# Networking randomly dies after kernel upgrade

## Kadath

Upgraded my kernel from 3.6 to 3.7.3, and now my network connection randomly dies every 20 minutes or so - 

if i do "ifconfig eth0 down && ifconfig eth0 up" it works again. Very annoying!

After googling, i found this guy: http://bugs.sabayon.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3891 who has the same problem, but no replies.

My network card is a "02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet (rev c1)" using the kernel module "atl1c" built-in.

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## cbx550f

Anything in /var/log/messages?

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## Kadath

 *cbx550f wrote:*   

> Anything in /var/log/messages?

 

I don't have a logger installed, but dmesg says: 

```
atl1c 0000:02:00.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X

atl1c 0000:02:00.0: atl1c: eth0 NIC Link is Up<100 Mbps Full Duplex>
```

Whenever the networking dies.

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## Otamay

I have the same problem. Same card, same module, same behaviour. Already posted in sabayon bug after seen this topic.

I'm currently using kernel 3.6.11-pf. I have kernels 3.7.2-pf, 3.7.3-gentoo and 3.8.0-gentoo with the same configuration.

How can this problem can be traced?

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## 046

same problem, asus eeepc 1215B

All working if NIC confgured by /etc/init.d/net.eth0 (iproute2) 

NIC freeze if NetworkManager running (just runing, not manage eth0), until "/etc/init.d/net.eth0  restart" or "mii-tool -r eth0"

 ioctl kill driver/NIC? ))

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## DaveDay

I too have that random network failure with the Atheros atl1c in 3.6.11 and  3.7.9 and A3.7.10 and with the Intel 82450EM with the e1000 driver.  

If anyone knows of a definite fix, I am ready to have dependable networking back.  I'd be happy to switch kernels

or cards or whatever.

Thanks,

Dave

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## CxOrg

I have also had this problem after installation of Sabayon 11 when upgrading the HDD on an Eeepc 1215B to a faster 240Gb SSD.

The wireless runs fine as wlan0 but ifconfig revealed that the expected eth0 has changed to enp2s0. Starting ethernet normally by plugging in the cable whilst a good Wlan connection is made stops all traffic after about 30 sec.

Searching on enp2s0, I find links which lead to Archlinux users who have the same problem.

The networking guide https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dhcpcd#Dynamic_IP_address shows a solution. 

On plugging the ethernet I used: 

# dhcpcd enp2s0

Now the ethernet connection is started correctly and works as usual as well as the Wlan. It stays running as you would expect.

Re-plugging the ethernet needs the dhcpcd enp2s0 again. So there is a bug to be fixed. At least this gives a temporary solution.

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## BigE

I've got a very similar issue.. my wired and wireless works fine in 3.6.11 - no issues at all. However, if I try any kernel in the 3.7 or 3.8 group, I have very weird and intermittent issues. I've attached lspci output below to show the two interfaces. It almost seems like my wired connection will randomly drop packets for 20-40 seconds before coming back on again. I never get disconnected from the network, but empathy does tend to lose connections to chat servers. I don't see anything in the log files anywhere, but the wired interface will show dropped packets through ifconfig. The wireless works flawlessly regardless of what kernel I'm on.

I was looking around to see if I could find anything else about the issue when I ran across this page http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/patch/227157/ which describes an issue with the alt1c driver. What I gathered from the page is, if you have an Atheros wireless and wired network card enabled at the same time, these random issues occur within the alt1c driver. My laptop is a Lenovo G570 and has a hardware switch for the wireless. Before I rebooted into my 3.8.2 kernel, I flipped the switch to disable the wireless and now I'm not having any issues with the wired connection at all.

Seems like if you can disable the wireless adapter while using the wired, everything is back to normal. Hope this is true for others too.

```

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet (rev c1)

02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

```

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## DaveDay

I had problems on multiple kernels (3.6.11 and 3.7.9 and 3.7.10) and on multiple (Atheros on board and Intel 82450EM with the atl1c and e1000 drivers.

I tried gentoo-sources kernel 3.4.2 with the same results.

I ordered an Intel PCIE EXPI9301CTBLK from Amazon and it seems to have solved the problem.  It uses the e1000e driver.

I have no idea what the problem was, but I have been hitting the network hard for several hours since installing the 

new PCIE card and its driver and the system seems to be back to being rock solid.   Right now I am in the 3.4.2 kernel but I'll reboot into the latest stable kernel later tonight to further evaluate.

Dave

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## CxOrg

You are right! if I disable wireless using the keyboard hot keys then plug in the ethernet all seems to be fine. I had thought that the network problems were due to the USB3 driver.

Having wireless or ethernet is fine for now using Sabayon 3.7 kernel on Asus Eeepc 1215b. 3.8 kernel is worse as even the wireless connections often fail to negotiate.

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## DaveDay

I have continued to hit the network with loads that had previously caused my networking to freeze and I have tested

under the 3.4.2 3.6.11 and 3.7.10 kernels which all exhibited the failures with both the atl1c and e1000 cards and drivers.

I replaced the Atheros AR8151 v 2.0 rev C which uses the atl1c driver and the Intel 82450EM which uses the e1000 driver with an Intel 82574L card which uses the e1000e driver and the problems went away.

I have no clue really what the problem was but it occurred across three different kernels.  

I did notice on Amazon quite a few comments that the Intel 82574L card cured many cases of flaky gigabit networking, both on Linux and various Windows versions.  Perhaps the card makers are having some challenges

meeting their specs at gigabit speeds......

In any case, life is considerably more enjoyable with rock solid networking.

Dave

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## CxOrg

Checking the wireless driver loaded I found that the Broadcom module for kernel 3.7 was installed even when running kernel 3.8.5. 

Adding the module for kernel 3.8.0 seems to make the difference when booted to the 3.8.5 kernel. Ethernet or wireless now works properly but not both at the same time. 

I was also running into problems when using OpenVPN for server connections. Web browsing now works without giving up after a while with the VPN connected. However it remains an either/or for wireless or ethernet which is OK still not ideal. 

# modinfo brcmsmac

now gives

filename:       /lib/modules/3.8.0-sabayon/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmsmac/brcmsmac.ko

firmware:       brcm/bcm43xx_hdr-0.fw

firmware:       brcm/bcm43xx-0.fw

license:        Dual BSD/GPL

description:    Broadcom 802.11n wireless LAN driver.

author:         Broadcom Corporation

alias:          bcma:m04BFid0812rev18cl*

alias:          bcma:m04BFid0812rev17cl*

alias:          bcma:m04BFid0812rev11cl*

depends:        mac80211,bcma,brcmutil,cfg80211,cordic

intree:         Y

vermagic:       3.8.0-sabayon SMP mod_unload modversions

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