NetworkManager causes system freeze, lock up, kernel panic

[Chris Lasher]

Binary package hint: network-manager

This is a critical bug, either caused specifically by or precipitated by NetworkManager. There is a very large thread of users that seem to be experiencing this bug at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=976287. Please note that there are other mixed bugs within this (there seem to be, for example, unrelated bugs regarding USB mice), but it's important to note that the vast majority of the users in this thread experience system freezes, apparently by kernel panics, during WiFi activity with NetworkManager.

I have been experiencing this bug since Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10. I am running 8.10 on a Compal HEL 80 with an Intel Pro Wireless 3945ABG card. I connect to a Virginia Tech campus network, which uses WPA-EAP with TLS, and requires an 802.1x user certificate, CA certificate, and user key to authenticate. (Our LUUG has documented the actual steps for connecting to this network in Ubuntu 8.10 at the following URI: http://www.vtluug.org/wiki/index.php?title=VT_Wireless#NetworkManager_0.7) This network has many wireless access points (WAPs) of the same ESSID (VT-Wireless), which I'd like to draw particular attention to, because many of the system freezes reported in the above Ubuntu Forum thread occur on college campuses or workplaces that also likely have many WAPs of the same ESSID.

I raise the possibility that these lock ups occur when NetworkManager decides to "hop" from one WAP of an ESSID to another WAP of the same ESSID (but different Address), as I've noticed somewhat frequent disconnections and reconnections in NetworkManager via nm-applet, and also that NetworkManager chooses somewhat poorly in which WAP of the same ESSID to connect to (there may be another WAP of a different address with a much stronger signal, yet NetworkManager chooses a WAP with a poorer signal).

I do not experience these system freezes when I kill NetworkManager and connect to the campus network via wpa_supplicant. I reported this in the above mentioned thread at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=976287&page=22#213, and I gave a further detailed explanation at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=976287&page=22#219. Therefore, please do not mark this as a kernel bug. Please investigate directly NetworkManager prior to sending to the kernel devs. NetworkManager is either directly causing this bug, or is performing some set of actions that precipitates it. Specifically, the following bug is likely related, but was mis-categorized as a kernel issue: Note the likely related bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/311519

I also do not experience these system freezes when connecting to my home WAP, either via NetworkManager or wpa_supplicant. The home WAP is WPA-PSK. Only a password is required to connect to that WAP, and it is the only WAP of its ESSID in the area.

I have attached the output of lspci.

I hope the Ubuntu team will take a look at this issue. I performed an install of 9.04 Jaunty Alpha 5 on a new MacBook 5.1 and experienced immediate lockup upon connection to the VT-Wireless network via NetworkManager's nm-applet, so it is likely this critical bug is still present in the packages shipping with Jaunty.

Suggestions for reproducing the bug:
* Run tests of NetworkManager within a room that has multiple WAPs of the same ESSID
* Set up connections to these WAPs to use 802.1x certificates
* Connect using NetworkManager and wait until freeze--this often times will not even require explicit network communication by the user (e.g., browsing the web via Firefox, running a Bittorrent), lockups tend to be spurious in timing from my experience
* Maybe having multiple clients connected to the WAPs will also prove a key part--again, freezes reported tend to happen on college campuses or in workplaces

Suggestions for users who suspect they are experiencing this bug:
* Report here, with your network card and information about the type of network you were connecting to (e.g., WPA-EAP over TLS with 802.1x certificats)
* Please attempt to connect to your wireless network through a different client instead of NetworkManager. I provided a script to help you at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=976287&page=22#219

I hope that this will help the NetworkManager developers investigate this bug, and hopefully squash it.

Best,
Chris Lasher

[Bull Eaton (reaton3)]

I am also experiencing this same issue. My home network is WPA encrypted with only a password required to connect and I connect daily through NM without any issue. However, at work we have an open "guest" access point. The kernel will panic EVERY single time I connect to this network, guaranteed. I connected manually via the terminal and did not experience the lockup.
My hardware is a Dell Inspiron E1505 and an Intel Pro Wireless 3945abg card. One thing I have seen in dmesg before the lockup is the card will associate, then disassociate repeatedly.

[bloo (bloo)]

I am also experiencing this issue, but I don't have any clue on where the problem could be. On the other hand, there are a lot of similarities with what Bull Eaton said: I also get these lockups with an Intel Pro Wireless 3945ABG (VAIO SZ4), and I use NetworkManager but with a WEP wireless network.
When it locks, that seems to happen when there is some load in the computer (I usually get these problems scrolling websites very fast on Firefox, but I get lockups when Firefox is not running, too), my Caps Lock and Scroll Lock LEDs blink intermittently.

I think the importance should be the highest possible for these type of bugs, it makes my Ubuntu system completely unusable and unreliable (system freezes, potential data loss).

[Chris (chris-friedline)]

This appears to have started with my laptop after the recent NetworkManager package upgrade. I've attached my lscpi output, and have disabled NM for the time being.

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HBM (ICH8M-E) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Quadro NVS 140M (rev a1)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
15:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)
15:00.2 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 21)
15:00.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev ff)
15:00.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 11)
15:00.5 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 11)

[Chris (chris-friedline)]

Sorry, the wireless network is WPA-PSK-TKIP

[cd (cdefelice)]

I am running Ubuntu 8.10 on my Lenovo T61 with an Intel Pro wireless card and have been experiencing the exact same issue at work when connecting to an unsecured wireless guest network. Our guest network has terrible reception throughout the building and is incredibly unreliable. This seems to have something to do with causing my system to lock up as I have never had this problem before on other networks. I used to be able to connect to the exact same network with older versions of Ubuntu without experiencing any problems. There was even an update for NetworkManager released a few days ago that I was hoping would resolve this, yet I just had the same problem about 30 minutes ago. I have attached my lspci output. Please find out what is causing this as it is incredibly frustrating.

[Bull Eaton (reaton3)]

Well, this bug is still alive and well, even after last week's update. Does anyone know if this issue has been reviewed by the developers, or is it becoming lost in a sea of obscurity?

[Mark Dennehy (mark-dennehy-gmail)]

Seeing this on my Lenovo R61 on occasion when connecting to the 802.1X network in college after coming back from a suspend; but only intermittently. Running Hardy with kernel 2.6.24-23-generic.

[bloo (bloo)]

Is anyone that is experiencing these problems using a card different than Intel Wireless 3945ABG?

I think this bug can be a duplicate of #314961.

[TJ (tj)]

Can you reproduce the lock-up described in bug #345710 "modprobe -r iwl3945 causes total system freeze" ?

[Chris Lasher (chris.lasher)]

TJ, I am unable to reproduce the lock-up in Bug 345710 on my home network. I will try tomorrow on the campus 802.1x network.

[magglass1 (mark-lessel)]

Same problem here as everyone else. I'm using a Lenovo T60 with an Intel Pro Wireless 3945ABG wireless card and the latest microcode version. My campus uses 802.1x with PEAP authentication. I would agree that it seems to lock up when trying to change access points; is there a way to tell it not to automatically search for and change access points? I'll go ahead and give wpa_supplicant a try until this problem is fixed.

[magglass1 (mark-lessel)]

wpa_supplicant didn't work and didn't fix anything. I got a kernel panic after telling it to scan for access points about 10 minutes into testing.

[bloo (bloo)]

I don't think it is being caused by NetworkManager. I tried installing Wicd and uninstalling NetworkManager and I got the kernel panic too. It looks more like a problem of the network card 3945abg, than something related to NetworkManager.

I also tried using Fedora 10 and got the same kernel panic (this time I was using NetworkManager).

I had to stop using Linux for this reason (wireless causes kernel panic in both Ubuntu 8.10 and Fedora 10), has anyone made any progress?

[dysmann (dysmann)]

NetworkManager freezes my system while connecting to my network (not secured, just one acces-point) via my USB wireless key which has a Sis162u chipset managed by ndiswrapper.

Some lucky times it works, but it freezes 99% of the time;

I have to remove my USB key, reset and uninstalling network-manager.

[Sofa (alexschultze)]

Same here. Makes it hard to use WDS.

Here the log, just before the crash:

Kernel.Log
[code]
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.280558] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:01:e3:08:92:c9 try 1
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.280574] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b try 1
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.317797] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b try 1
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.320424] wlan0 direct probe responded
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.320427] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b
Apr 19 21:02:42 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.516008] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b
Apr 19 21:02:42 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.716012] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b
Apr 19 21:02:42 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.916010] wlan0: authentication with AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b timed out
[/code]

SysLog
[code]
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.280558] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:01:e3:08:92:c9 try 1
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.280574] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b try 1
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: completed -> associating
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: associating -> disconnected
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.280558] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:01:e3:08:92:c9 try 1
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.280574] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b try 1
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: completed -> associating
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: associating -> disconnected
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.317797] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b try 1
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.320424] wlan0 direct probe responded
Apr 19 21:02:41 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.320427] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b
Apr 19 21:02:42 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.516008] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b
Apr 19 21:02:42 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.716012] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b
Apr 19 21:02:42 sofa-desktop kernel: [ 4045.916010] wlan0: authentication with AP 00:04:0e:3a:16:1b timed out
[/code]

[Bull Eaton (reaton3)]

I recently connected to an open network without any lockups this time, but the signal strength was very good. My laptop's behavior seems to be related to the signal strength rather than the encryption type or the absence of it.
It is becoming a little disturbing though that there doesn't seem to be any interest in addressing this issue. Considering this report is nearly 2 months old, and the threads referenced in the original report are even older than that makes me wonder if anyone is going to give this issue any attention.
Is there any more information I can provide to help you guys get a little closer to a resolution?

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Could you please open a terminal and execute: apport-collect 336001 ? It will attach the necessary information to this report. Also you can submit more information for it by looking to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingNetworkManager , Thanks in advance.

[David Racine (bass-dr)]

I have the exact issue here, but I don't have the Intel ethernet card you are talking about. My wireless card is a Atheros:

06:02.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC [168c:001a] (rev 01)

My Ubuntu 9.04 totally freeze after trying to connect to a WPA2-AES with PEAP protection. This network is at my school (many access points). My school also have a unsecured network and this network works perfect (many access points too).

[David Brewer (david-brewer)]

I have an issue driving me crazy which may be the same thing. I'm using Lucid with a Lenovo T61 laptop with the Intel PRO 3945ABG network card. When I try to connect to my WEP network at home, my computer immediately hard-locks -- no mouse motion, no keyboard control, nothing.

I've tryed switching to using WICD, which so far doesn't work for me -- can't acquire an IP address -- but at least does not lock up my laptop! I do think that this problem is in someway related to the kernel version, because I had the same problem when I was using Karmic but in my case I could work around it by selecting an older kernel when I restarted the machine.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the development release - Natty Narwhal. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of Ubuntu. You can find out more about the development release at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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