Random boot failures on Dell Precision M5510

ybon · 2016-12-21 15:08:24

Hi all,

Since some weeks, my arch fails to boot from time to time. In worst cases, I need to try more than 10 times before reaching the login screen.

By "fails to boot" I mean that it does not reach the login screen.

I'm not sure exactly when this started, but I'd stay somewhere in September. And I'm not sure what caused it exactly, because I'm not rebooting very often and when I noticed this the first time, I had upgraded the BIOS some days before and also the linux kernel and other daily upgrades.

When the boot fails, the message on the screen may change, and sometimes it's just a black screen, but generally here is what it looks like:

https://framapic.org/TIkxHPj1zk2y/bgHQ3z4kd361.jpg

I just tried to upgrade with the new BIOS published by Dell two days ago, but the issue remains.

Even when the boot "fails", I'm able to ssh to my laptop

Here is a `dmesg` output when the issue arises:

https://framabin.org/?4dc8a35da6dbde03# … 67y4mxuz4=

And here is a `dmesg` output when the boot is OK:

https://framabin.org/?a12ee3653404561f# … 1yfyaUl7o=

I tried to make a diff myself between the two logs, but I'm unable to trace the guilty bit.

I see this dubious line:

divide error: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP

But when I search for it on Internet, I see a lot of very different issues that end with that error line, and also some very old ones (like from 2005).

My Arch is up to date, and i'm running the latest linux kernel: 4.8.13-1

uname -a

Linux leonardo 4.8.13-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Dec 9 07:24:34 CET 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Video modules:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 530 (rev 06)
	Subsystem: Dell Device 06e5
	Kernel driver in use: i915
--
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107GLM [Quadro M1000M] (rev ff)
	Kernel modules: nouveau

Kernel parameters:

initrd=\intel-ucode.img initrd=\initramfs-linux.img root=/dev/nvme0n1p3 rw

Xorg.log: https://framabin.org/?b9d88256336331e0# … zGsSkakvo=
Xorg.log.old: https://framabin.org/?00a45e45f0dbcdb5# … /e68AlM8E=

I'm clueless on how to debug this.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Last edited by ybon (2016-12-22 12:25:15)

torors · 2016-12-22 07:52:03

I don't know which bootloader you are using. I use syslinux, and the relevant part of syslinux.cfg looks like this:

 LABEL arch
    MENU LABEL Arch Linux
    LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
    APPEND root=/dev/sda1 rw 
    INITRD ../intel-ucode.img,../initramfs-linux.img

V1del · 2016-12-22 10:13:17

It seems nouveau is sporadically keeling over (in your dmesg of a failed boot, prior to the crash there's

[    9.973569] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: fb: 0 MiB of unknown memory type

and the following stack trace is full of references to nouveau) and unable to obtain the graphics memory size, tries to divide something by 0 which leads to a panic. If you don't need the Nvidia card resp. nouveau, what happens if you blacklist nouveau? You can add a kernel parameter like modprobe.blacklist=nouveau to boot into the system and afterwards create a corresponding file in /etc/modprobe.d

Last edited by V1del (2016-12-22 10:17:28)

R00KIE · 2016-12-22 10:31:52

Please don't post large images[1]. Edit your post and replace the image with a link or thumbnail.

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … s_and_code

ybon · 2016-12-22 12:24:44

@torors

Yes, I'm using syslinux too, and here is my cfg:

LABEL arch
    MENU LABEL Arch Linux
    LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
    APPEND root=/dev/sda3 rw
    INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img

LABEL archfallback
    MENU LABEL Arch Linux Fallback
    LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
    APPEND root=/dev/sda3 rw
    INITRD ../initramfs-linux-fallback.img

@V1del, thanks for the suggestion. I've tried, and it worked so far, but given the issue is random
I need a bit of time to see if it can be a reliable workaround.
Here is the dmesg with this kernel parameter, FYI: https://framabin.org/?66e295f05b7a307e# … n4QGDd/bs=

Thanks again

torors · 2016-12-22 22:12:23

I can't see /intel-ucode.img in your setup. I don't know if you must use it on newer computers, but you can give it at try.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-12-21 15:08:24

Random boot failures on Dell Precision M5510

#2 2016-12-22 07:52:03

Re: Random boot failures on Dell Precision M5510

#3 2016-12-22 10:13:17

Re: Random boot failures on Dell Precision M5510

#4 2016-12-22 10:31:52

Re: Random boot failures on Dell Precision M5510

#5 2016-12-22 12:24:44

Re: Random boot failures on Dell Precision M5510

#6 2016-12-22 22:12:23

Re: Random boot failures on Dell Precision M5510

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