Networking in Lenovo T14s sucks
T14s is a great laptop on paper: powerful AMD processor, portable 14” body, lovely piece of art. A complete garbage underneath. This is literally the worst machine I ever owned.
Keyboard
The ENTER key just randomly doesn’t work when you boot up the computer. It’s most probably
not a mechanical problem though - at some random point ENTER starts working properly
and continues to be working fine. The problem is that you have to log in at some point,
and then you have to wait and wait and wait until ENTER starts working. Fucking irritating.
Networking
Networking in Lenovo ThinkPad T14s is a complete piece of garbage with Linux kernel 5.15.0-48. Which is a pity since T14s is otherwise a great laptop. However, the networking stack is just completely broken, simple and plain.
Wired eth
The wired eth via docking station will stop working randomly with these error messages.
[ 1235.442771] r8152 5-1.1:1.0 enx482ae3a2a6f0: Tx status -71
[ 1236.206773] r8152 5-1.1:1.0 enx482ae3a2a6f0: Tx status -71
[ 1236.462773] r8152 5-1.1:1.0 enx482ae3a2a6f0: Tx status -71
[ 1237.230771] r8152 5-1.1:1.0 enx482ae3a2a6f0: Tx status -71
[ 1238.877272] r8152 5-1.1:1.0 enx482ae3a2a6f0: Tx status -71
[ 1239.890773] r8152 5-1.1:1.0 enx482ae3a2a6f0: Tx status -71
[ 1240.910774] r8152 5-1.1:1.0 enx482ae3a2a6f0: Tx status -71
[ 1244.686793] r8152 5-1.1:1.0 enx482ae3a2a6f0: Tx status -71
Reported as bug 1922651 which is marked as fixed, but unfortunately the bug still persists with Linux kernel 5.15.0-48. The only way is to unplug the machine from the docking station, then plug it back, or just disable the cable networking.
The wired eth via an ethernet dongle (Lenovo ThinkPad Ethernet Extension Cable Gen 2) will randomly stop working with the same error messages. Avoid like the pague!
Workaround
Workaround: don’t buy the ethernet dongle from Lenovo, buy TP-LINK UE306
instead and plug it into your docking station. It has been working flawlessly for me so far.
It uses the ax88179_178a kernel module and reports like this in dmesg:
[ 18.054458] ax88179_178a 5-1.2:1.0 enx7cc2c642aedf: ax88179 - Link status is: 1
EDIT: Flawlessly would be a stretch, the card randomly disconnects, but that’s because it’s connected to the piece-of-shit Lenovo docking station, read below.
Wireless
The wireless will frequently and randomly stop working with the following messages, with an occasional kernel segfault on top:
[ 592.333309] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Queue 5 is stuck 225 43
[ 592.334207] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting 0x0.
[ 592.334615] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Start IWL Error Log Dump:
[ 592.334619] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Transport status: 0x0000004A, valid: 6
[ 592.334624] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Loaded firmware version: 66.f1c864e0.0 cc-a0-66.ucode
[ 592.334629] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000084 | NMI_INTERRUPT_UNKNOWN
[ 592.334633] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x008026F4 | trm_hw_status0
[ 592.334637] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000000 | trm_hw_status1
[ 592.334640] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x004FAA46 | branchlink2
[ 592.334643] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x004F13DE | interruptlink1
[ 592.334646] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x004F13DE | interruptlink2
[ 592.334648] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00007D34 | data1
[ 592.334652] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x01000000 | data2
[ 592.334654] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000000 | data3
[ 592.334657] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x19407180 | beacon time
[ 592.334660] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x17866E48 | tsf low
[ 592.334663] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x0000003B | tsf hi
[ 592.334666] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000000 | time gp1
[ 592.334669] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x2016E44C | time gp2
[ 592.334672] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000001 | uCode revision type
[ 592.334675] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000042 | uCode version major
[ 592.334678] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0xF1C864E0 | uCode version minor
[ 592.334681] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000340 | hw version
[ 592.334684] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00489000 | board version
[ 592.334686] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x05E1001C | hcmd
[ 592.334689] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x80020000 | isr0
[ 592.334692] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x01400000 | isr1
[ 592.334695] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x08F00002 | isr2
[ 592.334698] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00C3428C | isr3
[ 592.334700] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000000 | isr4
[ 592.334703] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00BD019C | last cmd Id
[ 592.334706] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00007D34 | wait_event
[ 592.334709] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000080 | l2p_control
[ 592.334712] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00002020 | l2p_duration
[ 592.334715] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x0000003F | l2p_mhvalid
[ 592.334717] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x000000CE | l2p_addr_match
[ 592.334720] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000009 | lmpm_pmg_sel
[ 592.334723] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000000 | timestamp
[ 592.334726] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x0000C828 | flow_handler
[ 592.335029] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Start IWL Error Log Dump:
[ 592.335031] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Transport status: 0x0000004A, valid: 7
[ 592.335035] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x20000066 | NMI_INTERRUPT_HOST
[ 592.335038] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000000 | umac branchlink1
[ 592.335041] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x80455A96 | umac branchlink2
[ 592.335044] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x80473F9A | umac interruptlink1
[ 592.335047] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x80473F9A | umac interruptlink2
[ 592.335050] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x01000000 | umac data1
[ 592.335052] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x80473F9A | umac data2
[ 592.335055] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000000 | umac data3
[ 592.335058] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000042 | umac major
[ 592.335061] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0xF1C864E0 | umac minor
[ 592.335064] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x2016E449 | frame pointer
[ 592.335066] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0xC0886260 | stack pointer
[ 592.335069] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00BD019C | last host cmd
[ 592.335072] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000000 | isr status reg
[ 592.335349] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: IML/ROM dump:
[ 592.335351] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000003 | IML/ROM error/state
[ 592.335447] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00006710 | IML/ROM data1
[ 592.335547] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000080 | IML/ROM WFPM_AUTH_KEY_0
[ 592.335642] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Fseq Registers:
[ 592.335690] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x60000041 | FSEQ_ERROR_CODE
[ 592.335738] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00290021 | FSEQ_TOP_INIT_VERSION
[ 592.335785] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00050008 | FSEQ_CNVIO_INIT_VERSION
[ 592.335832] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x0000A503 | FSEQ_OTP_VERSION
[ 592.335879] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x80000003 | FSEQ_TOP_CONTENT_VERSION
[ 592.335927] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x4552414E | FSEQ_ALIVE_TOKEN
[ 592.335975] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00100530 | FSEQ_CNVI_ID
[ 592.336022] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000532 | FSEQ_CNVR_ID
[ 592.336069] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00100530 | CNVI_AUX_MISC_CHIP
[ 592.336119] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x00000532 | CNVR_AUX_MISC_CHIP
[ 592.336169] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x05B0905B | CNVR_SCU_SD_REGS_SD_REG_DIG_DCDC_VTRIM
[ 592.336219] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: 0x0000025B | CNVR_SCU_SD_REGS_SD_REG_ACTIVE_VDIG_MIRROR
[ 592.336478] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: WRT: Collecting data: ini trigger 4 fired (delay=0ms).
[ 592.336488] ieee80211 phy0: Hardware restart was requested
Workaround is to upgrade your access point. This only happens when I create an access point on my phone, with WiFi 5 or lower. Enable Wifi 6 in your phone.
Docking Station
ThinkPad’s docking station is utter crap - the monitor and/or the usb keyboard wouldn’t randomly connect/power up, the network would randomly drop and/or not start, a couple of times per week. The only way is to unplug the docking station from the power cable, then plug it in again.
Conclusion
It’s so fucking irritating piece of crap, avoid.