XHCI kernel bug causes WiFi to become unstable

In December I had problems with breaking down the WIFI connections (see post).
After downgrading ipfire from 162 to 161 everything works fine for more than a month. Last Friday I upgraded from 161 to 163 and at the first glance everything worked fine.
Today the old problem starts again.



log.zip (635 Bytes)
From the log Summary I extract the following message which popped up in the last days repeatedly

Has there anybody a clue what I can do?

Could you please provide a link to the previous post.

Here comes the link to the old post.
WLAN stops and starts again.
I started a new post because the old one was marked “solved”

No problems with starting a new post just good to have the link to the old to see if it is more of the same or something new is happening.

I will look through and come back with any suggestions or questions

In WLanAP, is your country code selected? Also, did you install the addon linux-firmware?

Country Code = DE
The only addon I have installed is hostapd. I had never another addon installed during the last 2 years and everything worked fine.
The addon linux-firmware ist not available in Packfire.

Sorry man, no idea how to fix this problem. As I said in the other thread probably some change in the linux kernel has introduced this bug. From my point of view, either you don’t upgrade (which is a big security problem) or change hardware.

In the previous post @pmueller suggested this might be due to an issue with xhci regression in Linux Kernel 5.15.x

As I understand it the changes that might be expected to fix that problem will be in Core Update 164 which should be going to Testing phase before too long.
If that doesn’t help then I would have to agree with @cfusco about looking for a replacement for the usb wireless hardware.

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Thank you both for the information.
It seems, that I was too fast with the update. I thought the problems should be solved with ipfire 163 (162 was the update, which first made the problem obvious).
To change to another hardware is presently not an option. First hand the duo box is less then 2 years old and second hand is was at the time I bought it on the recommendation list of ipfire.org.

If 164 is expected to come out in the next 6 weeks I will wait for this update. The load on the machine is low presently (I am alone) and the reboots not so often. This was another case before Christmas when we were 5 at home and everybody had at least to computer in the network and a lot of video sessions.

So I will be patient and will see what will come.

Thanks again for your quick response.

Is this a Lightning Wire Labs product? I think they had a duo…

Hi,

just a minor comment on these snippets: linux-firmware is not an add-on indeed. It comes with the base system, and it’s contents are present on every IPFire installation.

Thanks, and best regards,
Peter Müller

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The dou-box is originally manufactured by the tx-team company. There was in my perspective of view a collaboration between Lightning Wire Labs and tx-team on the low end side for products. The dou-box was visible on the LWL page in those times. The collaboration seems to be ended.

Thanks for this information. Then there could be the solution in an update of the firmware indeed.

Hi,

about that: Yes, the testing phase for Core Update 164 will start soon (personal ETA: within the next days), and according to our release schedule, it should be released two weeks later unless there is something seriously wrong with it.

Log lines such as this one indeed occur frequently, but are nothing to worry about. I doubt it would be related to the problem you are experiencing.

Yes, the problem really smells like the XHCI bug in the Linux kernel. Upgrading to Core Update 164 should solve it - if not, we are dealing with another bug. :slight_smile:

Thanks, and best regards,
Peter Müller

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Side note:

I created an IPFire Wiki page for linux-firmware (feel free to update as needed):

-or-
https://wiki.ipfire.org/pkgs

4 Likes

Hi all,

Core Update 164 is now available for testing, containing an updated kernel which I expect to fix the problem.

Please give it a try on your machines (see here for how to do this), and kindly report back whether the issue persists or not.

Thanks in advance, and best regards,
Peter Müller

3 Likes

I have ipfire 164 now running almost for one week and all the trouble with the WLAN has vanished.
I have to say thank you to you Peter Müller and all the other supporters for helping me.
I am glad that the problem is solved. This is a really good news for the 164 and the people who worked on it, also if there is the shadow of to another two bugs in 164. :wink:

4 Likes

Hi,

thank you for reporting back.

Yes, it is good to see Core Update 164 improved things at least one one end. :slight_smile:

Core Update 165 is already available for testing, and while there are still some bugs to be squashed in it, I really hope we will have all those covered before the public release. More testing feedback is always highly appreciated, especially if you run non-standard hardware or a complex network setup.

Thanks, and best regards,
Peter Müller