Hi all, I've managed to track down where the problem comes from.
CONTEXT - I use one of my neighbors' access point/portal to access internet (based on FON principle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fon_(company)). - Since the access point is not that close from my apartment, I baught and use an external Wifi adapter with a (supposed to be) 5DBi antenna. This is the exact following "ALFA" model: https://www.dx.com/p/alfa-awus036nh-network-ralink-3070l-wifi-network-card-2000mw-alfa-wireless-wifi-usb-adapter-with-5dbi-antenna-white-2053330.html - In order to be able to put this device outside my window, I plug it to my computer via a 2m USB armored cable, similar to this one (with the characteristic little bump / fuse?) https://mpshop.tn/3035-thickbox_default/rallonge-usb-male-femelle.jpg I tried with several cables (non-armored ones or longer cables, armored or not). All lead to kernel not recognizing the device or intermittent disconnection from the AP or disappearing of the device after a few minutes. The chipset is apparently detected as a RaLink and the kernel tells me it uses the 'rt2870.bin' firmware: [27393.587771] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd [27393.753513] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=148f, idProduct=3070, bcdDevice= 1.01 [27393.753519] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 [27393.753523] usb 1-1: Product: 802.11 n WLAN [27393.753526] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: Ralink [27393.753528] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 1.0 [27393.883944] usb 1-1: reset high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd [27394.044554] ieee80211 phy2: rt2x00_set_rt: Info - RT chipset 3070, rev 0201 detected [27394.055744] ieee80211 phy2: rt2x00_set_rf: Info - RF chipset 0005 detected [27394.056214] ieee80211 phy2: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht' [27394.098722] rt2800usb 1-1:1.0 wlx000f0032e9c8: renamed from wlan0 [27394.150888] ieee80211 phy2: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt2870.bin' [27394.150937] ieee80211 phy2: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Firmware detected - version: 0.36 [27395.779361] wlx000f0032e9c8: authenticate with e4:9e:12:cf:e8:09 [27395.790695] wlx000f0032e9c8: send auth to e4:9e:12:cf:e8:09 (try 1/3) [27395.792593] wlx000f0032e9c8: authenticated [27395.798527] wlx000f0032e9c8: associate with e4:9e:12:cf:e8:09 (try 1/3) [27395.801965] wlx000f0032e9c8: RX AssocResp from e4:9e:12:cf:e8:09 (capab=0x401 status=0 aid=1) [27395.804884] wlx000f0032e9c8: associated [27395.805216] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlx000f0032e9c8: link becomes ready Under Linux (XUbuntu 19.04), everything works fine (detection of networks/connection to networks/upload&download), apart the fact that the computer totally freezes/crashes in less than 2 hours as soon as the ALFA device is plugin. When I use the computer without the ALFA device plugged, everything works fine (tested reaching a 12 days uptime!) Under windows (10 1903) everything works fine whatever the conditions (there's no crashes, even with the ALFA device plugged, tested reaching 24hrs uptime - sorry, I'm not able to use Windows more than that ;)...). So my (informed) guess is that there's a bug either in Linux's RaLink module or 'rt2870.bin' firmware. How can I provide more details, so that the bug is corrected ? PS: I don't see how this is not a security issue: a computer that freezes brutally and in a non recoverable manner (CTRL-ALT-DEL & SysReq are useless) 1) reflects a very big problem in some module/firmware code, that probably can be related to a buffer overflow of some kind which could be exploited locally/remotely to take control of the machine 2) has a very strong probability to lead to data corruption (as it is clear that apps/fs/disks are not shutdown correctly) 3) even if it is not the case, being potentially able to voluntarily (locally or remotely) execute the part of the code that crashes the machine, i.e. perform a Denial of Service, is very serious problem... PS2: I'm aware that I use potentially chinese non-guenuine devices/chipsets/cables and that can be the source of many problems. However, the Linux kernel should, at worse, refuse to recognize/use the device, but crashing after woking correctly a few hours is not an acceptable option. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1833474 Title: Radom & frequent total crashes since upgrade to 19.04 Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Expired Bug description: Hi, I'm using an ASUS X751L laptop for several years with no (=a few manageable) problem(s). Two weeks ago, I switched to Xunbuntu 19.04, by: - changing the lines in the /etc/sources.list - running apt-get dist-upgrade Since then, the computer randomly totally freezes ~twice a day. Even after another dist-upgrade this morning... When I say "totally freezes", I mean: - Mouse is froozen, if there was sound playing (be it movie or music, played either with mplayer or vlc), then the last 1/2 second loops indefinitely - CTRL-ALT-Fn do not work - There's nothing in the logs: kern.log, syslog, dmesg... appart some garbage chars (like ^@^@^@...) that sometimes gets appended in syslog at crash time. - Even when activated Magic SysReq (ALT-SysReq-RSEIUB) do not work - Alt-SysReq 1 + Alt-SysReq t do not create anything in /var/crash (there are some files for qemu & xfce4-panel, that I already reported) - Following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/CrashdumpRecipe , I installed linux-crashdump, and verified it correctly sets the boot line option, but nothing gets created in /var/crash when computer crashes (apart a kexec_cmd file that simply lists the boot line args). - Quick (2/3 sec) press on the power button does nothing - Long (10 sec) press on the power button is the only way to regain control... - I've tried to run Memtest86+ (even if I'm sure RAM is not the problem as it started occurring only after dist-upgrade to 19.04), but the system is UEFI, so option is not in the grub menu. I'll try to make a USB stick to test the RAM FYI, the internal wifi card (rtl8723) has always caused troubles: HD write slowdowns, audio device locks, etc (from what I guess, it overfills some internal bus...). So I deactivate it at boot by removing the module, and I use another external Wifi dongle (rt2800usb) $ uname -a Linux gmuller-X751LAB 5.0.0-16-generic #17-Ubuntu SMP Wed May 15 10:52:21 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux # Note: crashes occurred also with 5.0.0-15 Does anyone has any hints/tips on how I could get more info & target where the problem comes from? because as-is the computer is just unusable... In the attached log files, the crash occurred right before my manual reboot at 15:17:24 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1833474/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
