[SOLVED] Ethernet expansion card is not connecting

Hello, i just got my new 11th gen laptop today, put ubuntu on it, everything was great and no problems whatsoever. but for some reason now, my ethernet is not working anymore. at the start i just needed to plug in the cable and it was done. now it is gone. i am new to ubuntu so i dont really know how to troubleshoot connection problems. it is just weird that for hours it works flawlessly and now it doesnt anymore. the card sometimes gives a milisecond a orange LED flash, so it gets power. but any idea how i can fix this? i already restarted but nothing. wifi works fine. but i want to use the cable.
under network in the settings, it says cable unplugged and in that setting, ā€œconnect automaticallyā€ is checked. so any ideas what i could do? thanks
EDIT: it seems to be an ubuntu problem. the card is regonized but many others had this bug on their ubuntu on different versions. i cant find a solution to mine yet. help is still appreciated, if someone else with a fw laptop had this issue on his 22.04 ubuntu desktop.

it really sucks, that i bought the ethernet card to use it and then the software doesnt work with it.

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Hi @samdas,

My name is Matt Hartley and I am the brand new Linux Support Lead. With that, I apologize for the lengthy delay. This will not be a problem going forward because I am handling Linux support, personally.

Letā€™s tackle this first at a hardware level. Please open a terminal and type the following please, to see if we can ā€œseeā€ the adapter at all.

sudo lshw -C network

Then using your mouse, please copy/paste the results back here. Based on the output, we can take the next steps to either get this working or have support see about getting you a working cardā€¦output depending as to what is needed.

1 Like

Iā€™m getting the same exact issue behavior on Ubuntu 22.04.1

Here is my output for lshw:

*-network
description: Ethernet interface
physical id: d
bus info: usb@2:2
logical name: enx9cbf0d0003ab
serial: *****************
size: 1Gbit/s
capabilities: ethernet physical
configuration: autonegotiation=off broadcast=yes driver=cdc_ncm driverversion=5.17.0-1021-oem duplex=half firmware=CDC NCM link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1Gbit/s

Thanks for the help!

Okay, thus far this is looking good. Just to get ahead of this, I would power down. Reseat the expansion card, but in a different slot this time.

If itā€™s still not working, please try:

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

If itā€™s still not working, please try

sudo apt install --reinstall network-manager`

Also please try another cable. Additionally, itā€™s worth trying a shorter cable near the router itself as this is often used to determine if this is in fact a cable issue. Iā€™ve seen this happen before at another position I held previously.

Give these steps a shot, let me know if this helps at all.

Hi, I tried each of the above steps, but havenā€™t had any luck. Let me know if there are any additional commands or logs I can grab to help diagnose the issue.

It may also be worth mentioning that when I close/sleep my laptop and then plug in the ethernet cable, I see normal looking activity from the framework ethernet dongle (flashing lights of both colors), but then once I open or wake the computer, the ethernet dongle stops showing any activity.

Oh wow, that is really interesting! I just received my own ethernet expansion card and I have the exact same problem. Linux doesnā€™t detect any carrier on the card, but when I suspend the laptop, the LEDs go back up as if there was a link then! Pop open the lid again, and boom, as soon as Linux resumes, the LEDs go off. They blink a little from time to time, but itā€™s just a blip, not a solid ā€œyep, we have a link hereā€.

Here are the logs when I plug in the device:

Dec 02 18:25:55 angela kernel: usb 4-2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela kernel: usb 4-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=8156, bcdDevice=31.04 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela kernel: usb 4-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=6 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela kernel: usb 4-2: Product: USB 10/100/1G/2.5G LAN 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela kernel: usb 4-2: Manufacturer: Realtek 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela kernel: usb 4-2: SerialNumber: 4013000001 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela NetworkManager[59731]: <info>  [1670023555.2285] manager: (eth0): new Ethernet device (/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/8) 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela kernel: cdc_ncm 4-2:2.0: MAC-Address: REDACTED
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela kernel: cdc_ncm 4-2:2.0: setting rx_max = 16384 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela kernel: cdc_ncm 4-2:2.0: setting tx_max = 16384 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela kernel: cdc_ncm 4-2:2.0 eth0: register 'cdc_ncm' at usb-0000:00:0d.0-2, CDC NCM (NO ZLP), REDACTED
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela mtp-probe[67996]: checking bus 4, device 5: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0d.0/usb4/4-2" 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela mtp-probe[67996]: bus: 4, device: 5 was not an MTP device 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela systemd-udevd[67995]: Network interface NamePolicy= disabled on kernel command line. 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela NetworkManager[59731]: <info>  [1670023555.8143] device (eth0): state change: unmanaged -> unavailable (reason 'managed', sys-iface-state: 'external') 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela mtp-probe[68056]: checking bus 4, device 5: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0d.0/usb4/4-2" 
Dec 02 18:25:55 angela mtp-probe[68056]: bus: 4, device: 5 was not an MTP device 

Notice how NetworkManager doesnā€™t seem to like the interface somehowā€¦

Hereā€™s what iproute2 thinks of that interface:

anarcat@angela:~$ ip link show eth0 | head -1
6: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000

Hereā€™s the requested lshw output:

  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: e
       bus info: usb@4:2
       logical name: eth0
       serial: REDACTED
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: autonegotiation=off broadcast=yes driver=cdc_ncm driverversion=6.0.0-4-amd64 duplex=half firmware=CDC NCM (NO ZLP) link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair

ā€¦ and, for good measure, lsusb:

Bus 004 Device 005: ID 0bda:8156 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. USB 10/100/1G/2.5G LAN
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               3.20
  bDeviceClass            0 
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0         9
  idVendor           0x0bda Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
  idProduct          0x8156 
  bcdDevice           31.04
  iManufacturer           1 Realtek
  iProduct                2 USB 10/100/1G/2.5G LAN
  iSerial                 6 4013000001
  bNumConfigurations      3
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength       0x0039
    bNumInterfaces          1
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0xa0
      (Bus Powered)
      Remote Wakeup
    MaxPower              256mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           3
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass    255 Vendor Specific Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 
      iInterface              0 
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0400  1x 1024 bytes
        bInterval               0
        bMaxBurst               3
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x02  EP 2 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0400  1x 1024 bytes
        bInterval               0
        bMaxBurst               3
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x83  EP 3 IN
        bmAttributes            3
          Transfer Type            Interrupt
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0002  1x 2 bytes
        bInterval              11
        bMaxBurst               0
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength       0x0068
    bNumInterfaces          2
    bConfigurationValue     2
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0xa0
      (Bus Powered)
      Remote Wakeup
    MaxPower              256mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass         2 Communications
      bInterfaceSubClass     13 
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 
      iInterface              5 CDC Communications Control
      CDC Header:
        bcdCDC               1.10
      CDC Union:
        bMasterInterface        0
        bSlaveInterface         1 
      CDC Ethernet:
        iMacAddress                      3 REDACTED
        bmEthernetStatistics    0x0031501f
        wMaxSegmentSize               1518
        wNumberMCFilters            0x8000
        bNumberPowerFilters              0
      CDC NCM:
        bcdNcmVersion        1.00
        bmNetworkCapabilities 0x2b
          8-byte ntb input size
          max datagram size
          net address
          packet filter
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x83  EP 3 IN
        bmAttributes            3
          Transfer Type            Interrupt
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0010  1x 16 bytes
        bInterval              11
        bMaxBurst               0
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        1
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           0
      bInterfaceClass        10 CDC Data
      bInterfaceSubClass      0 
      bInterfaceProtocol      1 
      iInterface              0 
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        1
      bAlternateSetting       1
      bNumEndpoints           2
      bInterfaceClass        10 CDC Data
      bInterfaceSubClass      0 
      bInterfaceProtocol      1 
      iInterface              4 Ethernet Data
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0400  1x 1024 bytes
        bInterval               0
        bMaxBurst               3
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x02  EP 2 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0400  1x 1024 bytes
        bInterval               0
        bMaxBurst               3
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength       0x0062
    bNumInterfaces          2
    bConfigurationValue     3
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0xa0
      (Bus Powered)
      Remote Wakeup
    MaxPower              256mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass         2 Communications
      bInterfaceSubClass      6 Ethernet Networking
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 
      iInterface              5 CDC Communications Control
      CDC Header:
        bcdCDC               1.10
      CDC Union:
        bMasterInterface        0
        bSlaveInterface         1 
      CDC Ethernet:
        iMacAddress                      3 REDACTED
        bmEthernetStatistics    0x0031501f
        wMaxSegmentSize               1518
        wNumberMCFilters            0x8000
        bNumberPowerFilters              0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x83  EP 3 IN
        bmAttributes            3
          Transfer Type            Interrupt
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0010  1x 16 bytes
        bInterval              11
        bMaxBurst               0
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        1
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           0
      bInterfaceClass        10 CDC Data
      bInterfaceSubClass      0 
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 
      iInterface              0 
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        1
      bAlternateSetting       1
      bNumEndpoints           2
      bInterfaceClass        10 CDC Data
      bInterfaceSubClass      0 
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 
      iInterface              4 Ethernet Data
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0400  1x 1024 bytes
        bInterval               0
        bMaxBurst               3
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x02  EP 2 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0400  1x 1024 bytes
        bInterval               0
        bMaxBurst               3
Binary Object Store Descriptor:
  bLength                 5
  bDescriptorType        15
  wTotalLength       0x0016
  bNumDeviceCaps          2
  USB 2.0 Extension Device Capability:
    bLength                 7
    bDescriptorType        16
    bDevCapabilityType      2
    bmAttributes   0x00000002
      HIRD Link Power Management (LPM) Supported
  SuperSpeed USB Device Capability:
    bLength                10
    bDescriptorType        16
    bDevCapabilityType      3
    bmAttributes         0x02
      Latency Tolerance Messages (LTM) Supported
    wSpeedsSupported   0x000e
      Device can operate at Full Speed (12Mbps)
      Device can operate at High Speed (480Mbps)
      Device can operate at SuperSpeed (5Gbps)
    bFunctionalitySupport   2
      Lowest fully-functional device speed is High Speed (480Mbps)
    bU1DevExitLat          10 micro seconds
    bU2DevExitLat        2047 micro seconds
Device Status:     0x001c
  (Bus Powered)
  U1 Enabled
  U2 Enabled
  Latency Tolerance Messaging (LTM) Enabled

Any idea what could be happening here? The card is basically not workingā€¦

This is a 12th gen DIY kit, running Debian testing/bookworm 11:

Linux angela 6.0.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.0.8-1 (2022-11-11) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Iā€™m available for further debugging, firmware upgrades, etc.

I just filed a support request about this with the Framework team directly, this seems serious enoughā€¦

1 Like

Interesting! Thanks for creating a support ticket, is there anyway to share that link or is it private?

One last detail that may be helpful is that my ethernet expansion card was working well for a while when I first received it. It only stopped working sometime around early November (I canā€™t remember exactly when since I wasnā€™t using it that often at that time)

unfortunately, i couldnā€™t find a clear link. it seems thereā€™s a message-id to keep track of threads, but that doesnā€™t give you a web view. Iā€™ll give updates here as soon as i have them.

for me it never worked. which version of the laptop do you have, and on which OS?

Got a reply from support, they asked me to reproduce in one of the distros mentioned here, but I replied that someone here (@Cameron_Abma) had the same problem in Ubuntu 22.04.

They have also asked for a video where we see the behavior, which I also sent. Here is a copy:

https://paste.anarc.at/publish/2022-12-04-DY2F7vHBRijfZ2ycTDLSxlw4wtfEBcZIX0ytJBE6sKQ/VID_20221204_145120_proxy.mp4

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Okay so hereā€™s an interesting tidbit:

If I reboot the laptop, the link LEDs actually come back up during the POST boot, before the kernel loads. Then when the Linux kernel runs, they turn off and then back on, steadily, until ā€¦ something runs and then they turn back off.

So something is breaking this during boot, because in the BIOS, it just works! Fascinating!

I bet this is a problem with powertop. When I run powertop, there is an entry like this in the Tunables tab:

Good Autosuspend for USB device USB 10/100/1G/2.5G LAN [Realtek]      

Hitting space bar here magically fixes the ethernet card, woohoo!

Or, if you will, this magic command whould turn the card back on:

echo 'on' > '/sys/bus/usb/devices/4-2/power/control';

to revert:

echo 'auto' > '/sys/bus/usb/devices/4-2/power/control';

ā€¦ interestingly, even in auto mode, the card still works. So maybe thereā€™s something in the powertop setup code that breaks thisā€¦

Iā€™ll notify support, but I think this might be a fix for you, @samdas @Cameron_Abma :slight_smile:

Well that is certainly much better!

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.09 GBytes   937 Mbits/sec  238             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.09 GBytes   934 Mbits/sec                  receiver

whoohoo!

9 Likes

Hmmā€¦ Are either of you using one of those wacky ā€œgreenā€ ethernet switches? If so, I wonder if there are any tools or means of trying it out with those features disabled.

@Matt_Hartley sorry for the late reply, i fixed it by reinstalling ubuntu. for now, no issues with the adapter or the cable. so sorry, i cant show you any data anymore, what i could remember is that the adapter was recognized by the system, just for some reason, it would not accept the cable. anyway, sorry i didnt get responed earlier.

@SodaStream i dont know what you mean, but i use the ethernet expansion card directly to the modem/router of my provider. no switches there.

1 Like

No. The first tests were performed against some generic tplink switch, and the latter test against a Turris Omnia router. Not sure what a whacky green switch is eitherā€¦

Could this be that you changes some power saving settings in the first install and those were lost in the second? I used powertop here and that seems to be the root cause of the problemā€¦

cant remember but i highly doubt it, i was not changing any power saving settings, just installed a bunch of stuff that is recommanded. but will try out and report back. if that would be the case, i would be super mad. it also doesnt make much sense to me, isnt wifi more costly energy wise than ethernet?

Edit: first, i have the newest ubuntu now, so 22.10, i had the issue with 22.04, so it could be already fixed. but i have here now the power saver option and the automatic power saver enabled. and ethernet works fine.

As @anarcat already posted, the device/chipset doesnā€™t seem to be playing nicely with power saving optimisations. Following @anarcatā€™s manual sysfs workaround indeed stops the immediate issue for me.

I donā€™t really want to have to execute ad hoc commands though (scripted or manually), so I dug a little deeper to see what was auto-configuring the device into a(n erroneous) power-saving state.

On my system at least (Ubuntu 22.04), it was TLP. Adding the following line to /etc/tlp.conf worked-around the immediate issue, and the Ethernet expansion begins working as expected upon insert, sleep, reboots etc:

/etc/tlp.conf

USB_DENYLIST="0bda:8156"

Where ā€˜0bda:8156ā€™ is the device id for the Ethernet expansion.

Of courseā€¦ this now disables the auto-suspend for the Ethernet expansion (though Iā€™m not sure of the power impact), so a proper solution would be to ensure the chipset/expansion behaves correctly with these power optimisations in the first place.

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Ah, thatā€™s more likely whatā€™s causing the problem here, indeed. I was suspicious when powertop wouldnā€™t restore the bad behavior when re-enabling the power saving trick. It seems itā€™s doing it differently than tlp.conf is maybe?

Anyways, I also have tlp setup, so that could also be the culprit in my case.

yeah, thatā€™s what I told support tooā€¦ I donā€™t think this issue is fixed just because we found the workaroundā€¦

1 Like

ok i have it now, after reading your comments, yes it most probably was tlp for me.
I installed it today, and did some other stuff, after a restart, the card wasnt working. i tried to edit the tlp.conf, but that didnt change it, only uninstalling tlp worked. so i will keep it uninstalled until the issue is solved. thanks for the help

Some lines of TP-Link, D-Link, and others provide a ā€œgreenā€ ethernet technology which sometimes plays poorly with certain network configurations. While itā€™s prudent to do our part in saving the planet, saving a couple watts over a year wonā€™t really help as much and will likely wind up with switches in ditches as people move to more traditional ethernet switches.

I thought Iā€™d screen for that potential source of trouble, but if youā€™re experiencing this when plugged in to your router, then the point is moot.

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