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JoshuaD
Asked: 2022-03-16 20:24:55 +0800 CST

Unstable Ethernet Connection, Can be fixed by manually disconnecting and reconnecting

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My ethernet connection stops functioning every 1-5 minutes. When this happens, I am unable to connect to the local network and (of course) unable to connect to the internet. My system indicates that it is connected in the network indicator in my system tray, but I am not able to connect to the internet or my local network via a web browser, pings, or other programs.

If I wait 1-5 minutes, the connection starts conveying traffic again. Then another 1-5 minutes later, it stops working again. It has been cycling like this for the at least last 4 hours, and I think since last night or this morning.

I had this same problem about 1 month ago after a system upgrade. After two days (and me trying a number of solutions) the problem stopped happening. I simiarly updated my computer a few days ago, and again this problem has appeared.

Last time, I didn't have the impression that any of my attempted solutions fixed it. I felt like something magical happened in my computer at a level below where I was aware, and the problem stopped of its own accord.

Most interestingly, if I right click on the connection icon, select disconnect, and then select "Wired connection 1" to reconnect, the internet immediately starts working again. Then 1-5 minutes later, it disconnects.

This may be completely off base, but on an experiential level, it feels like a buffer, disk, or swap is getting full somewhere, and the connection stops working because there is no more room somewhere it wants to write something. It's just an intuitive feeling from using computers for my whole life, and could be completely wrong. But is there a way I can check places that might be full?

Output of lspci -v

00:1f.6 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 126
        Memory at df300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: e1000e
        Kernel modules: e1000e

Output of uname -a

Linux Joshua-Linux 5.13.0-35-generic #40~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Mon Mar 7 09:18:32 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Other Information I have another computer connected to the network via wifi sitting next to me, and that computer is not losing connection at all. Neither is my cell phone. It appears to only be this desktop Xubuntu 20.04 machine that is having the problem.

Things I tried previously

  1. Failed: Change MTU from Automatic to 1492 in network connection settings GUI interface.

  2. Failed: Change link negotiation from "Ignore" to "Manual"

  3. Failed: Change link negotiation from "Ignore" to "Automatic"

  4. Failed: Install the driver here: https://github.com/koljah-de/e1000e-dkms-debian

  5. Failed: Change ethernet cable.

  6. Failed: Update kernel stack to HWE 5.13 Kernel (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack#Server). I successfully upgraded the kernel but it did not solve the problem.

After I select "disconnect" in the tray icon, journalctl has this output:

Mar 16 00:19:20 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404360.4195] device (enp0s31f6): state change: activated -> deactivating (reason 'user-requested', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Mar 16 00:19:20 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404360.4197] manager: NetworkManager state is now DISCONNECTING
Mar 16 00:19:20 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404360.4203] audit: op="device-disconnect" interface="enp0s31f6" ifindex=2 pid=1987 uid=1000 result="success"
Mar 16 00:19:20 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404360.4294] device (enp0s31f6): state change: deactivating -> disconnected (reason 'user-requested', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Mar 16 00:19:20 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404360.4302] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): canceled DHCP transaction
Mar 16 00:19:20 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404360.4303] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): state changed bound -> done
Mar 16 00:19:20 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404360.4323] manager: NetworkManager state is now DISCONNECTED

After I selected "Wired Connection 1", journalctl has this output:

Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.0772] device (enp0s31f6): Activation: starting connection 'Wired connection 1' (8c4cd159-c6d7-3c2c-9810-cff1f51f54d8)
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.0775] audit: op="connection-activate" uuid="8c4cd159-c6d7-3c2c-9810-cff1f51f54d8" name="Wired connection 1" pid=1987 uid=1000 result="success"
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.0778] device (enp0s31f6): state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.0797] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTING
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.0802] device (enp0s31f6): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.0818] device (enp0s31f6): state change: config -> ip-config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.0824] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): activation: beginning transaction (timeout in 45 seconds)
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1742] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option dhcp_lease_time      => '86400'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1743] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option domain_name_servers  => '192.168.1.1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1743] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option expiry               => '1647490800'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1744] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option ip_address           => '192.168.1.3'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1744] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_broadcast_address => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1744] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_domain_name => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1744] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_domain_name_servers => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1745] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_domain_search => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1745] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_host_name  => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1745] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_interface_mtu => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1745] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_ms_classless_static_routes => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1745] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_nis_domain => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1746] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_nis_servers => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1746] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_ntp_servers => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1746] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_rfc3442_classless_static_routes => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1746] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_root_path  => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1746] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_routers    => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1747] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_static_routes => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1747] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_subnet_mask => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1747] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_time_offset => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1747] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option requested_wpad       => '1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1747] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option routers              => '192.168.1.1'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1748] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): option subnet_mask          => '255.255.255.0'
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1748] dhcp4 (enp0s31f6): state changed unknown -> bound
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.1780] device (enp0s31f6): state change: ip-config -> ip-check (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.2076] device (enp0s31f6): state change: ip-check -> secondaries (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.2082] device (enp0s31f6): state change: secondaries -> activated (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.2095] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_LOCAL
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.2122] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_SITE
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.2125] policy: set 'Wired connection 1' (enp0s31f6) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.2144] device (enp0s31f6): Activation: successful, device activated.
Mar 16 00:20:00 Joshua-Linux NetworkManager[1277]: <info>  [1647404400.2160] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_GLOBAL
drivers

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