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#1 2017-01-28 13:35:17

jf25
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2015-07-11
Posts: 35

No switching between TTYs since kernel 4.9 [SOLVED]

Hello,
I recently ran into an issue when I updated linux from 4.8.13-1 to 4.9.6-1. With linux 4.9.6, the system boots up as normal until gdm shows up. This is where I usually log in (using either Cinnamon or Gnome), but with kernel 4.9.6, I can't. After typing the password and hitting enter, the screen turns black and nothing happens. Usually when Cinnamon crashes, I can always press Ctrl+Alt+F1 and go back to gdm (or Ctrl+Alt+F3 and work on the terminal). But that doesn't apply here. In fact, switching from one TTY to another seems to be the actual problem (gdm tries to do this when you log in). When I boot the system and - instead of logging in - directly press Ctrl+Alt+F3 after gdm shows up, the same happens. Downgrading linux (and related packages) to 4.8.13-1 made my system usable again.

This issue might have something to do with my GPU configuration. My (laptop) computer has an Intel Ivy Bridge iGPU and an Nvidia GeForce GT 640M as dGPU. I'm using open drivers for both, although the GeForce is off most of the time. My computer has an LED indicating, whether the external GPU has power or not. When switching between TTYs, it's always on for a few seconds, but then turns off again. Not so with kernel 4.9.6: It gets turned on and stays on forever (and the screen stays black).

Any ideas how to further investigate this issue?

Last edited by jf25 (2017-02-07 13:10:13)

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#2 2017-01-29 01:05:27

stupidus
Member
Registered: 2012-02-27
Posts: 124

Re: No switching between TTYs since kernel 4.9 [SOLVED]

I seem to have a similar problem. However, I am running a Sandy Bridge system in a nvidia optimus setup. And I am using SDDM and i3. With kernel 4.9.6 I only manage to start i3 like every second boot, but even then, there seem to be serious issues with the file system (Most applications won't start, complaining about missing files). With kernel 4.8.13 there are no problems.

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#3 2017-01-29 14:01:33

jf25
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2015-07-11
Posts: 35

Re: No switching between TTYs since kernel 4.9 [SOLVED]

Inspired by stupidus' post, I installed different graphical display managers and tested how they worked together with the new kernel: LightDM, LXDM and SDDM, The first two of them always crashed the system when switching to another TTY (just like GDM). SDDM sometimes worked, but sometimes did not (which is similar to what stupidus described). Using no display manager at all works all the time, but this is not a solution, since I want to start Cinnamon somehow, and therefore need a display manager. So I decided to downgrade the kernel again back to 4.8.13-1.

Another thing I noticed: Linux 4.9.6 was never able to shutdown the system properly (using shutdown -h now from the console). It just hangs forever at the point where it should switch off all electricity (or initiate a new boot in case of shutdown -r now). That new kernel seems to be buggy as hell.

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#4 2017-01-29 19:01:08

stupidus
Member
Registered: 2012-02-27
Posts: 124

Re: No switching between TTYs since kernel 4.9 [SOLVED]

I also kept testing a bit. Yesterday, when I tested it, I was on battery power. Today, the laptop is connected to the power supply, and it seems like it is working more often. I compared the logs of a successful and an unsuccessful boot. The logs are pretty much identical, except that some lines appear in slightly different order. Just before it hangs, it shows the following:

Unsuccessful boot:

Jan 29 19:31:17 laptop systemd[746]: Started Timed resync.
Jan 29 19:31:17 laptop systemd[746]: Startup finished in 2.506s.
Jan 29 19:31:17 laptop systemd[1]: Started User Manager for UID 1000.
Jan 29 19:31:17 laptop sddm-helper[745]: Starting: "/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsession i3"
Jan 29 19:31:17 laptop sddm-helper[1314]: Adding cookie to "/home/martin/.Xauthority"
Jan 29 19:31:17 laptop sddm[508]: Session started
Jan 29 19:31:17 laptop systemd[746]: Started D-Bus User Message Bus.
Jan 29 19:31:17 laptop syncthing[758]: [E3CGA] INFO: Detected 0 NAT devices
Jan 29 19:31:18 laptop kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: resuming kernel object tree...
Jan 29 19:31:18 laptop kernel: thinkpad_acpi: EC reports that Thermal Table has changed
Jan 29 19:31:18 laptop kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: resuming client object trees...
Jan 29 19:31:18 laptop kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: resuming display...
Jan 29 19:31:18 laptop kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: resuming console...
Jan 29 19:31:35 laptop systemd-logind[502]: Power key pressed.

As you can see in the second to last line, it just stops to do anything until I forced it to stop ~20 seconds later.

Now in a successful boot:

Jan 29 19:32:13 laptop systemd[741]: Started Timed resync.
Jan 29 19:32:13 laptop systemd[741]: Startup finished in 4.797s.
Jan 29 19:32:13 laptop systemd[1]: Started User Manager for UID 1000.
Jan 29 19:32:13 laptop sddm-helper[740]: Starting: "/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsession i3"
Jan 29 19:32:13 laptop sddm-helper[1452]: Adding cookie to "/home/martin/.Xauthority"
Jan 29 19:32:13 laptop sddm[504]: Session started
Jan 29 19:32:13 laptop systemd[741]: Started D-Bus User Message Bus.
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop kernel: thinkpad_acpi: EC reports that Thermal Table has changed
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: resuming kernel object tree...
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: resuming client object trees...
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: resuming display...
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: resuming console...
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop dbus-daemon[1463]: Activating via systemd: service name='org.gtk.vfs.Daemon' unit='gvfs-daemon.service'
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop systemd[741]: Starting Virtual filesystem service...
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop dbus-daemon[1463]: Successfully activated service 'org.gtk.vfs.Daemon'
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop systemd[741]: Started Virtual filesystem service.
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop kernel: fuse init (API version 7.26)
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop systemd[1]: Mounting FUSE Control File System...
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop systemd[1]: Mounted FUSE Control File System.
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop dbus-daemon[1463]: Activating via systemd: service name='org.a11y.Bus' unit='at-spi-dbus-bus.service'
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop systemd[741]: Starting Accessibility services bus...
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop dbus-daemon[1463]: Successfully activated service 'org.a11y.Bus'
Jan 29 19:32:14 laptop systemd[741]: Started Accessibility services bus.
Jan 29 19:32:15 laptop at-spi-bus-launcher[1523]: Activating service name='org.a11y.atspi.Registry'
Jan 29 19:32:15 laptop at-spi-bus-launcher[1523]: Successfully activated service 'org.a11y.atspi.Registry'
Jan 29 19:32:15 laptop org.a11y.atspi.Registry[1528]: SpiRegistry daemon is running with well-known name - org.a11y.atspi.Registry
Jan 29 19:32:19 laptop kernel: ACPI Warning: \_SB.PCI0.PEG.VID._DSM: Argument #4 type mismatch - Found [Buffer], ACPI requires [Package] (20160831/nsarguments-95)
Jan 29 19:32:19 laptop kernel: ACPI Warning: \_SB.PCI0.PEG.VID._DSM: Argument #4 type mismatch - Found [Buffer], ACPI requires [Package] (20160831/nsarguments-95)

As you can see, after the same message from nouveau, fuse is loaded and everything just keeps going.
Might the problem maybe be related to fuse? Or is this just a coincidence?

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#5 2017-02-07 13:08:51

jf25
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2015-07-11
Posts: 35

Re: No switching between TTYs since kernel 4.9 [SOLVED]

No longer an issue for me since Linux 4.9.7-1. Thanks for fixing, whoever did it.

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