[N900/RX51] USB networking does not initialize when the device is booted with usb cable plugged in

It does initialize properly for me (arch linux, networkmanager) with both plugged in on boot and plugging in after. It breaks when I install networkmanager on the phone.

By Martijn Braam on 2017-07-21T06:22:59

Interesting, thanks for the extra data point. I am using systemd-networkd on my system. It could very well be a problem with my system and not PMOS / RX51... I'll see if I can get closer to figuring it out since it is very annoying and putting undue stress on my N900's fragile USB port (having to unplug/replug every reboot)

By clayton craft on 2017-07-21T15:33:15

Created by: pavelmachek

I see same behaviour as @craftyguy . Debian running on PC.

By * postmarketOS Bot on 2017-09-13T21:58:15

Created by: ollieparanoid

I have read, that the maemo guys recommend to file down the usb cables, so they can't rip out the usb port.

By * postmarketOS Bot on 2017-09-14T19:16:40

Haha! well, I just leave the microusb cable plugged into the N900 and just unplug/replug the usb connector to my main system. It works, but it's annoying because sometimes I reboot and forget to do it and have to spend a few minutes rebooting again.

This problem is really strange though, I get no kernel events at all on the host system when the n900 reboots.. so I'm starting to wonder if it has something to do with the cable being plugged in when the usb network device on the N900 is initalized during boot.. maybe it doesn't do something necessary to tell the host system on the other end of the cable that it is a network device thing? I'm not sure how to debug this further.

By clayton craft on 2017-09-14T20:28:49

Created by: ollieparanoid

You could try other cables and other PCs, maybe you get different results then.

By * postmarketOS Bot on 2017-09-14T20:39:11

I tried that experiment initially, my laptop running Arch shows the same thing :(

By clayton craft on 2017-09-14T20:42:25

Created by: pavelmachek

I don't see that problem with my local kernels. I pushed one of them to kernel.org:pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/pavel/linux-n900.git bt-v4.13 , and sent relevant extract over email to @craftyguy.

By * postmarketOS Bot on 2017-09-15T14:32:12

@pavelmachek

Unfortunately your patch doesn't seem to have any effect..

The steps to reproduce this problem are:

Power on N900, connect it to system via usb
log into N900 over usb net, and issue a reboot
leave device plugged in while it reboots
after it finishes booting, notice that there is no longer an interface available on the host for connecting to it. the usb0 interface on the n900 is still there and has the correct IP assigned to it though.

By clayton craft on 2017-09-15T15:09:21

moved from pmbootstrap#213 (closed)

By Bart Ribbers on 2018-09-18T17:22:56

unassigned @craftyguy

By clayton craft on 2019-01-30T18:22:21

I've just tried to reboot the N900 with the USB connected and the issue is still present.

Any idea what can cause this?

By Daniele Debernardi on 2019-07-23T22:16:12

Since we weren't sure about this in the thread: does this only happen with the N900, or also with other phones running postmarketOS?

I don't really have a clue what causes this. But I suggest using the debug-shell hook and running the usb networking stuff (dhcpd) manually and look at its output, maybe it tells something helpful.

By Oliver Smith on 2019-07-25T19:05:17

changed title from [RX51] USB networking does not initialize when the device is booted with usb cable plugged in to [N900/RX51] USB networking does not initialize when the device is booted with usb cable plugged in

By Daniele Debernardi on 2019-07-30T21:21:05

I've just managed to compare the dmesg output of the device booted with and without the USB cable connected.

There is only 1 different line, which is present when the device is booted without the USB cable connected:

[   70.284576] g_nokia gadget: high-speed config #1: Bus Powered

I've also noticed that our initramfs script fails to create the rndis usb gadget configuration here: https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketos/pmaports/blob/master/main/postmarketos-mkinitfs/init_functions.sh#L260

for reference:
dmesg-usb-cable-not-connected.txt
dmesg-usb-cable-connected.txt

By Daniele Debernardi on 2019-07-30T21:42:50

I've just tried to rebuild the linux-postmarketos-stable kernel with the CONFIG_USB_CONFIGFS and CONFIG_USB_CONFIGFS_RNDIS enabled and the initramfs script doesn't fail anymore to create the configuration for the rndis...

...but the USB still doesn't work if booted with the cable connected :(

By Daniele Debernardi on 2019-07-30T21:39:25

related driver in kernel => https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/usb/gadget/legacy/nokia.c

By Daniele Debernardi on 2019-07-30T21:47:17

Thanks a lot for looking into this, @drebrez.

I've just tried to rebuild the linux-postmarketos-stable kernel with the CONFIG_USB_CONFIGFS and CONFIG_USB_CONFIGFS_RNDIS enabled and the initramfs script doesn't fail anymore to create the configuration for the rndis...

...but the USB still doesn't work if booted with the cable connected :(

Just to make sure, when you tried this, have you also disabled the g_nokia gadget driver?

One thing we could try is, check if the same problem happens with maemo leste, and if it does not, compare the gadget related kernel configs and possibly the initramfs behavior.

By Oliver Smith on 2019-08-02T20:31:13

I didn't tried to disable the g_nokia driver

By Daniele Debernardi on 2019-08-02T22:49:37

mentioned in issue #359 (closed)

By Daniele Debernardi on 2019-09-14T00:54:14

added device-nokia-n900 label

mentioned in issue #1135 (closed)

By Sicelo on 2022-01-08T17:07:23

mentioned in issue #64 (closed)

By Sicelo on 2022-10-19T10:13:04

tested. works fine now, even with NM perhaps close since it's a very old issue?

as well as close #64 (closed)

By Sicelo on 2022-10-25T19:20:37

closed

[N900/RX51] USB networking does not initialize when the device is booted with usb cable plugged in

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