Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz rev 0x354 crashing on Linux when connecting to 5GHz network

[vmsh0]

Hello,

I have a Lenovo E15 laptop with a Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz rev 0x354 Bluetooth + Wi-Fi 6 network adapter.

I am running kernel 5.16.5 and I am observing an issue with this and previous kernels regarding the network adapter.

I'm having issues connecting to certain 5Ghz network. When I attempt to do that using iwctl, I receive an "Operation failed" error, and it seems like the firmware on the adapter crashes and it gets reset. Here's a relevant kernel log: https://paste.sr.ht/blob/966d3be6e19f27f33c92d358b1f717fac41b5889

Additionally, it seems like Bluetooth is not working at all (although this is not a big issue for me - the Wi-Fi issue is definitely higher priority).

This has been happening pretty much since I bought my computer, forcing me to use 2.4GHz networks in some cases. Luckily, it seems that iwd is smart enough to fall back to 2.4GHz when connection to a 5GHz SSID fails, or I wouldn't have any functionality at all.

I do not think this is an hardware issue, as it seems to work from Microsoft Windows.

My laptop is up to date with all firmware updates released by Lenovo. As I mentioned, I'm running the latest stable kernel, and I'm also running the latest iwd.

I have found a previous topic on the forum which seems to be about a similar issue: https://community.intel.com/t5/Wireless/AX201-210-5-Ghz-connection-issue/m-p/1254581

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello @vmsh0

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

First, we recommend reviewing the table of Wireless adapters and corresponding kernel versions available in this link to make sure the system is running a supported Kernel. Here you can also find the latest iwlwifi wireless driver for Intel's current wireless chips: https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/iwlwifi

The latest firmware is available at the following link:​ ​https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/

If the behavior persists once you have verified the previous details, please provide us with the following information:

1- The output of these two terminal commands: 

• $ hostnamectl
• # lspci

2- Just for testing purposes (and if this is possible for you), please confirm if you are able to replicate the issue while using Ubuntu* (we mean, in case you are running a different distro)? If yes, please provide details:

3- Is the Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 the original wireless adapter that came pre-installed in your system or did you integrate/replace it into the computer?

4- Router or Access Point (AP) maker and model:

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[vmsh0]

Hi,

The network adapter is supported and my distro ships and loads the latest firmware as found in the Git repo (as can be seen from the provided kernel logs).

1)

Static hostname: enhorning
Icon name: computer-laptop
Chassis: laptop
Machine ID: c614ad4be4324a7abc96363b15bc13a1
Boot ID: 70d321635ce049b19ffd844ea3cf439c
Operating System: Arch Linux
Kernel: Linux 5.16.7-arch1-1
Architecture: x86-64
Hardware Vendor: Lenovo
Hardware Model: ThinkPad E15

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake-U v1 4c Host Bridge/DRAM Controller (rev 0c)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation CometLake-U GT2 [UHD Graphics] (rev 02)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 0c)
00:08.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/v6 / E3-1500 v5 / 6th/7th/8th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
00:12.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake Thermal Subsytem
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP Shared SRAM
00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP CNVi WiFi
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake Management Engine Interface
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake SATA AHCI Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f0)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f0)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f0)
00:1d.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCI Express Root Port #13 (rev f0)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP LPC Premium Controller/eSPI Controller
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP cAVS
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP SMBus Host Controller
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake SPI (flash) Controller
03:00.0 Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Lexa [Radeon 540X/550X/630 / RX 640 / E9171 MCM] (rev c0)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
07:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: SK hynix BC501 NVMe Solid State Drive

2) Before going through the effort on testing this on Ubuntu, please see the additional information I give below.

3) Factory installed

4) MikroTik hAP ac, RouterOS 7.1.1

Additional information

After additional investigation, I found out that the crash happened when the router selected a frequency inside the regulatory domain configured on the PC (and thus the BSSID from the router was detected), but extension channels outside the regulatory domain. In other words, it seems that when the Wi-Fi is on a supported channel but the extension channels are on unsupported channels, the network card firmware crashed (failed assertions?)

I worked around this by selecting a fixed frequency in my router, making sure that all the extension channels fit inside the regulatory domain selected on my PC. Now, when I connect to the 5GHz network of the router, the firmware no longer crashes.

However, I now have a different issue: with seemingly random patterns, the adapter stops exchanging data with the router, until I manually disconnect and reconnect to the Wi-Fi network. I don't think it's the router, as this doesn't happen with many other devices connected to the 5GHz BSSID.

[vmsh0]

Hi,

I'm running the latest kernel with the latest firmware. The adapter is indeed supported by the kernel version I'm using.

1)

Static hostname: enhorning
Icon name: computer-laptop
Chassis: laptop
Machine ID: c614ad4be4324a7abc96363b15bc13a1
Boot ID: 126136b3696a41ed89c1c8180be9db92
Operating System: Arch Linux
Kernel: Linux 5.16.8-arch1-1
Architecture: x86-64
Hardware Vendor: Lenovo
Hardware Model: ThinkPad E15

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake-U v1 4c Host Bridge/DRAM Controller (rev 0c)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation CometLake-U GT2 [UHD Graphics] (rev 02)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 0c)
00:08.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/v6 / E3-1500 v5 / 6th/7th/8th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
00:12.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake Thermal Subsytem
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP Shared SRAM
00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP CNVi WiFi
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake Management Engine Interface
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake SATA AHCI Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f0)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f0)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f0)
00:1d.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCI Express Root Port #13 (rev f0)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP LPC Premium Controller/eSPI Controller
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP cAVS
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP SMBus Host Controller
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake SPI (flash) Controller
03:00.0 Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Lexa [Radeon 540X/550X/630 / RX 640 / E9171 MCM] (rev c0)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
07:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: SK hynix BC501 NVMe Solid State Drive

2) please read the additional information below

3) factory installed

4) MikroTik hAP ac, Router 7.1.1

Additional information

I have further investigated the issue. The crash *seems* to happen when connecting to a 40/80/160MHz 5GHz network with extension channels with are not supported by the selected regulatory domain for the card. I have not been able to confirm it definitively. But when I manually selected a control channel and extension channels on the router which I am sure are supported by my selected regulatory domain (Sweden), the crash stopped happening.

With this workaround, the adapter worked well for many hours, but now unfortunately it is presenting a new issue: once every few minutes, it stops transmitting packets until I manually disconnect and reconnect to the Wi-Fi network. This is not an issue on the side of the router, as other devices connected to the router work as expected during these "downtimes".

[vmsh0]

Hi,

I'm running the latest kernel with the latest firmware. The adapter is indeed supported by the kernel version I'm using.

1) https://paste.sr.ht/blob/a8d9f5a90e41520e62e611be29c6610364ba170c

2) I don't think this applies. I'm using the latest vanilla kernel, which loads the correct latest firmware

3) factory installed

4) MikroTik hAP ac, Router 7.1.1

Additional information

I have further investigated the issue. The crash seems to happen only when the Wi-Fi network is on certain frequencies. For example, it doesn't happen on frequency 5180 (with three extension channels above, 80MHz total).

By selecting that channel manually on my router, the adapter worked well for many hours, but now unfortunately it is presenting a new issue: once every few minutes, it stops transmitting packets until I manually disconnect and reconnect to the Wi-Fi network. This is not an issue on the side of the router, as other devices connected to the router work as expected during these "downtimes".

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello vmsh0

Thank you for your response and for all the details.

Please allow us to review this further and we will be posting back in the thread as soon as possible.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello vmsh0

We are still working on this matter. However, we would like to gather additional details. Could you please provide us with the following information?

1- May we know if you filed this issue on behalf of your company 'live.it', and how many systems are affected by this issue?

2- You stated "The crash seems to happen only when the Wi-Fi network is on certain frequencies. For example, it doesn't happen on frequency 5180 (with three extension channels above, 80MHz total)."

1. May we know which channel in 5GHz and channel width the Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 would crash?
2. And does the crash usually occur at 80 MHz and AX201 usually works better at 20 or 40 MHz?

Compatibility can be a concern while enabling channel bonding. We suggest lowering to 40MHz or staying at 20MHz if crashes occur.

3- On the wireless Access Point (AP), try upgrading to the latest Firmware, reboot the AP, and set a static channel instead of setting the channel as "Auto".

4- If the issue doesn't improve with the above methods, while the crash occurs, please provide a complete dmesg log, and the output of these commands:

• iw reg get
• iw phy
• iwconfig
• iw dev
• iw dev wlp3s0 link

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello vmsh0

We are checking this thread and we would like to know if you were able to review our previous post. If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us back.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello vmsh0

We have not heard back from you so we will proceed to close this thread now. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.

Our last advice is to check with the Linux operating system (OS) distributor to review this further since that error seems to be related to the OS.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[vmsh0]

For future Internet dwellers, I have since swapped out my network card for one with a different chipset, and it now works.

From some experimentation and conversations I had with colleagues, it seems that my AP has unusually tight timing requirements, and the AX201 (possibly in combination with the Linux driver?) can't make it. This is only informed speculation of course.