[SOLVED]Networking issue - 802.1x, WPA2, PEAP, MSCHAPv2 - very strange

bceverly · 2017-06-27 11:57:13

All,

First let me say I obsessively update my system several times per day. I'm 100% updated and have been for quite some time.

Now for my issue...

Over the past two days I have been struggling with a significant networking issue on my 4th generation i7 (Skylake) Thinkpad X1 Carbon with the Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 8260, REV=0x208 adapter. This has been working fine up until that time (with the exception that it gets a little chatty around multiple APs on an enterprise network and tends to jump to low power ones, but that is a story for another time). Suddenly I have the following behavior:

1. Cold boot the laptop from a powered off situation
2. Everything is AOK networking wise
3. 30 seconds or so after booting, the fans spin up
4. Still showing connected in NetworkManager on Gnome
5. Bring up a terminal prompt
6. Type literally any command (ls would be a good one) and you get no response
7. UI is still responsive in the desktop, but if you click on something it never starts
8. Clicking "shutdown" or "restart" goes to a non-graphical screen (so X is killed) but then it hangs
9. You have to physically hold down on the power button until it shuts off then you can reboot

Here's where it gets weird. I tried it with a USB wifi adapter I have successfully used in the past and got EXACTLY THE SAME BEHAVIOR. This makes me think it isn't a hardware issue with the Intel NIC. I have confirmed that I don't have the Skylake HT issue that I read about on the Debian forums.

So here is where it gets even weirder. I fired up a Verizon MiFi and connected to it and have been working just fine for quite some time now.

So, where does this leave me? No idea what I can do to troubleshoot this and would massively appreciate an assist from the brilliant hive mind here!

Thanks in advance everyone!!

Last edited by bceverly (2017-06-30 20:32:15)

Trilby · 2017-06-27 12:33:16

I feel like you are leaving out something important. That's not to say you didn't give a very clear description and includ relevant information, you did. But your title suggest you think this is a networking problem yet none of the symptoms you provide point to a networking problem to me - am I missing something?

The only networking bit is this

bceverly wrote:

I fired up a Verizon MiFi and connected to it and have been working just fine for quite some time now.

I had to look this up - are you refering to a portable hotspot device? In other words, is this just an access point you set up and connect to using the sample hardware and networking tools on your computer you'd use otherwise? Or alternatively, is this some sort of network device that you plug into your computer?

Have you replicated the problem after taking the MiFi out of the equation (can we rule out the MiFi connection as a coincidence)?

bceverly · 2017-06-27 16:39:49

Ah,

Good point. Sorry about that.

1. Yes. When "the problem" occurs, NetworkManager shows a connected icon but I cannot ping anything.

2. The Verizon MiFi is a 4g/LTE hotspot that shares its network connection via WiFi. Everything works fine on it.

3. When I connect to a non 802.1x / PEAP / MSCHAPv2 secured network (such as my home network that is just straight up WPA2), everything works normally.

This "smells" to me like some weird wpa_supplicant issue perhaps? The weird thing is that when it happens I can no longer execute commands in a newly created terminal window nor can I launch programs from the Gnome 3 desktop or even shut the machine down.

It's like there is something holding a lock that is global in nature somehow.

Hopefully that additional info helps? Happy to pull any logfiles, etc. that folks think might help me troubleshoot it.

Thanks!

bceverly · 2017-06-30 19:41:46

I wanted to let everyone know that there was an update to wpa_supplicant that hit a day or two ago and I took it. After rebooting, everything seemed to be back to normal. I didn't want to say anything until I had a few days to burn in but it looks like whatever foo was in that update solved my weird problem.

Thanks everyone!

Trilby · 2017-06-30 20:13:29

Glad it's working - despite us not being of any help. Feel free to mark the thread as [SOLVED] by editing your first post (even it it's a bit anticlimactic solve).

Arch Linux

#1 2017-06-27 11:57:13

[SOLVED]Networking issue - 802.1x, WPA2, PEAP, MSCHAPv2 - very strange

#2 2017-06-27 12:33:16

Re: [SOLVED]Networking issue - 802.1x, WPA2, PEAP, MSCHAPv2 - very strange

#3 2017-06-27 16:39:49

Re: [SOLVED]Networking issue - 802.1x, WPA2, PEAP, MSCHAPv2 - very strange

#4 2017-06-30 19:41:46

Re: [SOLVED]Networking issue - 802.1x, WPA2, PEAP, MSCHAPv2 - very strange

#5 2017-06-30 20:13:29

Re: [SOLVED]Networking issue - 802.1x, WPA2, PEAP, MSCHAPv2 - very strange

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