055b]
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
 Region 0: Memory at d0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
 Region 2: I/O ports at 2000 [size=128]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: alx
 Kernel modules: alx

The wired network device seems to be found at boot:
alx 0000:02:00.0: alx(84:8f:69:c6:d3:35): Qualcomm Atheros Ethernet Network Connection

I also have a system with a WiMAX device. I also see it being listed as a wired device with nm-tool:
- Device: wmx0 -----------------------------------------------------------------
  Type: Wired
  Driver: i2400m_usb
  State: unavailable
  Default: no

However, it does not affect my real wired devcie:
- Device: eth0 [Wired connection 1] -------------------------------------------
  Type: Wired
  Driver: e1000e
  State: connected
  Default: yes

Do you see your Atheros wired device at all with nm-tool?

There could be two issues here:
1. Network Manager is marking WiMAX as a wired device, which may or may not be desired. I'll add a nm task to the bug, so this can be reviewed. I also see my nm marked my WiMAX card as a wired device.
2. The AR8162 device is not functioning properly, which could be driver related, since it appears in lspci.

Can you try a few tests?

1. Does this system have a hardware switch or hot keys to disable wifi? If so, can you disable wifi and reboot to see if the AR8162 device appears in ifconfig -a?
2. Can you rmmod then modprobe the alx driver to see if it will allow the AR8162 to appear?
3. Can you also check that the AR8162 device has a link light.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

One other question, did the eth0 interface only disappear when booting into the v3.10-rc7 kernel? Did it appear with the prior kernels?

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

Hello Joseph,
to your question in #4,here is a list for interfaces that could be found in ifconfig
for kernel 3.5.0-23: lo/wlan0
for kernel 3.5.0-34: eth0/lo/wlan0/wmx0
for kernel 3.8.0-25: eth0/lo/wlan0/wmx0
for kernel 3.8.13: lo/wlan0/wmx0
for kernel 3.10.0-rc7: lo/wlan0/wmx0

and in nm-tools:
for kernel 3.5.0-23: wlan0
for kernel 3.5.0-34: wmx0/eth0/wlan0
for kernel 3.8.0-25: wmx0/eth0/wlan0
for kernel 3.8.13: wmx0/wlan0
for kernel 3.10.0-rc7: wmx0/wlan0

In both 3.5.0-34 and 3.8.0-25 kernel, wmx0 was listed as a wired device.
When eth0 was gone, the wired network is not working.

Note: alx driver for AR8162 is not in 3.5.0-23, therefore there is no eth0 output from it.

And to your question in #5
0. With 3.8.13 / 3.10.0-rc7, no.
1. With 3.8.13, after disabling the Wifi with hotkeys and rebooted, AR8162 did not appears in ifconfig -a
2. The BootDmesg.txt here is for kernel 3.5.0-34, therefore alx could be found in it, but it can't be found with 3.8.13
3. No link light for AR8162 on this system (201203-10656)

Please find attachment for complete ifconfig/nm-tool output with those kernels listed above.
Also the complete syslog.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Thanks for the feedback. So it sounds like there are two bugs here. The first is that the WiMAX device is reported as wired. The second is that the actual wired devcie, AR8162, is not working with the upstream kernels. That is probably related to bug 927782

I'd like to get some feedback from the network-manager folks about the WiMAX device being reported as wired.

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

Still cloud be reproduced on 12.04.5 dailylive image (20140805.3)
201203-10656 - Dell Inspiron 5323

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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