Kernel 6.8.0-136 causes loss of Network (and more) on my PC

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Ubuntu Version:Ubuntu MATE 24.04

Desktop Environment (if applicable):Gnome

Problem Description: During the last update, I got Kernel 6.8.0-136. Before reboot, my DSL-connection via router worked OK. (Browser worked.) Afterwards, Firefox told me that I had no internet connection. In Control Center/Advanced Network Configuration, I could not see enp3s0 anymore. That window was empty. Trying to make a new enp3s0 with the usual settings and reboot did not help. The network indicator applet did not show this connection and I remained offline.

Other issues: (1) A USB-stick with exfat did not work anymore. Exfat was was not configured, it told me when I tried to mount that stick. Sticks with Fat32 still worked normally. (2) During boot, I saw a message that the virtualbox-driver could not be loaded. (I have splash screen off so that I see such messages.)

All this goes away and the PC works normally when I boot with kernel 6.8.0-111 instead. So I pinned that kernel and removed 6.8.0-136. That fixes it for now, but since kernel updates are often security-relevant, it can not stay like that forever.

Relevant System Information:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 05)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d5)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev d5)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d5)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation H87 Express LPC Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GP107GL High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0c)
04:00.0 PCI bridge: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1083/1085 PCIe to PCI Bridge (rev 03)

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Since you have removed the Linux 6.8.0-136, in my opinion, the problem can be considered solved.

How can you try out suggestions without the operating system running on Linux kernel 6.8.0-136?

In the Relevant System Information I cannot identify the WiFi adapter. May be I am getting too old. May be I need glasses.

Regards

3

Dear graymech,

there IS no WiFi on my PCs. Only DSL via ethernet. They have no WiFi-hardware. (The router is less than 2m from the PCs, so why WiFi?) So the relevant network info is:

Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0c)
04:00.0 PCI bridge: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1083/1085 PCIe to PCI Bridge (rev 03)

As for suggestions: I made an Acronis-backup of the Ubuntu-SSD before the upgrade and an incremental backup when it finally worked with kernel 111. So I COULD restore the state before the update and take it from there.

IF you want to analyze the problem more deeply in order to fix whatever is wrong with that new Kernel, we could do this.

Otherwise, I might just wait for future kernel-versions and hope that this gets fixed somehow…

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Sorry. My mistake. I made an assumption.

Ethernet usually works without problems. On my system (desktop - Ubuntu Gnome) I have no need to set up ethernet. It just works.

Regards

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That’s how it was for me too, all those years, since Ubuntu-9.

But with this upgrade to kernel 136, that changed. It looked a bit like it could still detect the ethernet card - but had nor driver for it. So manually making an enp3s0 had no effect.

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I just tried to reproduce the bug. Updated everything else while kernel ~111 was pinned, made an incremental backup, unpinned the kernel and updated only it to v~136, ready to document all kinds of things - and then the darn thing just updated, causing no problems at all. And now it runs like a champ.

I have no explanation for this. It seemingly made a difference that there was not a ton of other updates installing at the same time. That ton, alone, went well. And afterwards this kernel update, alone, also went well. But both together failed several times.

Anyway, this one can be marked “solved”.

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