Unpredictable system freezes, must hard reboot.

Quardah · 2022-11-27 23:40:28

EDIT: I have to mention i am running on AMD, Ryzen7 6850U Pro

Hi all.

In the last few days i have experienced complete system crashes. They always occur when i am loading a website in either chrome or firefox from the browser's default new tab page. It's my first time addressing this sort of problem so i am asking for help before doing anything.

I read here : https://www.reddit.com/r/LinuxOnThinkpa … rch_linux/

To use kernel parameters "idle=nomwait" in order to mitigate the issue.

Also here : https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comm … _hardware/

The guy recommends several kernel parameters : "clearcpuid=514 rcu_nocbs=0-15 pci=noaer idle=nomwait processor.max_cstate=5 acpi_osi=Linux"

I am unsure what they do (i rarely play with those and i have limited understanding) so i would rather ask here if you think this is a good idea or not. Do you think this will have any effect? If not, what else would you try to address system freezes.

Just to be clear, i did a full update today because i've had a freeze yesterday. I've experienced another freeze today (20 minutes ago) hence why i am typing this post now.

Also just to be sure, in order to use these kernel params, i should use the following, right? : https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/kernel_parameters#GRUB

Thank you for your time.

EDIT2 : My system froze legit a minute after posting the first edit. I will try the kernel param because i'd like not to hard reset my computer 5 times a day thank you

EDIT3: i am now running with "idle=nomwait" . i am not seeing any difference, but let's see if my computer ceases to crash.

Can someone explain what "idle=nomwait" does? I found it mentionned on kernel.org , but i am not understanding what it does.

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v5.0/ad … uidle.html

Last edited by Quardah (2022-11-27 23:52:46)

cfr · 2022-11-28 02:54:58

Quardah wrote:

Can someone explain what "idle=nomwait" does? I found it mentionned on kernel.org , but i am not understanding what it does.
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v5.0/ad … uidle.html

I believe from that that it changes what the kernel asks your CPU(s) to do when there is nothing for them to do i.e. when they aren't needed. In particular, it stops the kernel handing this over to the hardware. I assume the suggestion to use this parameter is based on the thought that when the CPU(s) are idle, they're being put into a low-power state from which they can't recover, so preventing them from entering that state may prevent the problems.

However, unless these suggestions are coming from people who know the details of your hardware and have read your logs, I would be at least somewhat wary of them. That's not to say they are wrong. It's to say I have no idea, but I know some of them can cause problems. For example, clearcpuid can cause the kernel to 'malfunction if you disable some critical bits'.

Quardah · 2022-11-30 21:29:31

Hi CFR. Thank you for your response. I understand a little more what it does.

One thing is certain, i did not get a crash since using the argument. I believe this mitigates the crashing issue.

I will write here in case i have another system freeze.

Thanks!

Arch Linux

#1 2022-11-27 23:40:28

Unpredictable system freezes, must hard reboot.

#2 2022-11-28 02:54:58

Re: Unpredictable system freezes, must hard reboot.

#3 2022-11-30 21:29:31

Re: Unpredictable system freezes, must hard reboot.

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