Bdtyktl

I keep getting the "Connection failed, activation of network failed" error pop up even if I am connected to the WiFi and have access to the internet. I am on dual boot Windows 10/Ubuntu 18.04.

I took a look at the network manager logs and here is what I got:

Feb 02 14:30:02 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135802.4288] policy: auto-activating connection 'Wired connection 1'

Feb 02 14:30:02 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135802.4306] device (enp0s20f0u3c2): Activation: starting connection 'Wired connection 1' (4f23e5d8-103f-3fcc-adf5-18a056362def)

Feb 02 14:30:02 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135802.4313] device (enp0s20f0u3c2): state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')

Feb 02 14:30:02 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135802.4323] device (enp0s20f0u3c2): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')

Feb 02 14:30:02 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135802.4334] device (enp0s20f0u3c2): state change: config -> ip-config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')

Feb 02 14:30:02 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135802.4342] dhcp4 (enp0s20f0u3c2): activation: beginning transaction (timeout in 45 seconds)

Feb 02 14:30:02 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135802.4414] dhcp4 (enp0s20f0u3c2): dhclient started with pid 13688

Feb 02 14:30:02 21K-USER dhclient[13688]: DHCPDISCOVER on enp0s20f0u3c2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3 (xid=0xb0140b5b)

Feb 02 14:30:05 21K-USER dhclient[13688]: DHCPDISCOVER on enp0s20f0u3c2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7 (xid=0xb0140b5b)

Feb 02 14:30:12 21K-USER dhclient[13688]: DHCPDISCOVER on enp0s20f0u3c2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11 (xid=0xb0140b5b)

Feb 02 14:30:23 21K-USER dhclient[13688]: DHCPDISCOVER on enp0s20f0u3c2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13 (xid=0xb0140b5b)

Feb 02 14:30:36 21K-USER dhclient[13688]: DHCPDISCOVER on enp0s20f0u3c2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7 (xid=0xb0140b5b)

Feb 02 14:30:43 21K-USER dhclient[13688]: DHCPDISCOVER on enp0s20f0u3c2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7 (xid=0xb0140b5b)

Feb 02 14:30:47 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <warn>  [1549135847.3719] dhcp4 (enp0s20f0u3c2): request timed out

Feb 02 14:30:47 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135847.3720] dhcp4 (enp0s20f0u3c2): state changed unknown -> timeout

Feb 02 14:30:47 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135847.4042] dhcp4 (enp0s20f0u3c2): canceled DHCP transaction, DHCP client pid 13688

Feb 02 14:30:47 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135847.4042] dhcp4 (enp0s20f0u3c2): state changed timeout -> done

Feb 02 14:30:47 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135847.4046] device (enp0s20f0u3c2): state change: ip-config -> failed (reason 'ip-config-unavailable', sys-iface-state: 'managed')

Feb 02 14:30:47 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <warn>  [1549135847.4050] device (enp0s20f0u3c2): Activation: failed for connection 'Wired connection 1'

Feb 02 14:30:47 21K-USER NetworkManager[840]: <info>  [1549135847.4057] device (enp0s20f0u3c2): state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')

EDIT1: after running the lshw -C network command:

*-network                 

       description: Wireless interface

       product: Wireless 8260

       vendor: Intel Corporation

       physical id: 0

       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0

       logical name: wlp1s0

       version: 3a

       serial: 44:85:00:70:d2:8a

       width: 64 bits

       clock: 33MHz

       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless

       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=4.15.0-45-generic firmware=34.0.1 ip=172.31.123.208 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11

       resources: irq:127 memory:e1000000-e1001fff

  *-network

       description: Ethernet interface

       product: Ethernet Connection I219-V

       vendor: Intel Corporation

       physical id: 1f.6

       bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.6

       logical name: enp0s31f6

       version: 21

       serial: 70:5a:0f:19:9c:d6

       capacity: 1Gbit/s

       width: 32 bits

       clock: 33MHz

       capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation

       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=3.2.6-k firmware=0.13-4 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair

       resources: irq:128 memory:e1100000-e111ffff

  *-network

       description: Ethernet interface

       physical id: 2

       logical name: enp0s20f0u3c2

       serial: e6:70:1c:12:20:17

       capabilities: ethernet physical

       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=cdc_ether driverversion=22-Aug-2005 firmware=CDC Ethernet Device link=yes multicast=yes

EDIT 2: running cat /etc/network/interfaces gives :

# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

running cat /etc/netplan/*.yaml gives:

# Let NetworkManager manage all devices on this system

network:

  version: 2

  renderer: NetworkManager

running dkms status after installing it does not output anything.

EDIT 3: As suggested by @heynnema
These are the current findings:

1- I have tried updating the BIOS. Problem still persists.

2- I have tried running dpkg -l *CDC* | grep ii and pkg -l *cdc* | grep ii. Unfortunately, no matches are found.

3- I have tried running lsmod | grep cdc and this is the output:

cdc_wdm                20480  1 qmi_wwan

cdc_ether              16384  0

usbnet                 45056  2 qmi_wwan,cdc_ether

The problem is that you've got a second ethernet-like device, enp0s20f0u3c2, running with a "cdc_ether" driver from 2005. It's a "CDC Ethernet Device". The system thinks there's an active link to it, and that's were the bogus "Connection failed, activation of network failed" errors are coming from.

Either somebody installed some old driver software, or maybe there's something in your BIOS that's enabled some hardware that we don't know about. Check your motherboard specs.

Nothing in /etc/network/interfaces or /etc/netplan/*.yaml gives us any clues. DKMS doesn't show us anything either.

1. Boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB and issue a sudo lshw -C network command in terminal and see if it shows a enp0s20f0u3c2 (it may have different numbers associated with it) ethernet device. That will tell us if it's software related.




2. Review your BIOS settings, and check the manufacturer's web site for BIOS updates.




3. Review your software looking for something related to "CDC Ethernet". In terminal try dpkg -l *CDC* | grep ii or dpkg -l *cdc* | grep ii. Report back if you find anything.




4. lsmod | grep cdc and see if it finds a kernel module.

Update #1:

Step #4, above, showed us that there is in fact a cdc_ether kernel module installed. This may be due to a previous USB to 4G dongle, a USB to Ethernet dongle, a TomTom GPS device, or an internal 4G adapter.

Since we're not sure exactly which software install might have added this cdc_ether driver, and associated software, we'll try a safe way to fix this first...

Create a new blacklist file...

In terminal...

sudo -H gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-cdc_ether.conf # create the file

Add these two lines...

blacklist cdc_ether

blacklist usbnet

Save the file and reboot the computer.

Then do...

sudo lshw -C network # show us the current network devices

and confirm that the enp0s20f0u3c2 ethernet device is no longer present. If it's still there, then do the following, but only if it's still there...

sudo modprobe -r cdc_ether usbnet # remove these kernel modules

sudo update-initramfs -c -k "$(uname -r)" # update the initramfs

reboot the computer and check the lshw command again.