Arch Linux

CoolGenie

Member

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 56

clocksource tsc unstable

Hello,
I'm using Arch x86_64. After the last upgrade (installed xulrunner, preload and hunspell), my system got broken. When I boot, I get to the console, but then the keyboard stops working. I can switch consoles with no problem with Alt-Fx, but that's all, can't even reboot with Ctrl-Alt-Del. Also, the processor fan starts working hard, so it seems that my CPU is used much.
Fortunately, I've set up redirecting of system.log and other files to /dev/tty8. And the last message displayed is
Clocksource tsc unstable, delta=-...
I've googled and found that sometimes setting the kernel parameter
clocksource=acpi-pm
helps. Well, the message doesn't display now, but the system still hangs.

Thanks in advace for the help,
Przemek

CoolGenie

Member

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 56

Re: clocksource tsc unstable

Well, I've fixed the hangs. It turns out that they were caused by the preload daemon, something's messed up in the new version.

gils0040

Member

Registered: 2007-08-21

Posts: 5

Re: clocksource tsc unstable

I'm guessing that you have a dual core cpu. tsc stands for time stamp counter. This timer uses time stamps generated by the cpu to determine time. The problem is that both cores generate this timestamp and sometimes they are different. You could also try using clocksource=hpet.

CoolGenie

Member

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 56

Re: clocksource tsc unstable

Actually, I have a single CPU

SiD

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2006-09-21

Posts: 729

Re: clocksource tsc unstable

don't know if this is excactly your problem, but does it work if you use  clocksource=acpi_pm and nohz=off in your kernel line?

CoolGenie

Member

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 56

Re: clocksource tsc unstable

Is this acpi_pm or acpi-pm as in http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=52292 ?

awagner

Member

From: Mainz, Germany

Registered: 2007-08-24

Posts: 191

Re: clocksource tsc unstable

FWIW, I have preload 0.6.3 (PKGBUILD on preload's AUR page in the comments), x86_64 and no hangs (yet).

CoolGenie

Member

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 56

Re: clocksource tsc unstable

The dev responsible for preload said that he'll take a look at the problem when he has some time.