Laptop (very) weirdness
My dual-boot Asus laptop now exhibits very strange behaviour. Under Windows 10 all is normal (well, its form of normal). Under Linux (current mint KDE) at work, all seems ok. At home, all hell breaks loose. The only difference is the wifi. After a normal login not only does networking not come up but the KDE menu bar doesn't display upon startup, all I have is the KDE wallpaper and a working xterm. Simple commands work but 'sudo bash' hangs. If I try to shutdown the system hangs. ALT-F1 gives me some kind of massive dump starting with the lines: BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 000000000000011c IP iul_num_add_sta+0x49e/0x720 [iwlmvm] Can anyone make sense of why simply using a different wifi router would cause this? An inability to connect is one thing, but this is nuts. (And people ask me why I hesitate to recommend desktop Linux to non-techies...) Happy to bring it in to Tuesday's meeting if anyone can help... - Evan (on mobile)
Have you tried connecting RJ45 to your router? Have you tried a different wifi network? Don On 10 December 2017 at 19:26, Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
My dual-boot Asus laptop now exhibits very strange behaviour.
Under Windows 10 all is normal (well, its form of normal).
Under Linux (current mint KDE) at work, all seems ok.
At home, all hell breaks loose. The only difference is the wifi.
After a normal login not only does networking not come up but the KDE menu bar doesn't display upon startup, all I have is the KDE wallpaper and a working xterm. Simple commands work but 'sudo bash' hangs.
If I try to shutdown the system hangs. ALT-F1 gives me some kind of massive dump starting with the lines:
BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 000000000000011c IP iul_num_add_sta+0x49e/0x720 [iwlmvm]
Can anyone make sense of why simply using a different wifi router would cause this? An inability to connect is one thing, but this is nuts.
(And people ask me why I hesitate to recommend desktop Linux to non-techies...)
Happy to bring it in to Tuesday's meeting if anyone can help...
- Evan (on mobile)
--- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On 10 December 2017 at 20:05, Don Tai <dontai.canada@gmail.com> wrote:
Have you tried connecting RJ45 to your router?
Yes. No change, depending on the wifi. AT home it still jams even if I have a wired connector (which on my laptop is done with a USB dongle).
Have you tried a different wifi network?
Work network is fine. Home network is borked. I can try a Tim Horton's or other public wifi. And will test on using my phone as a hotspot. Just can't do it at home ;-) Don
- Evan
Disconnect your router at home, then try your phone wifi hotspot. Does in win10 work wired at home? If so, then use Win10 to access your touter, turn your wifi off. Did you reset your router? Hard power down by pulling the plug, wait 20 secs, insert plug? Don On 10 December 2017 at 20:20, Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> wrote:
On 10 December 2017 at 20:05, Don Tai <dontai.canada@gmail.com> wrote:
Have you tried connecting RJ45 to your router?
Yes.
No change, depending on the wifi. AT home it still jams even if I have a wired connector (which on my laptop is done with a USB dongle).
Have you tried a different wifi network?
Work network is fine.
Home network is borked.
I can try a Tim Horton's or other public wifi. And will test on using my phone as a hotspot. Just can't do it at home ;-)
Don
- Evan
| From: Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> Good datapoints. Also: good recommendations from others. But more might be useful. | Under Windows 10 all is normal (well, its form of normal). | | Under Linux (current mint KDE) at work, all seems ok. | | At home, all hell breaks loose. The only difference is the wifi. Try creating another login (user). Then try to log in with this ID at home. Do you have problems in this situation? | After a normal login not only does networking not come up but the KDE menu | bar doesn't display upon startup, all I have is the KDE wallpaper and a | working xterm. Simple commands work but 'sudo bash' hangs. I vaguely remember that some desktops want to ask networking what their hostname is. Or something like that. I cannot actually connect that with what you report, but perhaps it is a clue. Can you try a different desktop? I don't know how mint's version of GDM works. Fedora's lets you choose amongst the installed Desktop Environments. | If I try to shutdown the system hangs. ALT-F1 gives me some kind of massive | dump starting with the lines: | | BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 000000000000011c | IP iul_num_add_sta+0x49e/0x720 [iwlmvm] That looks to be a problem in wireless handling. iwl is a prefix for wireless things. sta means "stations" in 802.11 -- clients. iwlmvm is the driver for some Intel wireless interfaces. Google will find some error reports with some similarity. For some odd reason, iul_num_add_sta gets no hits at all. Is the message accurate? Google does find error reports about NULL pointer dereferences in this driver. | Can anyone make sense of why simply using a different wifi router would | cause this? An inability to connect is one thing, but this is nuts. Yes. But lots of bugs are nuts. | (And people ask me why I hesitate to recommend desktop Linux to | non-techies...) I find Windows worse. All software has bugs. And hardware too. | Happy to bring it in to Tuesday's meeting if anyone can help... But it will work there! Good luck!
- What kernel version? Slackware recently downgraded from 4.14.2 to 4.9.67. - As Hugh mentioned, try logging in as another user. Though, if it's KDE handling of network, then there should be no difference. - Instead of logging into KDE desktop, log into console (Alt-Ctrl-Fn). -- William Park <opengeometry@yahoo.ca> On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 07:26:03PM -0500, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
My dual-boot Asus laptop now exhibits very strange behaviour.
Under Windows 10 all is normal (well, its form of normal).
Under Linux (current mint KDE) at work, all seems ok.
At home, all hell breaks loose. The only difference is the wifi.
After a normal login not only does networking not come up but the KDE menu bar doesn't display upon startup, all I have is the KDE wallpaper and a working xterm. Simple commands work but 'sudo bash' hangs.
If I try to shutdown the system hangs. ALT-F1 gives me some kind of massive dump starting with the lines:
BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 000000000000011c IP iul_num_add_sta+0x49e/0x720 [iwlmvm]
Can anyone make sense of why simply using a different wifi router would cause this? An inability to connect is one thing, but this is nuts.
(And people ask me why I hesitate to recommend desktop Linux to non-techies...)
Happy to bring it in to Tuesday's meeting if anyone can help...
- Evan (on mobile)
--- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 07:26:03PM -0500, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
My dual-boot Asus laptop now exhibits very strange behaviour.
Under Windows 10 all is normal (well, its form of normal).
Under Linux (current mint KDE) at work, all seems ok.
At home, all hell breaks loose. The only difference is the wifi.
After a normal login not only does networking not come up but the KDE menu bar doesn't display upon startup, all I have is the KDE wallpaper and a working xterm. Simple commands work but 'sudo bash' hangs.
If I try to shutdown the system hangs. ALT-F1 gives me some kind of massive dump starting with the lines:
BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 000000000000011c IP iul_num_add_sta+0x49e/0x720 [iwlmvm]
Can anyone make sense of why simply using a different wifi router would cause this? An inability to connect is one thing, but this is nuts.
(And people ask me why I hesitate to recommend desktop Linux to non-techies...)
Happy to bring it in to Tuesday's meeting if anyone can help...
- Evan (on mobile)
Sounds a bit like this: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195299 So if it is that it should be fixed in 4.14 kernel. Not sure what current mint uses. A search seems to indicate it may be 4.10. It sounds like the trigger is a router using an illegal channel width on some channels on 5GHz. At least that was what one person found. -- Len Sorensen
Thanks! That gives me something to work on. - Evan On 14 December 2017 at 17:00, Lennart Sorensen <lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
wrote:
My dual-boot Asus laptop now exhibits very strange behaviour.
Under Windows 10 all is normal (well, its form of normal).
Under Linux (current mint KDE) at work, all seems ok.
At home, all hell breaks loose. The only difference is the wifi.
After a normal login not only does networking not come up but the KDE
On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 07:26:03PM -0500, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote: menu
bar doesn't display upon startup, all I have is the KDE wallpaper and a working xterm. Simple commands work but 'sudo bash' hangs.
If I try to shutdown the system hangs. ALT-F1 gives me some kind of massive dump starting with the lines:
BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 000000000000011c IP iul_num_add_sta+0x49e/0x720 [iwlmvm]
Can anyone make sense of why simply using a different wifi router would cause this? An inability to connect is one thing, but this is nuts.
(And people ask me why I hesitate to recommend desktop Linux to non-techies...)
Happy to bring it in to Tuesday's meeting if anyone can help...
- Evan (on mobile)
Sounds a bit like this:
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195299
So if it is that it should be fixed in 4.14 kernel. Not sure what current mint uses. A search seems to indicate it may be 4.10.
It sounds like the trigger is a router using an illegal channel width on some channels on 5GHz. At least that was what one person found.
-- Len Sorensen
-- Evan Leibovitch Toronto, Canada Em: evan at telly dot org Sk: evanleibovitch Tw: el56
Update: Lennart's pointers have been very helpful in getting to the root of the problem. I'm now seeing that even the shiniest-new version of Mint uses 4.10 and that Ubuntu 17.10 is only at 4.13. The new kernel can be installed on either through PPAs. It's a little work but far better than crashing. I have tried to experiment with different wifi frequencies and frequency widths at the router side, so far with no improvement. On 14 December 2017 at 19:45, Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> wrote:
Thanks! That gives me something to work on.
- Evan
On 14 December 2017 at 17:00, Lennart Sorensen < lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
My dual-boot Asus laptop now exhibits very strange behaviour.
Under Windows 10 all is normal (well, its form of normal).
Under Linux (current mint KDE) at work, all seems ok.
At home, all hell breaks loose. The only difference is the wifi.
After a normal login not only does networking not come up but the KDE
On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 07:26:03PM -0500, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote: menu
bar doesn't display upon startup, all I have is the KDE wallpaper and a working xterm. Simple commands work but 'sudo bash' hangs.
If I try to shutdown the system hangs. ALT-F1 gives me some kind of massive dump starting with the lines:
BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 000000000000011c IP iul_num_add_sta+0x49e/0x720 [iwlmvm]
Can anyone make sense of why simply using a different wifi router would cause this? An inability to connect is one thing, but this is nuts.
(And people ask me why I hesitate to recommend desktop Linux to non-techies...)
Happy to bring it in to Tuesday's meeting if anyone can help...
- Evan (on mobile)
Sounds a bit like this:
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195299
So if it is that it should be fixed in 4.14 kernel. Not sure what current mint uses. A search seems to indicate it may be 4.10.
It sounds like the trigger is a router using an illegal channel width on some channels on 5GHz. At least that was what one person found.
-- Len Sorensen
-- Evan Leibovitch Toronto, Canada
Em: evan at telly dot org Sk: evanleibovitch Tw: el56
-- Evan Leibovitch Toronto, Canada Em: evan at telly dot org Sk: evanleibovitch Tw: el56
participants (5)
-
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Don Tai -
Evan Leibovitch -
lsorense＠csclub.uwaterloo.ca -
William Park