Procedure regarding USB networking equipment issues with kernel 5.15

["Peter Müller" <peter.mueller@ipfire.org>]

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Hello development folks,

as you probably already read in

- https://community.ipfire.org/t/wlan-stops-and-starts-again/6891
- https://community.ipfire.org/t/update-158-to-161-problems-with-usb-ethernet-adpater/6854
- https://bugzilla.ipfire.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12750,

kernel 5.15, as we shipped with Core Update 162, causes USB networking equipment on some
Intel mainboards not to work properly anymore. Among the affected boards are ones manufactured
by TX-Team, so the Duo Box might be affected as well, but I have no spare system to verify
that.

Not being an expert at all when it comes to USB troubleshooting, I am not sure yet if we
are dealing with two distinct issues or just one. The following patches seem to be related:

- https://lore.kernel.org/stable/20211126122340.1193239-2-mathias.nyman(a)linux.intel.com/
- https://lore.kernel.org/all/20211220143044.382652365(a)linuxfoundation.org/

Both should be included in kernel 5.15.11, released 2021-12-22.

With 22.79% of all reporting Fireinfo profiles running on Core Update 162, and 21.99% running
kernel 5.15.6 (the rest apparently did not reboot after upgrading their system), the overall
userbase affected by this/these issue(s) is low.

However, depending on the network setup, affected systems might be completely unreachable after
upgrading (if the USB networking device serves for RED interface), requiring physical presence
to downgrade them or swap NICs. Therefore, I think it makes sense to ship the latest 5.15.x
kernel as soon as possible.

Any thoughts on this? Does anyone have more detailed information, especially if there are
no obvious messages in /var/log/bootlog and similar?

Thanks, and best regards,
Peter Müller