BYOB Wired And WiFi dropouts et al.

[srto2]

I know that BYOB  boxes receive no official support.  Thanks for that!

But since the update to 12.1.1 my two BYOB boxes both suffer from (wifi or wired) loss of connection at least once a week.  Prior to the update it was a rarer occurrence. In each case only a reboot re-establishes the connection. I assume this is a libreelec issue. I really haven't yet had the urge to visit the libreelec forums again lately, but I will...

One of the boxes is a "secondary" unit with occasional use, the other "primary" is online pretty much continuously and is a **** pain for it's **** loss of connection.  The other 'secondary" unit no longer gets **** guide updates but happily receives timers - if required...  After looking at the issue with a (believe me!!) jaded eye, I'll reinstall on the secondary unit from scratch - if or when the mood strikes me.

I'm just posting this now because I know that no-one has anything else to do over the silly season, and I doubt that anyone really cares!

Have a good Christmas everyone, and thanks for everything you do!  Cheers!

[raymondjpg]

But since the update to 12.1.1 my two BYOB boxes both suffer from (wifi or wired) loss of connection at least once a week.

Loss of connection with wifi I can understand, according to what I have read of LibreELEC, but not with wired. Also once a week is not that frequent, and could be down to any number of reasons.

I reboot a BYO IceBox once a day, mainly to ensure that the EPG is refreshed from scratch. I also reboot both Beyonwiz PVRs daily to keep them running trouble free. I suggest a daily reboot of both your BYO IceBoxes would probably be worthwhile.

[IanL-S]

Ethernet should be rock solid - so you could try a different cable from the BYOB. It could also be a problem with the router. I have a Asus router which frequently looses all Ethernet connections but the wifi ones remain rock solid. It may have something to do with it being agaming router. Scheduling regular reboots of the router may help.

[srto2]

Thanks guys, a quick response for now...

A different cable and/or a different router port makes no difference. (RT-AX3000/RT-AX58U - Merlin RT-AX58U_3004_388.8_4 F/W)

Rebooting the router also causes loss of connection - Libreelec reports connection "idle".  And my router is set to reboot once a week...

But the router has been rebooting weekly for yonks. And I think the issue started after the 12.1.1 update.  I don't recall noticing the issue before, except the wifi issue of course.

It presumably is a handshaking issue on the part of the router or my BYOB hardware; Lenovo M920Q.

The worst of the problem now seems likely to be caused by the router reboots so I'll turn the reboots off for a while and get back to the issue in a few weeks.

[raymondjpg]

It presumably is a handshaking issue on the part of the router or my BYOB hardware; Lenovo M920Q.

If we're still talking about wired, I'd be more inclined to be looking at the Lenovo than the router. I have a number of NUCs, various Intel CPU generations, with some of them apparently losing MEBX connectivity at times, typically after bios updates. The 8th gen NUC I use for IceBox BYO is one such device.

MEBX subsystem connectivity can only be restored by removing the power jack and re-connecting after a short while. Rebooting the NUC or power cycling will not do it.

I suggest you try that on the Lenovo. It may trick it into a more consistent successful handshake with the router.

[srto2]

It presumably is a handshaking issue on the part of the router or my BYOB hardware; Lenovo M920Q.

If we're still talking about wired, I'd be more inclined to be looking at the Lenovo than the router. I have a number of NUCs, various Intel CPU generations, with some of them apparently losing MEBX connectivity at times, typically after bios updates. The 8th gen NUC I use for IceBox BYO is one such device.

MEBX subsystem connectivity can only be restored by removing the power jack and re-connecting after a short while. Rebooting the NUC or power cycling will not do it.

I suggest you try that on the Lenovo. It may trick it into a more consistent successful handshake with the router.

I had never heard of MEBX.  This Lenovo M920Q (i7 8700t) had not experienced this kind of issue when it was running Windows 11.

I was supposed to be preparing for Christmas visitors but I followed your suggestions - with no improvement... Unplugging/replugging the network cable results in no connectivity.

I looked up what Intel had to say, entered the MEBX setup, followed their instructions and dutifully reset the AMT configuration.  Well, I think I did.  Whatever, no change.  I have no idea what it all means anyway.

Now I absolutely have to abandon the quest for a solution until I am not tasked with anything else!

[raymondjpg]

but I followed your suggestions - with no improvement... Unplugging/replugging the network cable results in no connectivity.

The suggestion was to unplug the power jack, not the network cable.

1. Power down the Lenovo.
2. Remove the power jack, or turn off at the mains.
3. After 10-20 seconds restore the power to Lenovo.
4. Power up the Lenovo.
5. Test Lenovo network connectivity.
6. Reboot the router and test Lenovo retains network connectivity.

I looked up what Intel had to say, entered the MEBX setup, followed their instructions and dutifully reset the AMT configuration.  Well, I think I did.  Whatever, no change.  I have no idea what it all means anyway.

There is no need to activate/reset AMT, if it is available in the Lenovo. I was using MEBx (management engine bios extension) as an example of loss of connectivity at the bios level. The ethernet port has to stay alive when the device is powered down for AMT or WOL or other network connectivity to work and one way to reset or reboot the ethernet connectivity at the bios level is to temporarily remove the power source.

[srto2]

@raymondjpg

The point I was trying to make was that having done all of the power cycles and reboots of both the Icebox and the router ONLY a normal reboot OR power off reboot of the Icebox restores connectivity.  Just unplugging/replugging the network cable results in loss of connection; rebooting only the router causes any connection to be lost and ONLY rebooting or power cycling the Icebox restores the connection..

The Lenovo M920Q does have MEBX (Ctrl P to activate) and as I said, I followed INTEL's instructions but that failed to help.  I don't think it was ever a thing for this issue anyway. I am still of the opinion that it is a LibreElec driver issue.  As is the painful WiFi. Before using the M920Q as an IceBox it was cheerfully running Win 11 and survived many router reboots, router upgrades, network cable rerouting, the whole nine yards.

I don't have much time to look into this as I am currently very stressed - my other half has rapidly deteriorating dementia.  Apologies if my replies sound a little abrupt.

My only reason for posting in the first place was in the hope that someone might have an answer or could maybe point me to a source of network adapter drivers for LibreElec.

In order to further nail the issue down I'll maybe try a USB to LAN network adapter that might (presumably) utilise a different driver but I have no idea when I'll have time to do so.

[srto2]

This forum seems unusually quiet lately so I thought I might see if it could be activated a bit:  Following on from my last post, experimenting with different network adapters made no difference, and a bit of a look at the libreelec forums didn't help with any work-around either.

So I just reboot the box once a week, some hours after my regular router reboot.  Pretty much what others have to do I suppose.

[Daniel Hall at IceTV]

This forum seems unusually quiet lately so I thought I might see if it could be activated a bit:  Following on from my last post, experimenting with different network adapters made no difference, and a bit of a look at the libreelec forums didn't help with any work-around either.

So I just reboot the box once a week, some hours after my regular router reboot.  Pretty much what others have to do I suppose.

The next version of LibreElec has been release as well, and we are working on an IceBox version of this, which has an updated kernel and Kodi. Each one always brings improvements, we hope to have it released shortly.

[srto2]

The next version of LibreElec has been release as well, and we are working on an IceBox version of this, which has an updated kernel and Kodi. Each one always brings improvements, we hope to have it released shortly.

I have to report that following the update to 12.2.1 the first scheduled reboot of my router (ASUS RT-AX3000) resulted in the very familiar LibreElec dialog demanding my wifi login.  A reboot of the (BYOB) icebox restored the wifi connection.

For next week's router reboot the icebox will be back to a wired connection.  Not holding out much hope...

And, for what it's worth, various (obviously not icebox) versions of LibreElec/Kodi running on an RPi-4 and an Rpi-5 exhibit the same behaviour.

Not a big deal.  But annoyingly beyond my dwindling skillset.

[IanL-S]

Not used the RT-AC3000 for some time. I assume you are using the latest firmware. I have recently upgraded to an Asus wifi 7 router. Cannot recall if it is set to do regular reboots.  Currently on the road so my 2 BYOB are ruining using Ethernet, so cannot test this. Do you know what wifi chip your BYOBs use? Mine use Intel chips and have proved very reliable. Do the RPis use a Broadcom wifi chip?

[Dacho]

@raymondjpg had a good point.
Pulling the power plug resolves many issues that a reboot doesn't.