Procedure regarding USB networking equipment issues with kernel 5.15

Procedure regarding USB networking equipment issues with kernel 5.15

[Peter Müller]

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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

Re: Procedure regarding USB networking equipment issues with kernel 5.15

[Peter Müller]

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Hello Jon,

thanks for your reply.

Well, this (these) bug is especially tricky as it does not seem to affect any USB networking equipment
itself, but is related to the mainboard used. In my case, all USB-to-LAN adapters work perfectly fine
if plugged into another IPFire running on a different mainboard, but the machine in question (a TX-Team
board) only recognises them, but for some reason cannot send or receive any traffic on it.

This is why I never bumped into this during the testing period, as I was only testing on a non-affected
mainboard. :-/

Thanks, and best regards,
Peter Müller


> +1 on the urgent core update. 
> 
> ( Does it become CU 162.1 ? )
> 
> ====
> 
> I’ve been testing USB-to-Ethernet adapters:
>  - RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
>  - AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet
>  - (Plus one more to locate and test)
> 
> on:
> 
> IPFire version:		IPFire 2.27 (x86_64) - core162
> Pakfire version:	2.27-x86_64
> Kernel version:	Linux ipfireHP.localdomain 5.15.6-ipfire #1 SMP Sun Dec 19 10:54:26 GMT 2021 x86_64 
> 				Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7500 @ 2.93GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
> 
> All work A-OK.  
> 
> Jon
> 
> 
>> On Dec 28, 2021, at 3:57 PM, Peter Müller <peter.mueller(a)ipfire.org> wrote:
>>
>> 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
> 
>