Hello everyone,
I am reporting a severe regression introduced in the Kernel 6.17.0-20-generic update on Zorin OS 18. After updating, several critical hardware components failed simultaneously.
System Information:
- Laptop: ASUS Vivobook 16 K3605ZF
- OS: Zorin OS 18 Core
- Stable Baseline:
6.17.0-19-generic(Hardware is 100% functional) - Broken Update:
6.17.0-20-generic(Wi-Fi, Touchpad, and Asus Fn hotkeys/backlight control are dead)
Historical Context & Regression Escalation
This appears to be a severe escalation of the regression reported earlier this year regarding the 6.17 branch (Reference: How to restore wi-fi after kernel update to 6.17).
However, while the February issues with the .14 revision showed firmware load errors in dmesg (missing .ucode files), the .20 update fails much earlier in the hardware enumeration phase. The kernel modules themselves are missing from memory.
Forensic Analysis & Root Cause (Kernel 6.17.0-20)
I performed a detailed comparison between the working .19 kernel and the broken .20 kernel. The issue is not hardware failure, nor is it an ACPI BIOS error (dmesg shows no ACPI parsing failures). USB ports are also fully functional, ruling out a total bus collapse.
The root cause is a complete failure to load specific modules (iwlwifi, i2c_designware, asus_nb_wmi) into memory, leading to a lack of driver binding.
1. Module Loading Failure (lsmod): Running lsmod | grep -iE "iwlwifi|asus_wmi|i2c_designware" on the .20 kernel returns zero output. The modules are entirely absent from RAM.
2. Missing Driver Binding (lspci | grep -i "network"): Because the modules fail to load, the kernel sees the hardware on the PCI/I2C bus but cannot attach a driver to it.
# lspci output on broken kernel 6.17.0-20:
00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-P PCH CNVi WiFi (rev 01)
DeviceName: Onboard - Ethernet
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wi-Fi 6E(802.11ax) AX211 160MHz 2x2 [Garfield Peak]
[MISSING: "Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi"]
3. Total Silence in Initialization (dmesg): Consequently, querying the kernel ring buffer shows absolutely no attempt to initialize the Intel Wi-Fi, the ASUE1213 Touchpad, or the WMI hotkeys.
# Searching for Intel Wi-Fi, MediaTek, ASUS Touchpad, and WMI modules on kernel .20:
$ sudo dmesg | grep -iE "iwlwifi|mt7|asue|i2c_designware|asus"
[Returns absolutely nothing regarding device initialization]
Stable Baseline Logs (Kernel 6.17.0-19)
To assist developers with the module differences, here is how the hardware correctly binds and initializes on the previous stable release:
Wi-Fi Initialization (.19):
$ sudo dmesg | grep iwlwifi
[ 4.631321] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz
[ 4.640198] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: loaded firmware version 89.1a492d28.0 so-a0-gf-a0-89.ucode op_mode iwlmvm
[ 5.279454] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: base HW address: dc:97:ba:xx:xx:xx
Touchpad & ASUS WMI Hotkeys (.19):
$ sudo dmesg | grep -iE "asue|hid|input"
[ 1.417801] input: ASUE1213:00 04F3:3283 Touchpad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.0/i2c_designware.0/i2c-0/i2c-ASUE1213:00/0018:04F3:3283.0001/input/input4
[ 1.756310] hid-multitouch 0018:04F3:3283.0001: input,hidraw0: I2C HID v1.00 Mouse [ASUE1213:00 04F3:3283] on i2c-ASUE1213:00
[ 4.625031] input: Asus WMI hotkeys as /devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/input/input8
Conclusion: This seems to be a major packaging or initramfs generation flaw specific to the 6.17.0-20-generic update, stripping support for the Intel CNVi and ASUS I2C/WMI platforms.
I am holding back on 6.17.0-19 for now. Please let me know if any further module trees or logs are required to patch this regression.
Thank you!