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#1 2025-10-11 18:21:09

nmacholl
Member
Registered: 2025-10-11
Posts: 5

[RESOLVED] Kernel panic while booting from Arch USB

Hello, I am having a problem installing the latest (October) Arch from a USB on a new machine I have built.

After selecting an option from the GRUB screen, the installer either freezes and eventually the machine resets, or I am presented with a blue QR code screen with the error: "Timeout: Not all CPUs entered broadcast exception handler". (image link)

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (Arrow Lake)
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z890M AORUS Elite WIFI7 ICE Ultra Core (Series 2)

Factory default BIOS settings (no-overlocking).
BIOS firmware is up-to-date (F17).
Secure boot is disabled.

Things I have tried:
Various grub boot parameters. I hit "e" on the GRUB menu item I want and append these parameters, but I am not sure how to confirm they have taken effect.

  • Restricting c-states with things like: intel_idle.max_cstate=1 processor.max_cstate=1 max_cstate=1

  • Running with: acpi=off

  • Running with: nomodeset

  • Running with only one CPU using: nosmp maxcpus=1

  • Disabling various CPU features in the BIOS (so many to list but anything with power, turbo, boost, cstates, pstates, etc.)

The system doesn't seem to fail at the same place every time, so it is hard to know if any of the above have had any effect. I have never gotten to a shell or guided install screen.
I have run with debug logging, and some messages seem concerning:

ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve symbol [_SB.PC00.LPCB.HEC.DPTF.FCHG]
watchdog: CPU10: Watchdog detected hard LOCKUP on CPU10
[Hardware Error] CPU16: Machine Check: 0 Bank 0: b20000000

Is your CPU defective?
Golly gee I hope not.

  • I am dual booting this machine with Windows 11 which installed without issue.

  • I also ran a memtest86+ which didn't encounter any errors.

  • Intel has a CPU diagnostic tool which ran and didn't detect any issues.

  • I've run 3DMark with good results.

If anyone has any suggestions or experiments, I would be grateful. I am out of ideas at the moment and might just resign myself to try again next month and hope a random kernel update saves me. Thank you for reading, it is appreciated.

Last edited by nmacholl (2025-10-13 18:21:22)

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#2 2025-10-11 20:47:38

vi2nano
Member
Registered: 2014-11-27
Posts: 8

Re: [RESOLVED] Kernel panic while booting from Arch USB

Have you tried making a new bootable USB with a new USB drive? Sounds silly but I've had issues with many drives in the past. Also, try writing the image with dd rather than using a tool like rufus or similar. Those typically mishandle the partition layouts and can cause a myriad of issues on their own. smile

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#3 2025-10-11 22:50:43

nmacholl
Member
Registered: 2025-10-11
Posts: 5

Re: [RESOLVED] Kernel panic while booting from Arch USB

vi2nano wrote:

Have you tried making a new bootable USB with a new USB drive? Sounds silly but I've had issues with many drives in the past. Also, try writing the image with dd rather than using a tool like rufus or similar. Those typically mishandle the partition layouts and can cause a myriad of issues on their own. smile

Yes. I have two USBs which were used for setting up this machine. I have tried installing Arch using both, ISO and DD. Initially, these install media were created using Ubuntu's USB key utility, but I have used Rufus as well now that I have a working Windows 11 setup. I have also tried several other distributions, such as Monjaro which behave similarly.

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#4 2025-10-13 02:14:41

nmacholl
Member
Registered: 2025-10-11
Posts: 5

Re: [RESOLVED] Kernel panic while booting from Arch USB

Hello everyone. I am happy to report I have diagnosed and resolved this issue.

After experimenting a bunch with debug logging in GRUB I concluded that the logging was generally unhelpful and the point during the boot process that I would get stuck in, or panic, was more or less arbitrary.
I decided this was most likely a hardware problem, and decided to open the case and experiment by removing my PCIe devices one at a time.

The culprit
I was able to successfully boot once I removed my Creative Sound Blaster AE-7 Hi-Res Internal PCIe sound card. I now have a working Linux install, although it still has trouble booting with this card inserted.
This is not a necessary peripheral for my use case, so I am happy to omit it. While Creative Labs doesn't have official Linux drivers, I was not intending to use this device for my Linux partition given this is for productivity and this sound card is not part of that work.

I'd be interested to know if there were any better GRUB shortcuts to identify this card as the issue other than simply removing it - but all is well that ends well.

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#5 2025-10-13 13:59:15

seth
Member
From: Don't DM me only for attention
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 69,046

Re: [RESOLVED] Kernel panic while booting from Arch USB

\o/
https://i.imgur.com/JAPLbfJ.jpeg - aren't curved monitors great?
Can you decode that?

Try "iommu=soft", even w/o drivers this should™ not inhibit your boot at all.

I am dual booting this machine with Windows 11

3rd link below. Mandatory.
Disable it (it's NOT the BIOS setting!) and reboot windows and linux twice for voodo reasons.

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#6 2025-10-13 18:26:39

nmacholl
Member
Registered: 2025-10-11
Posts: 5

Re: [RESOLVED] Kernel panic while booting from Arch USB

seth wrote:

Can you decode that?

No I couldn't. I tried scanning it with my phone but it wasn't recognized. I probably could have gotten it to work if I changed my monitor's display mode to a smaller dimension and resolution.

seth wrote:

Try "iommu=soft", even w/o drivers this should™ not inhibit your boot at all.

I can give this a shot. I am pretty sure I tried this option at least once, but I was probably mixing it was some of the parameters from the original post.

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#7 2025-10-13 18:54:24

seth
Member
From: Don't DM me only for attention
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 69,046

Re: [RESOLVED] Kernel panic while booting from Arch USB

Do you have at least a higher resolution version of the image?

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#8 2025-10-13 21:11:14

nmacholl
Member
Registered: 2025-10-11
Posts: 5

Re: [RESOLVED] Kernel panic while booting from Arch USB

seth wrote:

Do you have at least a higher resolution version of the image?

No I don't. I couldn't even scan it with my phone sitting in front of it.

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#9 2025-10-13 21:13:17

seth
Member
From: Don't DM me only for attention
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 69,046

Re: [RESOLVED] Kernel panic while booting from Arch USB

I tried to de-warp it but the direct attempt ended up too blurry to be scanned, hence the question sad

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