On-board NIC no longer working with Wicked or Network Manager

English Network/Internet
1

Coming back from having had a very rough week with Covid, I accept that I now have even fewer working grey cells than before but didn’t think the virus would extend into my HP Z640 workstation! However, I have failed entirely to be able to obtain a wan connection from my workstation on-board NIC. To get back on line I have had to use an USB>lan adaptor which, with Network Manager enabled, works immediately.

My initial reaction was a possible hardware problem but if I boot to windoze the NIC works without a hitch.

Could the problem be due to a recent Leap 15.3 update? I am already having to revert to an older kernel because of a kernel panic crash which I cannot overcome and now having no wan connection is all too much. Does anybody else have a similar problem and where should i look first to solve the NIC problem?

2

Post:

Sbin/lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 net

uname -a
3

Here is what I have:-

alastair@HP-Z640-1:/sbin> sudo lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 net 
00:19.0 Ether**net** controller [0200]: Intel Corporation Ether**net** Connection (2) I218-LM [8086:15a0] (rev 05) 
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2129] 
        Kernel driver in use: e1000e 
        Kernel modules: e1000e 
alastair@HP-Z640-1:/sbin> uname -a 
Linux HP-Z640-1 5.3.18-150300.59.87-default #1 SMP Thu Jul 21 14:31:28 UTC 2022 (cc90276) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux 
alastair@HP-Z640-1:/sbin>
4

Did you configure it via NetworkManager?

nmcli d

nmcli c

ip a
5

I had a working system using Wicked and a fixed IP before I was hit by Covid.
A week later and not doing much in between I had no working connection.
Still using Wicked but changing to dhcp didn’t work so enabled NM and couldn’t get that to work either. Hence use of USB dongle.
Here is the present story:-

alastair@HP-Z640-1:~> sudo nmcli d 
[sudo] password for root:  
DEVICE  TYPE      STATE         CONNECTION          
eth1    ethernet  connected     Wired connection 1  
eth0    ethernet  disconnected  --                  
lo      loopback  unmanaged     --                  
alastair@HP-Z640-1:~> sudo nmcli c 
NAME                 UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE  
Wired connection 1   7efefa83-68f8-3316-90ec-c5bc02a73fb4  ethernet  eth1    
DHCP Lan connection  9895eca0-6c8a-4d21-9c60-924b9a8ae0e9  ethernet  --      
eth0                 7ba00b1d-8cdd-30da-91ad-bb83ed4f7474  ethernet  --      
alastair@HP-Z640-1:~> ip a 
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever 
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host  
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever 
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000 
    link/ether 70:5a:0f:3a:fa:27 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 
    altname eno1 
    altname enp0s25 
3: eth1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000 
    link/ether 7c:c2:c6:33:10:d0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 
    altname enp0s20u6 
    inet 192.168.169.173/25 brd 192.168.169.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth1 
       valid_lft 77397sec preferred_lft 77397sec 
    inet6 fe80::bc62:2c32:54f:f7c6/64 scope link noprefixroute  
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever 
alastair@HP-Z640-1:~>
6

So, eth0 is disconnected currently?

If you connect this NIC, then its link status should reflect that?

ip link

This may be useful as well

/usr/sbin/hwinfo --netcard
7

The NIC is connected but no longer configured.
Here is what I have for the NIC:-

alastair@HP-Z640-1:~> ip link 
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 
    link/ether 70:5a:0f:3a:fa:27 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 
    altname eno1 
    altname enp0s25 
3: eth1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 
    link/ether 7c:c2:c6:33:10:d0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 
    altname enp0s20u6 
alastair@HP-Z640-1:~>

and the hwinfo:-

alastair@HP-Z640-1:/usr/sbin> sudo hwinfo --netcard 
[sudo] password for root:  
72: PCI 19.0: 0200 Ethernet controller                           
  [Created at pci.386] 
  Unique ID: rBUF.CEQokJDjuu6 
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:19.0 
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:19.0 
  Hardware Class: network 
  Device Name: "LAN (AMT)" 
  Model: "Intel Ethernet Connection (2) I218-LM" 
  Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation" 
  Device: pci 0x15a0 "Ethernet Connection (2) I218-LM" 
  SubVendor: pci 0x103c "Hewlett-Packard Company" 
  SubDevice: pci 0x2129  
  Revision: 0x05 
  Driver: "e1000e" 
  Driver Modules: "e1000e" 
  Device File: eth0 
  Memory Range: 0xf7100000-0xf711ffff (rw,non-prefetchable) 
  Memory Range: 0xf713a000-0xf713afff (rw,non-prefetchable) 
  I/O Ports: 0x3020-0x303f (rw,disabled) 
  IRQ: 51 (12056 events) 
  HW Address: 70:5a:0f:3a:fa:27 
  Permanent HW Address: 70:5a:0f:3a:fa:27 
  Link detected: yes 
  Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d000015A0sv0000103Csd00002129bc02sc00i00" 
  Driver Info #0: 
    Driver Status: e1000e is active 
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe e1000e" 
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown 

162: USB 00.0: 0200 Ethernet controller 
  [Created at usb.122] 
  Unique ID: aCV0.2UqQlqOZqd9 
  Parent ID: zPk0.xYNhIwdOaa6 
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb4/4-6/4-6:1.0 
  SysFS BusID: 4-6:1.0 
  Hardware Class: network 
  Model: "ASIX Electronics AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet" 
  Hotplug: USB 
  Vendor: usb 0x0b95 "ASIX Electronics Corp." 
  Device: usb 0x1790 "AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet" 
  Revision: "1.00" 
  Serial ID: "007CC2C63310D0" 
  Driver: "ax88179_178a" 
  Driver Modules: "ax88179_178a" 
  Device File: eth1 
  HW Address: 7c:c2:c6:33:10:d0 
  Permanent HW Address: 7c:c2:c6:33:10:d0 
  Link detected: yes 
  Module Alias: "usb:v0B95p1790d0100dcFFdscFFdp00icFFiscFFip00in00" 
  Driver Info #0: 
    Driver Status: ax88179_178a is active 
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe ax88179_178a" 
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown 
  Attached to: #167 (Hub) 
alastair@HP-Z640-1:/usr/sbin>
8

Ok, and have you tried to create a DHCP connection when eth0 (Intel Ethernet Connection (2) I218-LM) is in use?

9

Hi Deano,
Many thanks for your continued support.
I started afresh this morning but all my efforts to achieve a dhcp connection from eth0 fail.
If I enable eth1, which is the USB connection, this connects immediately and works.

If I pull the usb plug so that only the lan is connected to switch the NM sticks at “setting network address.”

To send this I must plug in the USB which then works without having to make any adjustments and the NM app shows:-

etho (eth1) connected.

Never ever had this problem before and am totally lost.
What next?

10

I noted at the start of this thread that I had to downgrade to kernel 5.3.18-150300.59.87-default because of a kernel panic which has frustrated my being able to check any earlier boot logs.

In desperation at my NIC problem I tried to boot to the most recent upgrade. This worked, at least to the point where I could open these pages but then went into kernel panic mode so had to reboot using power switch. I rebooted back to the above version which was the last one which worked reliably and loh and behold, I now have two active network connections. I unplugged the USB and the on board NIC is behaving perfectly.

Not sure what to do next but am thinking of re-seating all my boards just in case there is a dodgy connection and then doing some memory tests. Cannot think of anything else.
All ideas welcome.

11

Let’s see if there are any kernel issues at play perhaps…

sudo dmesg | egrep “e1000e|eth0”
12

Just posted while you posted this. Late here, but hopefully others can chime in and advise further.

13

Hi Deano,
I am back after using compressed air jet to remove the snots, reseating all the memory and the second processor board.
Plugged in the machine which auto started and booted to latest kernel.
So far no kernel panic.
I think the indications are that I had a poor connection somewhere which I hope has now been fixed.
No idea why this should only just appear but fingers crossed.
Will try and re build my Wicked network connection.
Regards,