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Landaro

Member

Registered: 2020-04-22

Posts: 10

Thinkpad docking station causes high CPU load and various failures

EDIT: This started of as a thread about a misbehaving upower.service unit, but investigation narrowed the problem down to some issue with the docking station for my Lenovo Thinkpad. The hardware-related discussion starts from my third post here onward, but I would like to keep the start of the discussion for posterity if anybody comes in along the same vector...

Previous topic title: upower.service fails to start (timeout)

Hi,

on my system, the upower.service unit is not working any longer. To be precise, the service unit fails to start with a timeout, after which it goes into an indefinite retry loop. The immediate impact are occasional delays on shutdown, where the hanging unit is then forcibly killed after the configured 90 seconds. This alone is a bit irritating, but I am more worried about a potentially problematic situation that will eventually blow up. I think I need some help in debugging this.

What I figured out so far (based on pacman logs and journalctl):

The package upower was first installed on my system on 2024-10-23 as a dependency for okular. From there it launched cleanly until I rolled out system updates on 2024-11-14 (at least I strongly suspect the update run on that morning to be at fault). Below is the excerpt of /var/log/pacman.log from that day as well as from journalctl --unit upower.service the boot entries where the upgrade happened and the situation after rebooting (where the problematic behaviour started).

[2024-11-14T08:59:44+0100] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -S -y --config /etc/pacman.conf --'
[2024-11-14T08:59:44+0100] [PACMAN] synchronizing package lists
[2024-11-14T09:01:10+0100] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -S -y -u --ignore ledger-live-bin --config /etc/pacman.conf --'
[2024-11-14T09:01:10+0100] [PACMAN] synchronizing package lists
[2024-11-14T09:01:10+0100] [PACMAN] starting full system upgrade
[2024-11-14T09:05:17+0100] [ALPM] running '60-mkinitcpio-remove.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:05:18+0100] [ALPM] transaction started
[2024-11-14T09:05:18+0100] [ALPM] upgraded libxml2 (2.13.4-1 -> 2.13.5-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:18+0100] [ALPM] upgraded libgpg-error (1.50-1 -> 1.51-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:18+0100] [ALPM] upgraded xorg-xprop (1.2.7-1 -> 1.2.8-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:19+0100] [ALPM] upgraded mesa (1:24.2.6-1 -> 1:24.2.7-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:19+0100] [ALPM] upgraded chromium (130.0.6723.116-1 -> 131.0.6778.69-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:20+0100] [ALPM] upgraded discord (0.0.73-1 -> 0.0.74-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:20+0100] [ALPM] upgraded libjxl (0.11.0-1 -> 0.11.0-2)
[2024-11-14T09:05:20+0100] [ALPM] upgraded srt (1.5.3-2 -> 1.5.4-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:20+0100] [ALPM] upgraded firefox (132.0.1-1 -> 132.0.2-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:21+0100] [ALPM] upgraded gdal (3.9.2-4 -> 3.9.2-5)
[2024-11-14T09:05:21+0100] [ALPM] upgraded openexr (3.2.4-1 -> 3.3.2-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:21+0100] [ALPM] upgraded gegl (0.4.50-2 -> 0.4.50-3)
[2024-11-14T09:05:21+0100] [ALPM] upgraded gimp (2.10.38-4 -> 2.10.38-5)
[2024-11-14T09:05:21+0100] [ALPM] upgraded gstreamer (1.24.9-2 -> 1.24.9-3)
[2024-11-14T09:05:21+0100] [ALPM] upgraded gst-plugins-base-libs (1.24.9-2 -> 1.24.9-3)
[2024-11-14T09:05:22+0100] [ALPM] upgraded gst-plugins-bad-libs (1.24.9-2 -> 1.24.9-3)
[2024-11-14T09:05:22+0100] [ALPM] upgraded gst-plugins-base (1.24.9-2 -> 1.24.9-3)
[2024-11-14T09:05:22+0100] [ALPM] upgraded imagemagick (7.1.1.40-1 -> 7.1.1.40-2)
[2024-11-14T09:05:22+0100] [ALPM] upgraded intel-ucode (20241029-1 -> 20241112-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:22+0100] [ALPM] upgraded lib32-libxml2 (2.13.4-1 -> 2.13.5-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:22+0100] [ALPM] upgraded lib32-mesa (1:24.2.6-1 -> 1:24.2.7-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:22+0100] [ALPM] upgraded vulkan-intel (1:24.2.6-1 -> 1:24.2.7-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:22+0100] [ALPM] upgraded lib32-vulkan-intel (1:24.2.6-1 -> 1:24.2.7-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:22+0100] [ALPM] upgraded libtpms (0.9.6-1 -> 0.9.6-2)
[2024-11-14T09:05:22+0100] [ALPM] upgraded libvlc (3.0.21-8 -> 3.0.21-9)
[2024-11-14T09:05:23+0100] [ALPM] upgraded linux (6.11.6.arch1-1 -> 6.11.7.arch1-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:23+0100] [ALPM] upgraded linux-firmware-whence (20241017.22a6c7dc-1 -> 20241111.b5885ec5-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:24+0100] [ALPM] upgraded linux-firmware (20241017.22a6c7dc-1 -> 20241111.b5885ec5-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:26+0100] [ALPM] upgraded linux-headers (6.11.6.arch1-1 -> 6.11.7.arch1-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:26+0100] [ALPM] upgraded m17n-db (1.8.5-1 -> 1.8.8-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:26+0100] [ALPM] upgraded python-gdal (3.9.2-4 -> 3.9.2-5)
[2024-11-14T09:05:27+0100] [ALPM] upgraded signal-desktop (7.32.0-1 -> 7.33.0-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:27+0100] [ALPM] upgraded task (3.1.0-1 -> 3.2.0-1)
[2024-11-14T09:05:27+0100] [ALPM] upgraded virtualbox-host-modules-arch (7.1.4-5 -> 7.1.4-6)
[2024-11-14T09:05:27+0100] [ALPM] upgraded vlc (3.0.21-8 -> 3.0.21-9)
[2024-11-14T09:05:28+0100] [ALPM] transaction completed
[2024-11-14T09:05:29+0100] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-update.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:05:29+0100] [ALPM] running '30-update-mime-database.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:05:29+0100] [ALPM] running '60-depmod.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:05:31+0100] [ALPM] running '90-mkinitcpio-install.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:05:32+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
[2024-11-14T09:05:32+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
[2024-11-14T09:05:32+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2024-11-14T09:05:32+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: '6.11.7-arch1-1'
[2024-11-14T09:05:32+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2024-11-14T09:05:32+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2024-11-14T09:05:33+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [autodetect]
[2024-11-14T09:05:33+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [microcode]
[2024-11-14T09:05:33+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2024-11-14T09:05:33+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [kms]
[2024-11-14T09:05:34+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2024-11-14T09:05:34+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keymap]
[2024-11-14T09:05:34+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2024-11-14T09:05:35+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [encrypt]
[2024-11-14T09:05:35+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qat_420xx'
[2024-11-14T09:05:36+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [lvm2]
[2024-11-14T09:05:36+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2024-11-14T09:05:36+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2024-11-14T09:05:37+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2024-11-14T09:05:37+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-linux.img'
[2024-11-14T09:05:37+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Early uncompressed CPIO image generation successful
[2024-11-14T09:05:37+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Initcpio image generation successful
[2024-11-14T09:05:37+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'fallback'
[2024-11-14T09:05:37+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
[2024-11-14T09:05:37+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
[2024-11-14T09:05:37+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: '6.11.7-arch1-1'
[2024-11-14T09:05:37+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2024-11-14T09:05:38+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2024-11-14T09:05:38+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [microcode]
[2024-11-14T09:05:38+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2024-11-14T09:05:38+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [kms]
[2024-11-14T09:05:38+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'ast'
[2024-11-14T09:05:42+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2024-11-14T09:05:43+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keymap]
[2024-11-14T09:05:43+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2024-11-14T09:05:44+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'bfa'
[2024-11-14T09:05:44+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qed'
[2024-11-14T09:05:44+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'aic94xx'
[2024-11-14T09:05:44+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qla2xxx'
[2024-11-14T09:05:44+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qla1280'
[2024-11-14T09:05:44+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'wd719x'
[2024-11-14T09:05:46+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [encrypt]
[2024-11-14T09:05:47+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qat_420xx'
[2024-11-14T09:05:47+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [lvm2]
[2024-11-14T09:05:47+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2024-11-14T09:05:48+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2024-11-14T09:05:52+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2024-11-14T09:05:53+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img'
[2024-11-14T09:05:54+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Early uncompressed CPIO image generation successful
[2024-11-14T09:05:54+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Initcpio image generation successful
[2024-11-14T09:05:54+0100] [ALPM] running 'cachecleaning.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:05:55+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> no candidate packages found for pruning
[2024-11-14T09:05:55+0100] [ALPM] running 'detect-old-perl-modules.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:05:55+0100] [ALPM] running 'gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:06:04+0100] [ALPM] running 'gtk-update-icon-cache.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:06:04+0100] [ALPM] running 'texinfo-install.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:06:05+0100] [ALPM] running 'update-desktop-database.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:06:05+0100] [ALPM] running 'update-vlc-plugin-cache.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:10:01+0100] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -U --config /etc/pacman.conf -- /home/jonas/.cache/yay/r-hexbin/r-hexbin-1.28.5-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst /home/jonas/.cache/yay/google-chrome/google-chrome-131.0.6778.69-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst /home/jonas/.cache/yay/snapd/snapd-2.66.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst /home/jonas/.cache/yay/gitkraken/gitkraken-10.5.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst /home/jonas/.cache/yay/intellij-idea-ultimate-edition/intellij-idea-ultimate-edition-2024.3-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst /home/jonas/.cache/yay/slack-desktop/slack-desktop-4.41.97-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst'
[2024-11-14T09:10:03+0100] [ALPM] transaction started
[2024-11-14T09:10:03+0100] [ALPM] upgraded r-hexbin (1.28.4-1 -> 1.28.5-1)
[2024-11-14T09:10:03+0100] [ALPM] upgraded google-chrome (130.0.6723.116-1 -> 131.0.6778.69-1)
[2024-11-14T09:10:04+0100] [ALPM] warning: directory permissions differ on /var/lib/snapd/cache/, filesystem: 700  package: 755
[2024-11-14T09:10:04+0100] [ALPM] warning: directory permissions differ on /var/lib/snapd/cookie/, filesystem: 700  package: 755
[2024-11-14T09:10:04+0100] [ALPM] upgraded snapd (2.65.1-1 -> 2.66.1-1)
[2024-11-14T09:10:05+0100] [ALPM] upgraded gitkraken (10.4.1-1 -> 10.5.0-1)
[2024-11-14T09:10:18+0100] [ALPM] upgraded intellij-idea-ultimate-edition (2024.2.4-1 -> 2024.3-1)
[2024-11-14T09:10:19+0100] [ALPM] upgraded slack-desktop (4.41.96-1 -> 4.41.97-1)
[2024-11-14T09:10:19+0100] [ALPM] transaction completed
[2024-11-14T09:10:19+0100] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-daemon-reload-system.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:10:20+0100] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-daemon-reload-user.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:10:20+0100] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-tmpfiles.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:10:20+0100] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-update.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:10:20+0100] [ALPM] running 'cachecleaning.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:10:20+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> no candidate packages found for pruning
[2024-11-14T09:10:20+0100] [ALPM] running 'dbus-reload.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:10:20+0100] [ALPM] running 'gtk-update-icon-cache.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:10:21+0100] [ALPM] running 'update-desktop-database.hook'...
[2024-11-14T09:10:21+0100] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -D -q --asdeps --config /etc/pacman.conf -- r-hexbin'
[2024-11-14T09:10:21+0100] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -D -q --asexplicit --config /etc/pacman.conf -- google-chrome snapd gitkraken intellij-idea-ultimate-edition slack-desktop'

-- Boot 7b199ba93d4246b990c62a7b2ef4389f --
Nov 14 08:53:41 orchid systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Nov 14 08:53:42 orchid systemd[1]: Started Daemon for power management.
Nov 14 09:11:41 orchid systemd[1]: Stopping Daemon for power management...
Nov 14 09:11:42 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Deactivated successfully.
Nov 14 09:11:42 orchid systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
Nov 14 09:11:42 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Consumed 4.169s CPU time, 5.3M memory peak.
-- Boot e7b688ba2599422e905f98b2091b6838 --
Nov 14 09:14:50 orchid systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Nov 14 09:16:20 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: start operation timed out. Terminating.
Nov 14 09:17:50 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: State 'stop-sigterm' timed out. Killing.
Nov 14 09:17:50 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Killing process 2890 (upowerd) with signal SIGKILL.
Nov 14 09:17:51 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL
Nov 14 09:17:51 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Nov 14 09:17:51 orchid systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Nov 14 09:17:51 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
Nov 14 09:17:51 orchid systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Nov 14 09:19:21 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: start operation timed out. Terminating.
Nov 14 09:20:51 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: State 'stop-sigterm' timed out. Killing.
Nov 14 09:20:51 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Killing process 3677 (upowerd) with signal SIGKILL.
Nov 14 09:20:52 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL
Nov 14 09:20:52 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Nov 14 09:20:52 orchid systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Nov 14 09:20:52 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 2.
Nov 14 09:20:52 orchid systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Nov 14 09:22:22 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: start operation timed out. Terminating.
Nov 14 09:23:52 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: State 'stop-sigterm' timed out. Killing.
Nov 14 09:23:52 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Killing process 5676 (upowerd) with signal SIGKILL.
Nov 14 09:23:53 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL
Nov 14 09:23:53 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Nov 14 09:23:53 orchid systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Nov 14 09:23:53 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.
Nov 14 09:23:53 orchid systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Nov 14 09:25:23 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: start operation timed out. Terminating.
Nov 14 09:26:53 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: State 'stop-sigterm' timed out. Killing.
Nov 14 09:26:53 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Killing process 6333 (upowerd) with signal SIGKILL.
Nov 14 09:26:53 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL
Nov 14 09:26:53 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Nov 14 09:26:53 orchid systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Nov 14 09:26:54 orchid systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 4.

Now, from tracing the dependency chain for upower I can likely get rid of the situation by just removing okular and its (exclusive) dependencies, but I really would like to keep okular (and resolve this).

Does anyone have an idea what is causing this behaviour (maybe some known issue/incompatibility), or how to dig further into this?

I already tried manually running

/usr/lib/upowerd

which returns nothing, as well as

/usr/lib/upowerd --verbose

which dumps a lot of output, but nothing that immediately looks suspicious.

Last edited by Landaro (2024-11-28 12:28:23)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,447

Re: Thinkpad docking station causes high CPU load and various failures

upower is for battery reporting, it's likely some change in the kernel leading to tripping it out because the kernel takes a while to enumerate a battery or so. from the list of packages I'd assume either a direct correlation with the kernel or the linux-firmware package. Do you get a coredump or so from the faulty upower run? what are the journal messages surrounding a failing upower start?

Landaro

Member

Registered: 2020-04-22

Posts: 10

Re: Thinkpad docking station causes high CPU load and various failures

Quick update since I am currently away from home with my laptop, and the faulty behavior has stopped. Previously, when I wrote my above question I was using the device on a docking station. Is it a viable hypothesis, that upower has issues with my docking station? I will try to test it, once I am back home at the end of this week.

Now that I am thinking about it ... at home I have an LAN cable attached to the docking station, but my system effectively seems to be using the wifi link. I have configured ifplugd to theoretically switch to the wired connection when it becomes available but that does not appear to be working correctly either .. (and journalctl reports the wired link to be constantly oscillating between UP and DOWN), e.g. I get a lot of this:

Nov 26 19:53:15 orchid ifplugd[1616]: Link beat detected.
Nov 26 19:53:16 orchid kernel: e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 enp0s31f6: NIC Link is Down
Nov 26 19:53:16 orchid ifplugd[1616]: Link beat lost.
Nov 26 19:53:18 orchid kernel: e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 enp0s31f6: NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None
Nov 26 19:53:18 orchid ifplugd[1616]: Link beat detected.
Nov 26 19:53:18 orchid kernel: e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 enp0s31f6: NIC Link is Down
Nov 26 19:53:19 orchid ifplugd[1616]: Link beat lost.
Nov 26 19:53:45 orchid kernel: e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 enp0s31f6: NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None
Nov 26 19:53:45 orchid ifplugd[1616]: Link beat detected.
Nov 26 19:53:46 orchid kernel: e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 enp0s31f6: NIC Link is Down
Nov 26 19:53:46 orchid ifplugd[1616]: Link beat lost.
Nov 26 19:54:01 orchid kernel: e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 enp0s31f6: NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None
Nov 26 19:54:01 orchid ifplugd[1616]: Link beat detected.
Nov 26 19:54:02 orchid kernel: e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 enp0s31f6: NIC Link is Down
Nov 26 19:54:02 orchid ifplugd[1616]: Link beat lost.
Nov 26 19:54:04 orchid kernel: e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 enp0s31f6: NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None
Nov 26 19:54:04 orchid ifplugd[1616]: Link beat detected.
Nov 26 19:54:05 orchid kernel: e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 enp0s31f6: NIC Link is Down
Nov 26 19:54:05 orchid ifplugd[1616]: Link beat lost.

I vaguely recall that the wired connection used to work as intended, when I plug the cable directly into the laptop (also something I need to test when I am back home).

For the record, my laptop is a lenovo thinkpad T480, plus an official lenovo docking station (I will add the correct model/make later).

Charging and external displays, mouse and keyboard are working correctly on the dock, so it does not appear to be generally broken.

Assuming that the dock really is the problematic piece, how would I dig down further?

Landaro

Member

Registered: 2020-04-22

Posts: 10

Re: Thinkpad docking station causes high CPU load and various failures

Ok, further observations:

1. The detection (and subsequent actions) of the wired connection work flawlessly, when I plug the LAN cable directly into my laptop, but when I instead plug it into the docking station, I immediately get the oscillating LINK UP/DOWN behaviour  described above.
2. For the upower thing: the service started correctly when not attached to the dock, and kept running, when I connected the dock. but when I attempt to restart the upower.service while connected I get the timeout failures on startup again, plus the infinite retry phenomenon
3. while connected to the dock I also notice a much higher average CPU load. While (supposedly) idling and without the dock I get an average load (short term, first figure in htop) somewhere between 1 and 2. When I plug in the dock, it immediately jumps up to somewhere between 6 and 7. (May laptop has an 8th gen core i7 CPU, i7-8550U, meaning 4 cores with hyperthreading, so 8 reported cores in htop). This may be a consequence of either or both of the first two points, or caused by something else, but it smells heavily related.

Bottom line:
a) I still need help in debugging this furthe
b) I guess that this thread should be moved to the hardware sub forum (I see if I can change the title and first post on my own, to better describe what is going on for other forum users) , not sure how much of that I can do on my own, and for what I have to wait on moderator support

Landaro

Member

Registered: 2020-04-22

Posts: 10

Re: Thinkpad docking station causes high CPU load and various failures

As this has become a hardware topic:

Laptop: Lenovo Thinkpad T480, Intel i7-8550U, 32GB Ram
Dock: Lenovo Thinkpad UltraDock 40AJ

If you need any further specs, please let me know

pvtvega

Member

Registered: 2024-11-25

Posts: 90

Re: Thinkpad docking station causes high CPU load and various failures

This is going to sound really stupid, but I did a quick reddit search and multiple users have reported issues with this specific dock and were able to fix it by (yes I am serious about this next part) flipping the USB-C cable.

Thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comm … kpad_40ay/

Landaro

Member

Registered: 2020-04-22

Posts: 10

Re: Thinkpad docking station causes high CPU load and various failures

Thanks for the pointer.

It's definitely not exactly that problem as my dock is not the USB-C version (40AY) but the classic one that fully locks in the laptop (40AJ) (so there's no cable I could flip over). But maybe that discussion has further hints for debugging ... I'll keep digging.

And from experience: I am fine with presumably "stupid" solutions, I've seen my share of weird cause-effect situations when it comes to hardware related issues (e.g. floor vibration -> disk in cd drive jumps -> more read errors -> read-ahead buffer needs to be refilled -> disk drive pulls slightly more power -> power supply can't handle sudden peak -> mobo receives not enough power and triggers "safety feature" to just reboot system" ... figuring that our from "jumping on the floor causes system reboots" was a fun journey )

Last edited by Landaro (2024-12-03 09:28:09)

pvtvega

Member

Registered: 2024-11-25

Posts: 90

Re: Thinkpad docking station causes high CPU load and various failures

I did some more searching and found a reddit thread, again for the USB-C dock, but the solution seems like it may be more general and applicable to your case. They had high CPU usage and fans were running at max speed until they updated the BIOS firmware, which fixed both issues. The user notes that the release notes for the firmware indicate a fix for a CPU frequency throttling issue. Perhaps worth taking a look: https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comme … sage_with/

Note that the OP and another poster in that thread mentioned that the firmware update messed with the fan speed controls. It was easily fixed by installing a fan control service though.

Last edited by pvtvega (2024-12-03 14:02:15)