Intel I219 Experiencing HUGE Package Loss

Reason

Power management shuts down the cache/memory of the network adapter (See [7] for more information).

Workarounds

• So I need to disable the power management. The work states for Intel devices are called C-State. C-States range from C0 to Cn. C0 indicates an active state (See Intel User Guide/C-State). The first workaround is setting the maximum C-State not very high [3,4].

  vi /etc/default/grub
  # add intel_idle.max_cstate=1 to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT after 
  "quite splash"
  # so that line looks like
  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash intel_idle.max_cstate=1"
  # then save and execute
  update-grub
  # then reboot, you can confirm this is applied by
  cat /proc/cmdline|grep intel
  cat /sys/module/intel_idle/parameters/max_cstate
  

  You can even set max_cstate to 0; someone do this.

• Change a flag about the network adapter's power control [5].

  # on my machine the default value is "auto"
  cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:00\:16.0/power/control
  echo on > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:00\:16.0/power/control
  # check it is "on" now
  cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:00\:16.0/power/control
  

Literatures

1. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1652865 This is a report in Jan 2019. he is using 4.29 kernel. No solution was provided.

2. https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213651 proposes

   • unload mei* (does not work for me)
   • BIOS settings -> System Management -> Intel AMT Capability, switch it from "Restrict MEBx Access" to "Disabled" (does not work for me -- my BIOS does not have this choice)

3. https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213377 is about exactly the same problem. They propose

   • booting the same kernel(s) with "intel_idle.max_cstate=1" (For instructions see How to set intel_idle.max_cstate=1) (almost works -- download speed and package loss is fixed but upload zero)

4. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1927925

   • They claim the solution in [3] works
   • Comment #93 explains why this bug happens, but too specialized; I cannot fully understand.

5. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-oem-5.10/+bug/1930754

   • The trick is to set the boot kernel parameter "pcie_aspm=off" in '/etc/default/grub'
     Like this:
     GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash pcie_aspm=off"
     After that run;
     update-grub
     

     (does not work for me)
   • They confirm the solutions in [2] do not work.
   • echo on | sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:00\:16.0/power/control (almost works -- download speed and package loss is fixed but upload zero)

6. Wired network extremely slow

   • The asker did a lot of work, including reporting that compiling driver ourselves is impossible
   • None of the answers work for me.