zd1211rw freeDigicom USB Wave 54 (0ace:1215) causing Hardy freezes

[fab]

Binary package hint: rhythmbox

I'm experiencing hard lockups almost every time I use Rhythmbox in order to listen to any radio station.
After just few minutes, the screen, mouse, keyboard and sound simple freeze and I'm forced to hard reset the PC.

I'm using Hardy with the latest patches installed.

Update: After having run some extra tests, I think I can say that the issue is not caused by Rhythmbox as such, but most likely either by my USB wireless adapter (Digicom USB Wave 54 - zd1211rw) or by the USB 2.0 PCI card (D-Link DU-520 with NEC chipset) to which the wireless device is connected.

I even downloaded/installed the latest zd1211 firmware from sourceforge.net but with no success..

In fact, if I connect the PC with the onboard ethernet adapter (Intel Ethernet Pro 100) everything seems to work fine (I haven't experienced any lockups during the last hour or so).

Has anyone reported problems with zd1211rw or with an add-on USB 2.0 PCI card?

- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA 7DPXDW-P
- CPU: 2 x Athlon MP 2400+
- Main audio card: onboard AC97 audio
- Secondary audio card: ICE1712 (Edirol DA2496) - installed but not used at the moment
- Video card: Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS
- Wireless: zd1211rw (ZyDAS WLA-54L) - Digicom USB Wave 54 (I'm connecting to the internet with this wireless adapter) USB ID: 0ace:1215

- Ethernet: onboard Intel Ethernet Pro 100 (not used at the moment)

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Apr 20 09:08:13 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/rhythmbox
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: rhythmbox 0.11.5-0ubuntu4
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: rhythmbox
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-16-generic i686

[fab (fab-head)]

After having run some extra tests, I think I can say that the issue is not caused by Rhythmbox as such, but most likely either by my USB wireless adapter (Digicom USB Wave 54 - zd1211rw) or by the USB 2.0 PCI card (D-Link DU-520 with NEC chipset) to which the wireless device is connected.

I even downloaded/installed the latest zd1211 firmware from sourceforge.net but with no success..

In fact, if I connect the PC with the onboard ethernet adapter (Intel Ethernet Pro 100) everything seems to work fine (I haven't experienced any lockups during the last hour or so).

Has anyone reported problems with zd1211rw or with an add-on USB 2.0 PCI card?

P.S.: I forgot to mention that I use Wicd 1.4.2

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Fabrizio,

Care to attach the output of 'lsusb' as well as attach your dmesg output? Thanks.

[fab (fab-head)]

Hi Leann,

Apologies for the late reply. I had to reinstall Hardy after the last lockup...

Please find enclosed the output of 'lsusb'

[fab (fab-head)]

And this is the output of 'dmesg'

P.S.: even after a 'fresh' Hardy installation (all latest patched also installed), the system freezes randomly when connected through the USB wireless adapter.

It works just fine when connected through an ethernet cable.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Fabrizio,

Sorry for the delayed response. Just to see if it makes a difference, care to test the Intrepid Ibex 8.10 kernel? It was most recently rebased with the upstream 2.6.25 kernel and is currently available in the following PPA:

https://edge.launchpad.net/~kernel-ppa/+archive

If you are not familiar with how to install packages from a PPA basically do the following . . .

Create the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kernel-ppa.list to include the following two lines:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kernel-ppa/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/kernel-ppa/ubuntu hardy main

Then run the command: sudo apt-get update

You should then be able to install the linux-image-2.6.25 kernel package. After you've finished testing you can remove the kernel-ppa.list file and run 'sudo apt-get update' once more. Please let us know your results. If the issue still exists, could you attach a new dmesg output after a fresh boot? Thanks.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Pasting reply from Fabrizio below:

"Hi Leann,

Thanks for your reply.
I tried the 2.6.25 kernel some days ago (I saw that you suggested this to someone else on ubuntuforums.org).
The installation went fine but when I rebooted into 2.6.25 I couldn't get the system to start in graphical mode. I suspect that this was due to the fact that I installed the nvidia restricted drivers and I couldn't find the restricted modules in the PPA repositories.
I had to go back to 2.6.24.

Where can I find the restricted modules for 2.6.25?
Is there a workaround?

Thanks in advance
Fabrizio"

Hi Fabrizio,

Unfortunately linux-restricted-modules-2.6.25 is not yet available, but it should be soon. It's fine if you'd prefer to wait for the lrm-2.6.25 package to hit the PPA and then test even though I would think you should still be able to test your system as it was noted that the zd1211rw driver is the real source of the issue. Thanks.

[fab (fab-head)]

Hi Leann,

I've just tried the 2.6.25 kernel without the restricted nvidia drivers (I used the "nv" ones instead), still the system freezes randomly when I use the USB wireless adapter.
Please find enclosed a new dmesg output as requested.

[fab (fab-head)]

Hi Leann,

I've noticed that I still get some hard lockups even when the USB wireless adapter is not connected.
This happens far less frequently than with the zd1211rw/Digicom, still it happens and apparently it happens randomly.

These are the latest 2 episodes:

1) The system completely froze at login yesterday. I switched on the PC and went away for 10 minutes during the boot process. When I came back the login screen was there and was completely frozen.

2) Another lockup occurred just some minutes ago: this time I was surfing the net (FF3 b5) and listening to a web radio with Rhythmbox

I can't say whether this lockups are in any way related to the ones I get with the wireless adapter, the only thing I can say is that they are less frequent and happen randomly.

Please find attached a new dmesg output (btw, I've now switched back to kernel 2.6.24).

[ciobik (bred)]

Hi there,
I have exactly the same problem as Fabrizio Testa,

I use usb Elitegroup wireless card and my Hardy freezes,

I tried to use Ethernet and not my usb wireless card and everything is just fine...

have no idea how to repair this bug..

thx for your help...

Ciao Italia!!! :P

[MachM (macmail123)]

I have random freezes but in my case i can somewhat control it by stopping mouse movement for about 5 second after which it comes back to normal but with mouse movement after that it freezes permanently with Caps-Lock and Num-Lock keyboard light flashing after which i have to hard reset it.
I do not use Rythmbox bot outside of that same symptoms, have disabled Compiz , same thing happens with 24.18 kernel .

My system :
Laptop
Dell Latitude D 610
2 Gig ram
2 Ghz Intel Centrino
Intels 915 integrated graphics
Intels miniPCMCI Card 802.11b/g 2200BG
120 Gig HD
SXGA 14.1'' display
Stock system.
Kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
Ubuntu Gnome

[sniffy (konwal1)]

I have exactly the same problem with my Desktop PC and a Wireless Stick (MSI US54SE) with zydas-chipset (0ace:1215; Driver: zd1211rw)

My system:

MSI K7T266 Pro2
Athlon XP 1800+
1.5 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 7500
2x 120GB Seagate HD

Ubuntu Hardy Heron with Kernel 2.6.24-19-generic

The Problem was not present on any other version of Ubuntu before.

[Sam Weston (cablespaghetti)]

Same problem with a Belkin F5D7050 v4001uk, which I believe to be using the same ZD1211 chipset. It doesn't matter too much because I had a spare Marvell based card that works fine with ndiswrapper, but I would still like to see this issue fixed.

When I try to connect to my 802.11 network (which uses WEP if that makes any difference) it tries to connect for a while and then I get a hard lock (kernel panic?) and the 'Num Lock' and 'Caps Lock' lights flash until I press the reset button. I cannot comment on compatibility with other versions of Ubuntu or on other distros (was using hardy) but if I get a moment I'll try it under my Arch Linux box.

[McLenet (clement-trosseille-gmail)]

Same problem here with a MSI US54SE (0ace:1215; Driver: zd1211rw) on my desktop PC under 8.04.1 kernel 2.6.24-16-generic.
The system locks up after a successful connection to my wireless network (WEP encryption). Caps lock & other lights flash in the same way as in a kernel panic, although nothing appears on the logs.

[John Karp (johnkarp)]

I have a Zydas with the zd1211 chipset, and I'm experiencing this issue.

I have attached my dmesg output, including the relevant multiple kernel panic messages.

[Alessandro Isaia (alex69)]

I've got exactly the same problem: my hardy 8.04 (updated at the state of the art) freezes everytime I connect using my Digicom USB wifi adapter.

nothing to do! it's a severe bug by Digicom

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.