Ethernet with Intel e1000e NOT WORKING even after several workarounds

[Paolo_64]

Hello; I wanted to run Linux Mint on a somewhat older machine, however a bug appeared that was well described i.e. here:
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2167864

To sum it up:
After startup, network works fine.
After about 6 minutes, network stops working.

It's not a failure of hardware.
It's not a problem of router - other machines on the network or even the modem port are working normally.
It's really not a problem specific to Linux Mint (Ubuntu-based) - the same behaviour was seen when booting from LMDE flash drive.

Further down I'm pasting inxi and things I've tried; my question is:
1) Where to look for signs of the bug?
2) What else can be tried? The hardware can obviously work and the problem seems to be only in some inconspicuous configuration option...

inxi -Fxz:

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System:    Host: Compaq-8200-Elite Kernel: 4.15.0-47-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.0.10 
           Distro: Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Compaq 8200 Elite SFF PC v: N/A serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1495 serial: <filter> BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: J01 v02.15 date: 11/10/2011 

Network:   Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: e1000e v: 3.4.2.4-NAPI port: f080 
           bus ID: 00:19.0 
           IF: eno1 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-2600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 54276 
           Speed: 1596 MHz min/max: 1600/3400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1596 2: 1597 3: 1600 4: 1593 5: 1597 6: 1596 7: 1596 
           8: 1598 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1280x1024~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Sandybridge Desktop v: 3.3 Mesa 18.2.8 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-47-generic 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 34.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 225 Uptime: 9m Memory: 7.68 GiB used: 588.9 MiB (7.5%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.3.0 
           Shell: bash v: 4.4.19 inxi: 3.0.27

I have a clean install; only Linux.
I've installed the newest drivers of the ethernet card in question (3.4.2.4) and tried almost all the suggestions from
https://serverfault.com/questions/19311 ... do-i-start
and
https://serverfault.com/questions/61648 ... -unit-hang
- there seems to be a lot of issues with this network chipset -
but with no luck.
Tried turning (power) options in BIOS and disabling wake up on LAN - no change.
Tried turning off NetworkManager (since I've suspected NetworkManager from mismanagement) and configured /etc/network/interfaces as such:

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# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eno1
iface eno1 inet dhcp

...but the problems are pertaining.

As for logs:
No interesting news in dmesg output, only this:

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[   10.462798] PTP clock support registered
[   10.462997] e1000e: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[   10.463107] e1000e: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[   10.464040] e1000e: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - 3.4.2.4-NAPI
[   10.464041] e1000e: Copyright(c) 1999 - 2019 Intel Corporation.
[   10.464257] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: Interrupt Throttling Rate (ints/sec) set to dynamic conservative mode
[b][   10.464259] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: EEE Support Disabled[/b]
[   10.499433] ipmi message handler version 39.2

I'm afraid not much interesting stuff even in syslog, although I hope to be mistaken; notice on the first line, the internet connection is working (synchronization ok) but at about 01:54 it's not working and there don't seem to be relevant messages... (log taken at 01:56)

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Apr 17 01:49:44 localhost systemd-timesyncd[699]: Synchronized to time server [2001:67c:1560:8003::c8]:123 (ntp.ubuntu.com).
Apr 17 01:49:50 localhost dbus-daemon[1057]: [session uid=1000 pid=1057] Activating via systemd: service name='org.gnome.Terminal' unit='gnome-terminal-server.service' requested by ':1.56' (uid=1000 pid=1872 comm="/usr/bin/gnome-terminal.real " label="unconfined")
Apr 17 01:49:50 localhost systemd[1030]: Starting GNOME Terminal Server...
Apr 17 01:49:50 localhost dbus-daemon[1057]: [session uid=1000 pid=1057] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.Terminal'
Apr 17 01:49:50 localhost systemd[1030]: Started GNOME Terminal Server.
Apr 17 01:50:11 localhost systemd[1]: Starting Stop ureadahead data collection...
Apr 17 01:50:11 localhost systemd[1]: Started Stop ureadahead data collection.
Apr 17 01:51:15 localhost systemd-resolved[926]: Using degraded feature set (UDP) for DNS server 10.0.0.138.

[kelebek333]

Have you tried the following temporary suggestion?

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sudo rmmod e1000e 
sudo modprobe e1000e EEE=0

If the issue is solved with temporary suggestion, following command can be made permanent.

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echo "options e1000e EEE=0" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/e1000e.conf

[Paolo_64]

Hello kelebek333 and thanks for your suggestion!

Yes, I've tried it and I believe that there is a proof that I made it permanent in my dmesg output posted in the original post:

( [ 10.464259] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: EEE Support Disabled )

Or is it not?

One strange thing that SOMETIMES happened was, that:

• 1) I started up the PC, internet OK.
  2) after 5 minutes it went suddenly down.
  3) I ran those two commands to remove&insert the driver module
  4) After that, the internet connection held for more than - say - 15 minutes... and didn't "fall down".

Then I usually restarted the computer and tried to change something since I needed something that would work right after (re)start...

So - sometimes this suggestion worked (not every time, though!), but it didn't work after restart, although I believe the EEE mode was disabled (as documented by dmesg output).

[kelebek333]

You can try to change ethernet speed via Network Connections tool.

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nm-connection-editor

After this,

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sudo service network-manager restart

[Paolo_64]

I've tried that, but that's not it.
Didn't make any difference.
Believe it's some other driver parameter that is not set correctly... But don't know which.

[Aneirin]

I have same problem: Intel 82579LM / e1000e driver
I tried:
1. ethtool disable EEE
2. disable EEE in /etc/modules.d/e1000e.conf
3. build / install latest Intel e1000e (at time of writing 3.4.2.4) kernel module / driver
4. disabled any "intelligent" power management in BIOS (I couldn't see anything directly mentioning C1 / C1E so I just disabled all I could see with intelligent power management)
5. disabled pcie_aspm (active state power management) at kernel level by appending pcie_aspm=off to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub followed by update-grub and yet another reboot for good measure

I think turning off EEE made the problem less severe, but as it was seemingly random, is difficult to say. Problem certainly didn't go away with turning off EEE. Autonegotiate etc already enabled by default so it wasn't that either.

Started considering a hardware fault. I do not have this issue on my trusty older other PC (thus different NIC) with same Linux Mint 19.2. I used exactly the same network cables plus ADSL modem (Fritz!Box 7312 - came bundled by my internet provider, been working rock steady for years). Still got the problem with this NIC / box.

I also noticed that e.g. streaming radio was rarely interrupted even though the disconnect / reconnect network message was still flashing at irregular intervals (buffering? perhaps...). Network would auto-disconnect and then typically auto-reconnect within 5 - 7 seconds, yet I could still listen to streaming audio ok.

Just out of curiosity, I threw a switch (HP ProCurve 8 port) between my PC and the ADSL modem. No more notifications about network dropping and reconnecting and those dmesg logs now beautifully quiet

This would suggest issue is something to do with some interaction between the ethernet / NIC on the FritzBox and the e1000e driver. Again, never had this problem with *same* ADSL modem on other older PC. Putting a switch between PC and ADSL modem essentially meant the network drop / reconnect (NIC Link down) could only be reported between my PC and the Switch: no issue reported, rock steady. Could it be that the e1000e driver is actually actively reporting occasional NIC link down/up issues and the other older driver simply not reporting them?

Anyway, HTH, was driving me nuts...

[huge bug]

same issue here...only one i found ans seems to work is this article:
- https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=191981
but i dont know what i should and can do...

for me i use a external usb-hdd with installed Linux Mint 20 UEFI