Ran Powertop Tweaks Once; wlan0 borked "permanently"

Message

char_star · #1 Post by **char_star** » 2014-01-17 17:52

Hi, I've been trying to solve an extremely frustrating problem, and I've tried many things to fix it, as I'll explain later in this post. As the title suggests, I ran Intel's power optimization tool, 'powertop', and afterward, my wireless interface behaves problematically---I want to be clear about the exact behavior and circumstances.

Previously, before I ever installed powertop and ran 'sudo powertop' (and foolishly applied all the suggested tweaks during runtime), my wireless networking worked flawlessly under pretty much all conditions for several months. That is, it worked well ever since I first installed Debian on my laptop, which is a Lenovo T400 ThinkPad. Afterward was when the problems began. Here's what happens: I can reboot my laptop in the presence of a known wireless AP and internet works just fine, seemingly indefinitely. If I ever disconnect from the network that I identified with on boot for any reason, either suspending to ram, or disconnecting manually or automatically, to switch to a different AP, I lose internet connection, but not wireless access. That is, one thing remains constant: I don't have any issues authenticating and connecting to wireless access points. What doesn't remain constant is my ability to ping and receive replies from hosts such as 8.8.8.8, nor can I load web pages. My first thought was that it was the wireless power saving tweaks, but I've disabled them in every way I know how, and the problem remains. The only way to get rid of it is to reboot! EDIT: apparently my ethernet also fails when the wireless has failed...

I want to emphasize that I didn't even change any configuration files to trigger this problem. Since then, I've tried everything I can think of to attempt a resolution to the issue. I simply set the following tweaks to 'Good' (later attempting disabling them) and have been in wireless hell ever since:

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NMI watchdog should be turned off                                                                      
VM writeback timeout
Enable SATA link power Managmenet for host0
Enable SATA link power Managmenet for host1
Enable SATA link power Managmenet for host2
Enable SATA link power Managmenet for host3
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset MEI Controller
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
Runtime PM for PCI Device Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801IBM/IEM (ICH9M/ICH9M-E) 4 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation ICH9M-E LPC Interface Controller
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
Enable Audio codec power management
Autosuspend for USB device UHCI Host Controller [usb2]
Autosuspend for USB device EHCI Host Controller [usb8]
Autosuspend for USB device UHCI Host Controller [usb6]
Autosuspend for USB device UHCI Host Controller [usb7]
Autosuspend for USB device UHCI Host Controller [usb3]
Autosuspend for USB device UHCI Host Controller [usb4]
Autosuspend for USB device EHCI Host Controller [usb1]
Autosuspend for USB device Integrated Camera [Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd.]
Autosuspend for USB device UHCI Host Controller [usb5]
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN [Shiloh] Network Connection
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection
Wake-on-lan status for device eth0
Wake-on-lan status for device tun0
Wake-on-lan status for device wlan0
Using 'ondemand' cpufreq governor

Now, it may be that this powertop thing was a completely coincidence, and is unrelated, but I feel very strongly that it is related.
Here's a list of things that I've tried, none of them helping, except reboot:

-Cycling the power on the RF switch
-restarting network-manager service
-attempting to set all powersettings to 'Bad' in powertop-- wake on lan doesn't seem changable from 'Good' on wlan0
-Adjusting /etc/network/interfaces, then rebooting: doesn't prevent eventual failure.
-Manually manipulating values in the wireless drivers's /sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters
-Setting those module parameters in a variety of ways on kernal command line + reboot: doesn't prevent eventual failure.
-blacklisting wireless power saving
-unloading the iwlwifi kernel module and reloading the iwlwifi kernel module

I think I've tried some other things too, but I'm out of ideas.

Here is a variety of commands and listings and their outputs to help troubleshooting:

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sudo lspci -v

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=sHqXdBsJ

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ip addr

(after boot): http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=YYwA2KPA

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sudo iwlist power && sudo iwlist rate

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=vBtjZqJ1

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cat /etc/network/interfaces

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=W4biUuAU

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dmesg

(after fresh reboot): http://pastebin.com/ScGUAfG6

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dmesg

(after suspending once): http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=9iskLeeM

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sudo vim /etc/var/log/messages

(select snippets): http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=SmG5ks6y

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sudo lsmod

http://pastebin.com/kMcZRSPh