FS#22412 - Ralink RT2501/RT2573 USB Wireless Adapter crashes kernel 2.6.37

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Eric (zebulon) - Thursday, 13 January 2011, 11:13 GMT
Last edited by Andrea Scarpino (BaSh) - Wednesday, 04 May 2011, 20:08 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Core
Status Closed
Assigned To Andrea Scarpino (BaSh)
Architecture x86_64
Severity Critical
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 5
Private No

Details

Description:
I experience very frequent but unexpected (difficult to reproduce) lockups with kernel 2.6.37 and a USB Wifi adapter Ralink RT2501/RT2573. The computer freezes with no possible recovery other than hard reset. This happens especially when navigating on a video stream on Youtube in Firefox, but may happen any time. This was difficult to diagnose, since no message was left in the logs, but am now pretty sure to have identified the issue because:
- the crashes do not happen if I let the video load entirely, then remove the Wifi adapter, then watch it and navigate through it
- system has been stable for long period of time without the wifi adapter
- this issue starts to be reported for other distributions (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/673682 Strangely, this user reports a call trace, which I do not get)

lsusb returns:
Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2501/RT2573 Wireless Adapter

System is a i7 870 with Gigabyte GA-P55M-UB2 motherboard, Nvidia GTX260. Kernel 2.6.37-1 and nvidia proprietary drivers are installed. This occurs with both binary kernel in testing or compiled kernel from AUR.

Suggestion:
This could require newer compat-wireless drivers in kernel 2.6.37 to be fixed. I will see with rt2x00 developers if they are aware of the problem.
This task depends upon

Closed by  Andrea Scarpino (BaSh)
Wednesday, 04 May 2011, 20:08 GMT
Reason for closing:  Fixed
Additional comments about closing:  kernel26 2.6.38.5-1
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Thursday, 13 January 2011, 11:15 GMT
Note: this does not seem to be related to bug #22343, because it does only occur with kernel 2.6.37, and not with 2.6.36-3 even with udev-165-1.
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Thursday, 13 January 2011, 19:09 GMT
I can now confirm that with a wired connection, instead of wireless, system is stable over a lengthy period and does not crash when seeking in Youtube videos.
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Friday, 28 January 2011, 19:11 GMT
This problem still happens with kernel 2.5.37-4.
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Monday, 31 January 2011, 07:13 GMT
Still happens with 2.6.37-5, which is now in core. Is it possible to move this report to Category Kernel?
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Tuesday, 01 February 2011, 20:58 GMT
To moderator: could you please move this bug to "Kernel" since 2.6.37-5 has been released in core? Many thanks in advance.
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Friday, 04 February 2011, 10:41 GMT
For those affected by this issue, there is a discussion thread on rt2x00 mailing list, which starts there: http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/pipermail/users_rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/2011-February/003142.html
Other threads about rt73usb crashes are also reported http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/pipermail/users_rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/2011-February/003109.html
Comment by manos (gkmanos21) - Wednesday, 23 February 2011, 07:58 GMT
Same here. Kernel 2.6.37.1-1 does not fix the problem. With the Wifi adapter Ralink RT2501/RT2573 I get lockups but with ethernet I don't.
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 10:38 GMT
@manos: have you tried a daily version of compat-wireless drivers? see http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=41485, but you may need to change the dates in the PKGBUILD to use the latest version.
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Thursday, 03 March 2011, 07:46 GMT
The problem still occurs with kernel 2.6.37.2-1.
Comment by manos (gkmanos21) - Friday, 04 March 2011, 12:56 GMT
@ Eric: I have tried it but no change.

I have also tried the kernel 2.6.37.2-1 but the problem remains :(
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Monday, 07 March 2011, 14:29 GMT
@manos: have you got anything in your logs when the system crashes? I invite you to participate to the mailing list threads I mentioned above, if you can provide more info about this issue. Thanks in advance.
Comment by Damien Gombault (Desintegr) - Tuesday, 22 March 2011, 09:45 GMT
Same crash with kernel26 versions 2.6.37.4-1 and 2.6.38-1 with a TP-Link TL-WN321G dongle (rt73usb).
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Friday, 25 March 2011, 19:05 GMT
I have noticed some improvement with kernel 2.6.38 and 2.6.38.1. I do not observe these crashes/freezes, however I sometimes lose network connection. wicd does not detect any network anymore. I have to unplug and plug again the USB adapter (RT2573), then I can detect my wifi network and connect.
Comment by Damien Gombault (Desintegr) - Tuesday, 29 March 2011, 16:56 GMT
I am trying kernel 2.6.38.1.

I lost connection after a few minutes and got this in dmesg :
Mar 29 18:34:39 localhost kernel: phy0 -> rt2x00usb_vendor_request: Error - Vendor Request 0x07 failed for offset 0x30c0 with error -110.
Mar 29 18:35:29 localhost kernel: phy0 -> rt2x00usb_vendor_request: Error - Vendor Request 0x07 failed for offset 0x30c4 with error -110.
Mar 29 18:36:19 localhost kernel: phy0 -> rt2x00usb_vendor_request: Error - Vendor Request 0x07 failed for offset 0x308c with error -110.
Mar 29 18:37:09 localhost kernel: phy0 -> rt2x00usb_vendor_request: Error - Vendor Request 0x06 failed for offset 0x308c with error -110.
Mar 29 18:37:59 localhost kernel: phy0 -> rt2x00usb_vendor_request: Error - Vendor Request 0x07 failed for offset 0x040c with error -110.
Mar 29 18:38:22 localhost kernel: phy0 -> rt2x00usb_vendor_request: Error - Vendor Request 0x06 failed for offset 0x040c with error -19.

I have blacklisted rt2500usb module and rebooted. This seems working.
I will post a new comment if I get another problem or crash.
Comment by Randy Heydon (Tempel) - Friday, 08 April 2011, 22:35 GMT
I've also been having this problem with rt2500usb (though I just discovered this bug report). When using nvidia's drivers, the lockup just freezes the window; when using nouveau, a call trace is printed. However, neither nvidia nor nouveau seem to influence crashes; they still appear just as randomly even if both are unloaded. But unloading rt2500usb and its dependencies gives me days of uptime.

It's made worse by the fact that I can't connect at all on the LTS kernel, but that's not relevant here.
Comment by Davide (LightCastle) - Saturday, 09 April 2011, 14:20 GMT
Archlinux i686 kernel:2.6.37-ARCH rt73 USB
same problem. I'll try kernel 2.6.38
Comment by Randy Heydon (Tempel) - Thursday, 14 April 2011, 20:07 GMT
With the release of 2.6.38.2 in core, this bug seems to have disappeared. I'm also not losing connection like Damien reported, so perhaps that was fixed before it left testing. Anyway, if others can corroborate these findings, perhaps the bug can be closed.
Comment by Jelle van der Waa (jelly) - Thursday, 14 April 2011, 21:05 GMT
is this issue fixed?
Comment by Damien Gombault (Desintegr) - Friday, 15 April 2011, 08:19 GMT
With kernel 2.6.38.1, blacklisting rt2500usb does not resolve my disconnection problem. (I use rt73usb.)
It just fixes the "phy0 -> rt2x00usb_vendor_request" error. I get no crash/freeze but I get disconnected after a few minutes.
wlan0 disappears from up interfaces (with "ifconfig") and if I try to re-up the interface then scan with "iwlist scan", it shows no result. No error in "dmesg".

I will try the kernel 2.6.38.2 next monday.
But it seems there is no change between 2.6.38.1 and 2.6.38.2 for rt2x00 driver : http://goo.gl/U50D3 http://goo.gl/9yJgx
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Sunday, 17 April 2011, 17:46 GMT
As the original reporter, I have to say that the main issue, which was the complete freeze, has been resolved. However, I still experience, sometimes, disconnctions, that can be solved, or not, by unplugging and plugging in back the USB adapter. It is difficult to reproduce a consistent issue, and I cannot find anything ion the logs. The solving may have also happen because of a rt73 firmware update (I read this was the case with Ubuntu).
I would say there is still an issue, but severity should be now downgraded.
Comment by Damien Gombault (Desintegr) - Tuesday, 19 April 2011, 06:21 GMT
I have tested kernel 2.6.38-2 last evening.
It seems OK : no crash or deconnection.
I have only blacklisted rt2500usb module to avoid the "phy0 -> rt2x00usb_vendor_request: Error".

I will continue to use this kernel (or upgrade to 2.6.38-3 when it go to core repo) and report any problem, disconnection or crash.
Comment by Eric (zebulon) - Tuesday, 03 May 2011, 17:59 GMT
So far so good, 2.6.38 kernel seems to have fixed the issue. If everybody is ok, we should close this report.
Comment by Damien Gombault (Desintegr) - Wednesday, 04 May 2011, 19:33 GMT
I agree to close this report.

Loading...