Power or NIC problems?

Support
1

NethServer Version: 7.9
My internet setup in the house is like that: ISP-> HP (with nethserver) with 2 NICs (from isp router the cable goes to NIC) and from 2nd NIC there goes rj-45 to AP router:->AP router-> all other devices

Hello, I bought a HP ProDesk 600 G1 DM to make it as a firewall and all - it does a great job, but I am having troubles with power or ethernet problems? After having it powered on and leaving i for example for few hours or few days it just cuts off whole network. When I come to check what is happening the HP has power on and the LEDs blinking in 2 NICs, but I am unable to ping nor check anything on the screen when trying get something on the screen. I did all of the commands to turn off hibernation, sleep and so on.
So the question is, how to troubleshoot this case? How to tell if its power problem because of the PC going sleep/hibernation state or simply the WAN NIC has a problem?
Thank you.

2

According on this page, there’s installed a Intel NIC as default.
So: which chip is used on second NIC?
Which NIC is connected where?

3

From ISP modem into Intel NIC, and from second NIC into my AP router, I know +/- when it occured today, but I have no clue where and what to search

4

Option 1: the output of lspci |grep Ethernet, posted here please
Option 2: shutdown the computer, open it, detach the network card or (if possible) take a look on the chip. You might find the brand and the model of the network chip and report it here.

Anyway, the lspci output still might be useful.

5

Maybe power took the lead…

6

Sorry. Lemme show you the outputs:

  1. lspci |grep Ethernet:

00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I217-LM (rev 04)

  1. The 2nd NIC is: >

TP-Link UE300 Gigabit LAN (chipset is: RTL8153)

  1. Output of lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:16.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family KT Controller (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I217-LM (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Q85 Express LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)

  1. About the power… This is strange because the power button was online and also LEDs from nics were active.Maybe sleep/hibernation or sth similar? I had also Fujitsu q920 with nethserver and it worked flawlessly. The setup with tp-link was the same.
    Even after buying that HP, what I did were:
  1. Exchanged the thermal paste on the processor
  1. CMOS battery.
  2. Added also more RAM for more resources and the parameters of the RAM were a bit different so brought it back into default settings.
    Stil the same problem. Now I temporarily switched to build like that: ISP router > AP/switch > nethserver with LAN connected → all other devices. Seems like the uptime from 2 days ago is still ok and I can connect to the machine. Any other ideas?
7

Quite interesting…

According to a simple search on TP-Link website…

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That’s an USB device, not stated into first post lspci is useless for diagnose usb devices.
Moreover, issues can go quite stratified among power issues of USB, reliability of USB, bandwidth of USB, arbitration of the USB protocol among different releases.
However, let’s go with this jam…

Latest Bios available for your HP Mini G1 Prodesk 600 seems to be version 00.02.33 Rev.A, dated april 2019. I strongly suggest you to update to the latest available.
After that, disable every bios option available for energy saving if related to PCIe and USB.

Then, i’d love to see the output of lsusb. According to TP-Link support, your dear USB adapter runs with a Realtek USB chip for Ethernet.
The page for Realtek Drivers is this one, Realtek USB FE / GBE / 2.5G / 5G Ethernet Family Controller Software - REALTEK and one driver covers so many devices…

Network Interface Controllers > 2.5G Gigabit Ethernet > USB 3.0
RTL8156 / RTL8156B(S)(G)

Network Interface Controllers > 10/100/1000M Gigabit Ethernet > USB 3.0
RTL8153 / RTL8153B

Network Interface Controllers > 10/100/1000M Gigabit Ethernet > USB 2.0
RTL8154 / RTL8154B

Network Interface Controllers > 10/100M Fast Ethernet > USB 2.0
RTL8152B

TP-Link claims

USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter

so I put my bets on RTL8153 / RTL8153B.

I currently do not have any of these adapters available, so I cannot test anything I’m gonna share…
On github there’s a project for driver of r8153 for CentOS7

Quite strange, neverthless the name of the project, it’s reported also r8152 (WOH???)

On pkgs.org I found no packages for r8152 or r8153

On stackexchange there’s an interesting topic about usb-modeswitch and USB-to LAN cards, for disabling the presentation to the system as storage device

but it’s related to ubuntu, and IDK if the same kind of approach fits CentOS7 or must be… tweaked.

Last but not least.
I personally won’t use any USB-To LAN adapter for a stable firewall setup.
Due to USB fragility and lack of performance, compared to PCIe or even PCI, this seems a more viable solution than a USB ethernet adapter.

image
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I’m aware that needs a lot of tweaking and tinkering, but once cable management and metal adapting is done, the solution is far more reliable than USB.

Wolfgang’s Channel two months ago provided a less tinkered solution for these small PCs

Way better for network card, way better options (even a PCIe 4 port lan card, if needed), still an interesting CPU, also compared with the well known and sold GX-412 typical of APU2 machines from Pcengines.
Still…
A lot slower and less powerful than a i5 or i3 of the Prodesk 600G1
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AMD-GX-415GA-SOC-vs-AMD-GX-412HC-vs-Intel-i3-4130T-vs-Intel-i5-4570T/2081vs2473vs2035vs2041
(but with AES-NI on board! :slight_smile: )

1 Like
8

Hello, wich CPU does mount?
Cheap celeron have a bug in C1 state that freeze CPU randomly after few days.

9

According to HP
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04240180
these are the CPUs provided with these computers.

Intel 4th Generation Core i7 processors
Intel core i7-4765T processor
Intel core i5-4570T processor
Intel core i3-4130T processor
Intel pentium G3220T processor
Intel pentium G3420T processor
Intel celeron G1820T processor
10

Check this, if could help
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109051

11

I have resolved this by buying another PC with 2 NICs installed, it’s MSI MS-9A65.
I tried @pike s solution with the adapter but it didn’t work.
Thanks all for the support!

12

USB Adapter?
I don’t consider “USB newtork card” a viable option for server setup. Even for disaster/temporary replacement is strongly unadvisable.