I'm resending this, as for some reason the particular google sender of profjcnash email (209.85.222.175) is blacklisted by dnsbl.sorbs.net. I've re-subscribed on my ncf email. Best, JN -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Better understanding of new machine issues Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2021 09:28:22 -0400 From: J C Nash <profjcnash [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com> To: Linux-Ottawa <linux [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org> Several weeks ago I posted a note about a network problem with a new machine built by and purchased from Canada Computers. It has an Asus Z490-A Motherboard, an Intel I5-10400 processor and 32 GB RAM. I found it did not play nicely with my Brother HL-2270DW networked printer, mostly failing to print, though one time we did get half a page (worse than none at all!). There was also a problem finding the machine with avahi. With a USB-ethernet dongle, things worked. I also found 5 out of 6 live-USB drives I had at hand would not boot. The unfortunate aspect of this is that the one that did work had been used for the install, so a lot of work had been done. The machine went back to the shop for 3 weeks. There the technicians could find nothing wrong, though they did state that they could boot in Legacy Mode the two sample live-USBs I left with them as tests. Since getting the machine back, I have found that I can boot USBs reliably in Legacy Mode. And I can use the USB-ethernet dongle, so I am "operational". Last night in conversation with Scott, we looked at output of lspci and inxi and lsusb and found that the Z490-A uses an Intel Intel® I225-V 2.5Gb Ethernet, though inxi lists this as Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Device 15f3 (rev 02). A search on the net popped up https://askubuntu.com/questions/1244745/ubuntu-20-04-intel-network-connectivity-issue-bug-in-igc This points out that drivers for this device (or family?) did not get into the kernel until v. 5.8.xx. Ubuntu 20.04 (the LTS version) and Linux Mint 20.1 are currently at v. 5.4.xx. While I could go through the process of upgrading the kernel, that is a fair bit of work given that I am operational now. However, noting that Ubuntu 20.10 uses v. 5.8 kernel, I downloaded and booted that, and printer runs fine. I didn't check avahi. I also checked the printer does NOT work with a boot from LM 20.1 live-USB. As I seem to get kernel updates at least once a month, I expect the network problem will sort itself out fairly soon. I prefer (and generally recommend to new2linux) using long term support (LTS) flavours of distros, especially on operational machines. So the printer/network issue appears to be resolved or resolvable. Given the vagaries of hardware and firmware for both sides of USB interfaces as well as BIOS code and live-USB setup, I probably won't make any substantive effort to resolve the UEFI boot issue for now, but if others have queries or want me to test things, do get in touch. Hoping this information may be of use to others, particularly as some popular distros are not yet supporting some hardware. Best, John Nash To unsubscribe send a blank message to linux+unsubscribe [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org To get help send a blank message to linux+help [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org To visit the archives: https://lists.linux-ottawa.org