Arch Linux

pkejr

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 20

[Solved] System freeze randomly

Hi,

I am using ArchLinux since a few years now. I have a laptop on which freeze appeared since last September. The best description of my issue I could find is here (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=217015) but let me copy it:

Error description
* system suddenly freezes and reacts to nothing, only hard reset (power off) works ([edit] I have sysrq enabled, it doesn't react to magic REISUB keys)
* the display is not updating anymore (no black screen or broken image just the last one)
* if music was playing during the freeze, you get to listen to approx. the latest 2s repeated for ever
* there is no helpful entry in journalctl or any other log from the freeze or sort before moment
* monitoring tools show no RAM or CPU outage

Possible causes
As in the post above, the causes are very similar for me:
It can happen after 3min of working, or after 10h or more. It is most often caused when I "really" want to work (e.g. having mails opened, music, web browser, editor, etc.).
Something to note is that my laptop model is Thinkpad X250 and that one was mentioned in the latter post.
But to me it really seems like it has to do with some graphical issues. For instance, I can run a game for 3-4h using wine and 90% CPU, I never got a freeze. However,  after running pycharm, or starting a Youtube video, I know my laptop will freeze eventually.

[EDIT] I am adding more laptop details here as it appears I am not the only one facing those freezes.
Laptop information
Model: Lenovo ThinkPad X250
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5200U CPU @ 2.20GHz (full details here.)
Using Intel Corporation HD Graphics 5500 (rev 09)
Kingston 8GB DDR3 RAM at 1600MT/s (KHX1600C9S3L/8G)
I changed the hard drive to a KINGSTON SV300S37A480G SSD

So please, how can I debug this? I am currently using the 4.16.5-1 kernel, and I already tried using LTS with no effect.
I'm asking because the post I linked above was concluded by "I randomly picked a kernel version and it worked" which is not helping.

Here are some more information that might help:

[    0.000000] ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.
[    0.000000] ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
[    0.176678] Error parsing PCC subspaces from PCCT
[    0.177659] ACPI: EC: interrupt blocked
[    0.194542] ACPI Error: Needed type [Reference], found [Integer]         (ptrval) (20180105/exresop-103)
[    0.194554] ACPI Error: AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE, While resolving operands for [Store] (20180105/dswexec-461)
[    0.194562] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_PR.CPU0._PDC, AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE (20180105/psparse-550)

Last edited by pkejr (2018-06-26 08:49:19)

pkejr

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Hi again,

It's been 5 days since I wrote my post, and still no answer. I'm not asking for someone to come with a solution, but I'd like to hear any advice on how to manage to produce logs, find where the kernel freezes, debug it, and finally find the reason why this happens (and if possible fix it).
This bug is very annoying because I can't use my laptop anymore when doing presentations with slides and demos, because a freeze might occur and I can't spend 5 minutes rebooting my laptop, restarting all my applications for the demonstration. It's just an example of why it is very annoying so please anyone help.

Otherwise if I don't get any answer from you ArchLinux users, then I will have to say goodbye to Arch and use another (more stable) distribution.

Thanks again.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,213

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Post an entire journal log, after reproduction of an issue e.g. with

journalctl -b-1

for the boot prior (i.e. after the freeze the next boot you do will then contain the boot log of the freezing session)

Just because you don't see anything of relevance other people might.

pkejr

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Here is the log you are asking for: note that the last log is at 08:36:12 and the system froze (and got hard powered off) near 09:11:00.
Also note that (as always) I tried using the SysRQ magic keys but it didn't work (and there is no log trace of it).
https://ptpb.pw/IJkz.txt

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,213

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Three things:

• Make sure you install and apply the latest Microcode

• Try to rule out some power saving wonkiness by disabling TLP and testing without it

• There are issues with LVM backed swap partitions try to rule that out (be aware that swap might still be accessed and used even if you aren't in an OOM situation).

Last edited by V1del (2018-05-04 09:47:56)

CarbonChauvinist

Member

Registered: 2012-06-16

Posts: 413

Website

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

What's the recommended way to rule this out? Run a swap off a non-LVM partition?

Three things:

• There are issues with LVM backed swap partitions try to rule that out (be aware that swap might still be accessed and used even if you aren't in an OOM situation).

---

"the wind-blown way, wanna win? don't play"

pkejr

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

FYI:

• I tested your first advice, my intel-ucode package was already up to date, I added it to my bootloader entry, successfully loaded ucode, and I got a freeze some 20h later.

• I'm currently trying to disable TLP.

• I have a swap partition on my encrypted LVM but I disabled swap since a long time now (for my SSD lifetime and I'm rarely reaching more than 95% of RAM)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,213

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

@CarbonChauvinist if you aren't in  the active need for one I'd just disable it.

@pkejr You pass the resume parameter on boot and you have

May 03 09:48:18 laptop systemd[1]: Reached target Swap.

in your log, are you absolutely certain it is disabled?

pkejr

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Yes I used to use swap to hibernate (hence the resume parameter on boot).
The line is commented in /etc/fstab, swapon -v yields nothing and free -h says

              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          7.7Gi       1.8Gi       2.4Gi       133Mi       3.5Gi       6.2Gi
Swap:            0B          0B          0B

So I assume swap is disabled.

pkejr

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Hello again,
So as said above, I totally disabled TLP:

systemctl stop tlp && systemctl disable tlp

However my laptop just froze some minutes ago. Same behaviour as usual.
Also as said I don't think the error could be because of the encrypted LVM swap partition because my swap is disabled.

So... I really don't know what to do.

nobelfornoreason

Member

Registered: 2018-05-06

Posts: 1

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Just checking in to state for the record that I have exactly the same problem with the X250. I'm using Ubuntu 18.04 but it's not specific to this release. Kernel 4.15.0-20.

I also use TLP, have an encrypted LVM filesystem but with swap. I feel like it tends to happen when playing audio.

Last edited by nobelfornoreason (2018-05-06 22:02:09)

matoxxx

Member

Registered: 2014-06-19

Posts: 12

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Hi,
I seem to have the same problem. I was first blaming failing hardware, but after a thought I have switched back from KMS to DDX and the issues were gone. I only had one freeze since the switch, which was several days ago, definitely an improvement. You might try it as well.

EDIT_1:
Playing games on mesa many hours straight did not ever induce the freeze. So I suppose is the 2d driver (gallium?) in the KMS.

EDIT_2:
I have just recently experienced system freeze with DDX driver. So I have now switched back to KMS to see if overall system stability has improved. Because with the recent DDX the freeze came only after several weeks. Much better improvement to let say half a year ago.

Last edited by matoxxx (2018-05-21 17:28:30)

SumKid

Member

Registered: 2012-09-14

Posts: 6

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Hello!

I have the same problem.
Are most of us using a Thinkpad laptop?

@pkejr Hold on! Lets resolve this issue.

matoxxx

Member

Registered: 2014-06-19

Posts: 12

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

I have HP250 G4 (i5-5200U).

pkejr

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

I'm going to edit my main post to precise my laptop model, but I have a ThinkPad X250 with an i5-5200U too.
More information:

processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 61
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5200U CPU @ 2.20GHz
stepping	: 4
microcode	: 0x2a
cpu MHz		: 968.307
cache size	: 3072 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 4
core id		: 0
cpu cores	: 2
apicid		: 0
initial apicid	: 0
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 20
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb invpcid_single pti tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rdseed adx smap intel_pt xsaveopt ibpb ibrs stibp dtherm ida arat pln pts
bugs		: cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2
bogomips	: 4391.40
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

Last edited by pkejr (2018-05-09 12:44:42)

SumKid

Member

Registered: 2012-09-14

Posts: 6

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

My output to

 # bsdtar -Oxf /boot/intel-ucode.img | iucode_tool -tb -lS - 

is

iucode_tool: system has processor(s) with signature 0x000306d4
microcode bundle 1: (stdin)
selected microcodes:
  001/141: sig 0x000306d4, pf_mask 0xc0, 2018-01-18, rev 0x002a, size 18432

The version of my microcode is 2018-01-18 even though according to intel the latest version was realeased on the 25th of April 2018.

pkejr

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

According to this page https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=intel-ucode it's been updated today.
I'm going to update this now.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,213

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

That is normal, not every combined intel-ucode release will contain a new ucode for any given processor model. The issue I'm thinking of that could lead to crashes/freezes was somewhere in ~2016 If you have any newer microcode loaded that should not be the inherent issue anymore. I doubt it's an issue with modesetting vs xf86-video-intel unless there was a kernel regression for that graphics chipset. In which case I'd think we would at least see something in the log and/or have more users affected

pkejr

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Ok thanks for giving more information. So nobody has a hint of what could be the cause of those freezes?

HaCeMei

Member

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 37

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Hi,

I have a laptop on which freeze appeared since last September.

I've been facing freezes since I installed Archlinux on a ThinkPad 11e in Nov 2016. But they occured only once or twice within two months.

Things got worse with any Kernel > 4.9. Since than it ranges between once an hour and once a day. Entries in journalctl always seem to end a couple of minutes before the freeze.

Not only Xorg is affected but weston/wayland-sessions (without xwayland) also freeze or crash. At least some variation there.

Freezes only occur when I'm busy on my trackpad and/or keyboard. I suspect It's a trackpad issue. Just a feeling. I would try to turn off the trackpad and use a mouse instead, but a laptop user since decades I don't have a mouse.

Last edited by HaCeMei (2018-05-10 18:35:43)

---

No new thing under the sun

SumKid

Member

Registered: 2012-09-14

Posts: 6

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

According to this page https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=intel-ucode it's been updated today.
I'm going to update this now.

The update didn't resolve the issue

Hi,

I have a laptop on which freeze appeared since last September.

I've been facing freezes since I installed Archlinux on a ThinkPad 11e in Nov 2016. But they occured only once or twice within two months.

Things got worse with any Kernel > 4.9. Since than it ranges between once an hour and once a day. Entries in journalctl always seem to end a couple of minutes before the freeze.

Not only Xorg is affected but weston/wayland-sessions (without xwayland) also freeze or crash. At least some variation there.

Freezes only occur when I'm busy on my trackpad and/or keyboard. I suspect It's a trackpad issue. Just a feeling. I would try to turn off the trackpad and use a mouse instead, but a laptop user since decades I don't have a mouse.

I have had freezes even though I wasn't using any input device.

Last edited by SumKid (2018-05-11 10:47:22)

pkejr

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Yes that's the expected behaviour as V1del said above.

HaCeMei

Member

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 37

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

It turns out my problems are caused by a well known bug. See:

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … ete_freeze

• https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=220716

---

No new thing under the sun

pkejr

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

Yes but I think this does not apply in my case because I have a i5 CPU which is not a baytrail.
Also, my computer has been up and running since almost 4 days, which is quite surprising because all I did was upgrade my kernel to 4.16.7-1 and disable TLP as advised by @V1del. I haven't been using my laptop as usual though (not at work right now).

dkarimov

Member

Registered: 2018-05-18

Posts: 1

Re: [Solved] System freeze randomly

I have the same issue.
Dell Inspiron 15
i5-5200U for stats