[SOLVED] NIC failed?

nemamradfazole · 2013-03-09 19:53:52

Today I used my laptop as usual, some internet stuff etc., then I put it to sleep (by pm-suspend). After awakening there's no internet connection, eth0 disappeared (even in hwinfo). No system updates were undertaken for a few days. NIC stays non-existent even after a reboot, even in Windows XP. Does this mean the hardware is gone? (I'm using USB to connect to a modem.)

I've noticed similar behaviour in the past – I had no eth0 after a boot but it went right after next reboot.

The old info about NIC from hwinfo:

34: PCI 600.0: 0200 Ethernet controller
  [Created at pci.319]
  Unique ID: rBUF.LPWfVxAKt5B
  Parent ID: H0_h.Q0K0r6zkD+6
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:06.0/0000:06:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:06:00.0
  Hardware Class: network
  Model: "ASUSTeK A6J-Q008"
  Vendor: pci 0x10ec "Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd."
  Device: pci 0x8168 "RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller"
  SubVendor: pci 0x1043 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc."
  SubDevice: pci 0x11f5 "A6J-Q008"
  Revision: 0x01
  Driver: "r8169"
  Driver Modules: "r8169"
  Device File: eth0
  I/O Ports: 0xb800-0xb8ff (rw)
  Memory Range: 0xfe8ff000-0xfe8fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xfe8e0000-0xfe8effff (ro,non-prefetchable,disabled)
  IRQ: 45 (22268 events)
  HW Address: 00:1d:60:e7:9e:e3
  Link detected: yes
  Module Alias: "pci:v000010ECd00008168sv00001043sd000011F5bc02sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: r8169 is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe r8169"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #15 (PCI bridge)

(I tried downgrading to r8168 with no success.)

Last edited by nemamradfazole (2013-03-10 14:16:55)

WonderWoofy · 2013-03-09 20:06:33

Borked I presume... if the hardware is not recognizing it at all, I am not sure what else to tell you? I am guessing that it is a NIC that is built into the motherboard since it is a laptop... I think that if it is not being recognized by multiple operating systems, it is definitely a hardware problem and not a software issue. I think you might need to contact ASUS if it is still under warranty.

OT: Why do you consider using r8168 a "downgrade"?

nemamradfazole · 2013-03-09 20:15:53

Thanks for fast reply! It's a five year old laptop so I assume it's time for a new one.

I took it as 8168 < 8169, but maybe the number doesn't stand for a version.

Do you think overheating of system (my CPU cores' temperatures went up to 100 °C before I cleaned the inside... but then it wasn't that fouled at all) may introduce this failure?

WonderWoofy · 2013-03-09 20:20:40

It is very possible, heat can do funny things to a computer...

The r8169 module is the one provided by the kernel, while the r8168 module is provided by realtek. Personally I have to use r8168 because the kernel's module is really wonky on my card (though it has been quite some time since I last tried using r8169). But r8169 should actually cover a number of realtek NICs.

Maybe in the mean time, just get a USB NIC? Not ideal, but I figure if you have an ethernet cable sticking out the side of your laptop, an ethernet USB adapter to ethernet cable shouldn't be much worse.

Maybe before you go there though, try some Linux live media just to make extra sure that it is not going to suddenly show up in some other environment.

nemamradfazole · 2013-03-09 20:31:29

When I had NIC working, the download speed was about 3 MB/s, now with the modem being connected by USB it's a little below 1 MB/s... aren't USB NICs also slower than PCI NICs? I think I can live with this for some time.

It's a great help here how fast experienced users answer to topics. I always wonder how's that – do you read through new topics (that would have been an immense amount of work) or are you running some filters? Anyway, thank you!

ewaller · 2013-03-09 21:05:17

One last thing you might try, what is the output of lspci ??

I am a moderator, I try to glance at just about everything If I have not been around awhile and there is evidence of my colleagues have been active, then I usually look at the last couple pages of the active posts, then look at a page or so of unanswered posts.

Last edited by ewaller (2013-03-09 21:15:25)

nemamradfazole · 2013-03-09 21:12:21

The only Ethernet device is wi-fi, so it seems NIC is really dead. R.I.P.

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS690 Host Bridge
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Graphics Port 0)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Device 7914
00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 1)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 2)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 3)
00:12.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA
00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB600 USB (OHCI0)
00:13.1 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB600 USB (OHCI1)
00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB600 USB (OHCI2)
00:13.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB600 USB (OHCI3)
00:13.4 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB600 USB (OHCI4)
00:13.5 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 14)
00:14.1 IDE interface: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB600 IDE
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Mobility Radeon X2300
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x / AR542x Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
08:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
08:01.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
08:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
08:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)

I wish I had enthusiasm like you, guys.

mich41 · 2013-03-09 21:30:19

So it worked until the last seconds before hibernation and didn't come up after resume?

I don't know what exactly a BIOS can screw up with PCI hardware, but maybe it's some BIOS bug? I'd try stuff like:

1. entering BIOS setup, checking if all settings look sane
2. disabling quick post, enabling post messages (will it print anything suspicious?)
3. restoring default settings (unless you rely on some non-default BIOS settings)
4. booting with WiFi adapter removed to force the BIOS to really rethink BAR mappings, IRQs etc.
5. removing RTC battery if it's easily accessible

As for USB Ethernet NICs, most of them support 100Mbps Fast Ethernet but you must be aware that the cheapest ones are based on old Realtek chips which support only USB1 with it's blazing fast 12Mbps "Full Speed" mode (yes, that's lower case b, as in "bit"). Anything supporting Fast Ethernet and USB2 should be fine.

Last edited by mich41 (2013-03-09 21:37:40)

nemamradfazole · 2013-03-09 21:39:21

Thanks! Exactly that way it happened. I will try and post tomorrow, now I am working.

There's also another thing which bothers me about resuming from hibernation: my script /etc/pm/sleep.d/00lock runs xlock before suspending. Then after resuming I have to type my password. But sometimes (rarely) xlock starts (I can see it), but isn't running after resuming and the laptop is freely accessible.

WonderWoofy · 2013-03-10 01:21:20

I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but pmutils is old and crufty and not really necessary anymore. It is probably better to use systemctl suspend and the directory /usr/lib/systemd/system-sleep as you can drop scripts to be run during suspend and hibernate there. Or else you could go full native systemd and create service files that are WantedBy=sleep.target and Before/After=sleep.target.

nemamradfazole · 2013-03-10 14:16:25

It's back to life! I checked the BIOS configuration which seemed sane but I've reseted it. Maybe this has helped or it's the fact that the laptop was off for some hours and it could rest?

Thanks to all!

(I tried both a script in /usr/lib/systemd/system-sleep which I could run manually and worked like it should but systemd seemed to ignore it, and an installed service file but this led to xlock being started and waited to finish before suspending... so I'll stay with pmutils for some more time.)

ewaller · 2013-03-10 14:23:17

Bizarre Definitely something to add to my bag of tricks. Glad it is solved.

WonderWoofy · 2013-03-10 19:50:24

Bizarre indeed. But you should ask cfr about his bios and bluetooth, as he experiences something similar in which the only solution he has found is a reset of his bios.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-03-09 19:53:52

[SOLVED] NIC failed?

#2 2013-03-09 20:06:33

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

#3 2013-03-09 20:15:53

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

#4 2013-03-09 20:20:40

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

#5 2013-03-09 20:31:29

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

#6 2013-03-09 21:05:17

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

#7 2013-03-09 21:12:21

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

#8 2013-03-09 21:30:19

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

#9 2013-03-09 21:39:21

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

#10 2013-03-10 01:21:20

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

#11 2013-03-10 14:16:25

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

#12 2013-03-10 14:23:17

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

#13 2013-03-10 19:50:24

Re: [SOLVED] NIC failed?

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