AX200NGW Wireless Adapter Performance/Reliability Regression With Recent Linux Kernels

[tomdeering]

I have a Linux laptop with an AX200NGW wireless adapter. I have noticed that after upgrading from the 5.8 kernel to 5.11, networking performance and reliability massively regressed. Video calls that were previously smooth now stutter and hang, and upload and download speeds are now much worse than they were before. This problem persists even in the 5.13 kernel. I'm seeing this issue with Pop!_OS 20.10 as well as 21.04. iwconfig shows me the following:

wlp58s0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"Deering" 
Mode:Managed Frequency:5.24 GHz Access Point: 10:0C:6B:D4:2B:35 
Bit Rate=720.6 Mb/s Tx-Power=22 dBm 
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=50/70 Signal level=-60 dBm 
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:386 Missed beacon:0

I would greatly appreciate help diagnosing and fixing this issue, thanks!

[tomdeering]

Disabling power saving seems to solve my issue. Within /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf:

[connection]
wifi.powersave = 3

Changing this value to 2 and rebooting solves my issue. Recent linux kernels (after 5.8) there must have a regression with power saving and this wifi adapter. Of course I would love to be able to re-enable power saving for my mobile use, so please let me know if you have ideas for things to try other than entirely disabling power saving.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello tomdeering,  

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.   

In order to better assist you, please provide the following:  

1. The brand and model number of your system. You can also provide the Intel® System Support Utility for the Linux* Operating System for more details: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26735/Intel-System-Support-Utility-for-the-Linux-Operating-System

2. Have you update your drivers and BIOS? 

3. Is the Bluetooth working?   

4. Run the following commands and send us the outcome:  

· modinfo iwlwifi > If there is no output, then the module isn’t installed this is the distribution installation issue.  

· lsmod | grep iwlwifi > If the result is empty, the driver hasn't been loaded. Most likely to be a distribution issue.  

· To verify, please type: dmesg | grep iwlwifi > If the result is empty, the driver wasn’t initialized and this is a distribution issue. If there is a result populated, proceed with the next step.   

· dmesg | grep “no suitable firmware found!” > If the result is not empty, it means you don't have a suitable FW (API mentioned in the dmesg).  

· Please visit here: https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/iwlwifi for supported FW, or here https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/ for the latest versions.  

5. If the above steps don't work, collect the debug data:  

Type: dmesg | grep ASSERT   

If the output is empty, please follow this wiki: https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/iwlwifi/debugging to extract dmesg and trace-cmd.  

If the output has value, please collect it from the wiki FW dump too.  

Regards,    

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[tomdeering]

Hi Deivid,

1. I'm using a System76 Galago Pro running Pop!_OS 21.04. The issue also manifested with Pop!_OS 20.10.

2. Yes, I have the latest drivers and BIOS installed
3. Yes, Bluetooth works. I do have occasional issues where the sound to my headphones will stop, then the headphones will disconnect and reconnect, but it generally works.
4. Outputs attached. Everything looks ok

5. Empty output. I'll get this enabled and reply again with some output.

[tomdeering]

Attached is some data from trace-cmd

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello tomdeering, 

Thanks for the information provided.

The reports attached do not contain any of the information on your device, perhaps due to the operating system that is being used for the laptop. If possible try to run Ubuntu and check if the issue persists or just provide the report using Ubuntu for us to have the info of your system.

Also, I would like to know if you tried to get in contact with the manufacturer of the laptop for further instructions?

Regards,   

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello tomdeering,  

Were you able to check the previous post and get the information requested? Please let me know if you need more assistance.   

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[tomdeering]

Hi Deivid,

Sorry for not responding sooner, I did see the previous post. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to compile a new kernel with dmesg logging enabled for iwlwifi, or to run the system with Ubuntu to gather more debugging information. 

I did contact the manufacturer (System76), whose recommendation was to revert to the older 5.8 kernel to work around the regression. Unfortunately that's less easy with newer versions of Pop!_OS, and is generally a not-very-desirable fix. For the time being my problem is "solved" by turning off power saving.

Since I'm not able to get you much more information, please feel free to mark the thread as resolved!

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello tomdeering, 

Thanks for the update, 

I understand that you may not have the time to perform the steps provided, I will proceed to close this thread since unfortunately, we can not continue further.

However, if you have the time to try the steps, feel free to create a new post and add the outcome and use this thread as a reference.

Regards,  

Deivid A. 

Intel Customer Support Technician