0

I have an old laptop Acer TM 5720. But it still works:) When I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 with GNOME (with kernel 4.4.0-104) everything works perfect, except WiFi, but booting time is lightning fast. I wanted to try Ubuntu 17.10, where my WiFi works great, but boot time is terrible, there are some freezes, like some waiting for a device. And whenever i try to enter system settings I have about 20 second freeze. The same was in Ubuntu 17.04. When I updated kernel on Ubuntu 16.04 I got the same problems (but WiFi works better). Can anyone help me to get rid of those issues? Why those lags/freezes on new kernels?

I have TL-WN725N Nano USB Wireless Dongle with Realtek 8188EU chipset. The issue is that WiFi signal strength is really weak (at least on WiFi indication icon on status bar). Sometimes after start, system do not see the dongle. But as I said it works well with newest kernel,e.g. 4.10.

lshw -C network

  *-network               
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: enp2s0
       version: 02
       serial: 00:16:d3:57:0c:4a
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.137 firmware=5787m-v3.23 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
       resources: irq:31 memory:f6000000-f600ffff
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
       logical name: wlp4s0
       version: 02
       serial: 00:19:d2:c4:02:e0
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwl3945 driverversion=4.4.0-104-generic firmware=15.32.2.9 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg
       resources: irq:29 memory:f8000000-f8000fff
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       bus info: usb@2:4
       logical name: wlxc025e91c327b
       serial: c0:25:e9:1c:32:7b
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=r8188eu ip=192.168.0.107 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (secondary) (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
0f:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
0f:06.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
0f:06.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
0f:06.3 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller
Pablo
  • 1
  • Those nano dongles have really crappy antennas. I modified one a while back, adding an external antenna, and it literally did wonders. I'd stick with the Intel card you have. It may be slower, but probably gets a better signal – vidarlo Dec 23 '17 at 21:03
  • Well I bought this nano dongle cause internal Intel card started to work purely. But maybe it was also driver issues. This post here tells that installing driver on kernel 4.4 will improve usability although signal indication will still be weak: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/reserve-7#TOC-Realtek-RTL8188EU-chipset-0bda:8179-

    But even without nano dongle I have other issues on later kernels in Ubuntu 17.10 (or 17.04). What about this?

     – Pablo Dec 23 '17 at 21:37

1 Answers1

0

I have found the solution. Boot lag problem is caused by Intel (965GM chipset) video driver bug: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=218581

And solution (workaround) is to add following kernel boot parameter:

video=SVIDEO-1:d

How to add kernel boot parameter is described here: How do I add a kernel boot parameter?

Pablo
  • 1