T60 freezes up semi-regularly: how to diagnose

chexmix · 08-28-2012, 06:31 AM

Hi all -

A few months ago I purchased a used Thinkpad T60 from thinkpaddepot.com. I have Slackware 13.37 and OpenBSD 5.1 installed on it.

The machine locks up hard, quite often. Blank screen, unresponsive to keyboard clicks or anything else. I have the battery out and run it solely on AC (I read somewhere early on that a 'bad' battery can cause this problem) so I typically just unplug and power back on.

I have lightly searched yon Internet for clues and to tell the truth, have found too many. Apparently a lot of people have lockup problems with this model, but the solutions are ... various:

1) replace the 'bad battery' with a good one
2) reseat the RAM
3) disable <something> in the BIOS
4) upgrade the BIOS
5) and so on

I'd like if possible to figure out *what* is really going on before I start attempting a fix. This morning I looked in the system logs and found this:

bash-4.1$ grep lockup syslog.1
Aug 22 10:54:52 catbutt kernel: [188650.915060] radeon 0000:01:00.0: GPU lockup CP stall for more than 10000msec
Aug 22 10:54:52 catbutt kernel: [188650.915106] GPU lockup (waiting for 0x01E7C2C0 lastAug 22 18:56:03 catbutt kernel: [ 3.922908] scsi: <fdomain> Detection failed (no card)
Aug 23 10:42:10 catbutt kernel: [56788.297052] radeon 0000:01:00.0: GPU lockup CP stall for more than 10000msec
Aug 23 10:42:10 catbutt kernel: [56788.297096] GPU lockup (waiting for 0x008DB981 last fence id 0x008DB980)
Aug 25 15:12:13 catbutt kernel: [115089.999102] radeon 0000:01:00.0: GPU lockup CP stall for more than 10000msec
Aug 25 15:12:13 catbutt kernel: [115089.999148] GPU lockup (waiting for 0x01198AB8 last fence id 0x01198AB7)

(yes, my machine is named catbutt)

I don't know, is that significant?

If anyone can recommend some good diagnostic techniques for this situation, I'd be grateful. I'd rather proceed in a meaningful manner than just start at the top of the total list of possibilities and work my way down ... if that's possible, that is.

Thanks,

Glenn

jefro · 08-29-2012, 03:00 PM

Start with checking for a bios issue. I think freebsd has some notes on goofy thinkpad bios's and versions that work. It is rare that I ever suggest a bios fix.

Before that though, I run memtest for a few days. See if you can get other hardware diags to run for extended times too. Any lockup can be a result of internal timings and pal or firmware issues. You might not ever be able to get linux to work on it even if windows works perfectly.

business_kid · 08-29-2012, 03:08 PM

Quote:

radeon 0000:01:00.0: GPU lockup CP stall for more than 10000msec

That's a show stopper. That's what's going on. You have a radeon card, and incorrect drivers.
I'd like to know your kernel, distro and what drivers you have loaded. Try these commands and post the output

Quote:

uname -r
ls /usr/lib(64)/xorg/modules
sudo lspci

Install the xf86-video-ati package, and see if that improves things.

chexmix · 08-30-2012, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

That's a show stopper. That's what's going on. You have a radeon card, and incorrect drivers.
I'd like to know your kernel, distro and what drivers you have loaded. Try these commands and post the output

Install the xf86-video-ati package, and see if that improves things.

Over the past few days I've been leaving the machine at a command prompt when I'm away and, yeah, no lockups. :/

This is a vanilla Slackware 13.37 install. I have the xf86-video-ati package installed:

Code:

bash-4.1$ ls -l /var/log/packages/xf86-video-ati-6.14.1-i486-1 
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1440 Apr 20 18:35 /var/log/packages/xf86-video-ati-6.14.1-i486-1

... here's the output from the commands you list:

Code:

bash-4.1$ uname -r
2.6.37.6-smp

bash-4.1$ ls /usr/lib/xorg/modules
dri	    libexa.la  libfbdevhw.la  libshadow.la    libvbe.la    libwfb.la  libxf8_16bpp.la  v20002d.uc
drivers     libexa.so  libfbdevhw.so  libshadow.so    libvbe.so    libwfb.so  libxf8_16bpp.so
extensions  libfb.la   libint10.la    libshadowfb.la  libvgahw.la  libxaa.la  multimedia
input	    libfb.so   libint10.so    libshadowfb.so  libvgahw.so  libxaa.so  v10002d.uc

root@catbutt:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M52 [Mobility Radeon X1300]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller

Thanks for the info, btw.

business_kid · 08-31-2012, 04:33 AM

Well, you have an X1300 card, long obsolete, like my x1250. They're crappy cards, but they work. You can run car racing games as long as you don't exceed 15mph!(=24 kph) :-/.

Remove any binary blob if you installed one.
ati-blah.run --uninstall
and other xf86-video packages if you like, as you only need xf86-video-ati. On Slack-13.37, that should work out of the box. Run these

Quote:

grep -e 'WW' -e 'EE' /var/log/Xorg.0.log
glxinfo |grep render

and post what you get.
Check that the radeon module is not in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. Remove the line if it is. I'd ask also for the Slackware part of /etc/lilo.conf and anything to do with video in /etc/modprobe.d.

I haven't a clue what's wrong, but my x1250 runs on a basically vanilla slackware

chexmix · 08-31-2012, 05:54 AM

OK.

No binary blobs -- and radeon module is not in blacklist, though the radeonfb module is.

... and:

Code:

root@catbutt:~# grep -e 'WW' -e 'EE' /var/log/Xorg.0.log 
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[   619.426] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/local" does not exist.
[   619.426] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/CID" does not exist.
[   619.518] (II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
[   619.621] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module fbdev
[   619.621] (EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
[   619.635] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for vesa

and ...

Code:

root@catbutt:~# glxinfo |grep render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on RV515
    GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_NV_light_max_exponent,

and ...

Code:

# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/root
  label = Slackware
  read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

(not sure if you wanted more than this ...)

There are a bunch of fb modules listed in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf. I mention the radeon one above. Not sure these are of any interest.

Thanks so much for the diagnostic guidance here. I really appreciate it.

I should mention that I've found a few Google hits since posting that seem to indicate this might be a known kernel bug. Thing is, I get hits for a lot of different kernels. :/

- Glenn

business_kid · 08-31-2012, 08:56 AM

IIRC, in 2.6.37.0, the default went to using KMS on radeon, but you would find kernel errors for stuff before that. As new cards get incorporated, stuff crashes and bugs are found.
Lilo.conf looks ok, not screwing things up anyhow.

Quote:

root@catbutt:~# glxinfo |grep render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on RV515
GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_NV_light_max_exponent,

That basically means you're up and running on the radeon driver - yet the GPU is hanging. radeon has a look at your card and chooses an appropriate dri module. You probably need the r300 driver
(= /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/dri/r300_dri.so). Yours is a new install without a disk disaster?
Any strange messages in /var/log/messages about firmware for the card?
grep firmware /var/log/messages.

Is the hardware good?
I've stuck my Xorg.0.log up here for you to have a look at compared to your own.
https://skydrive.live.com/#cid=99361...4096FF2C07!208

chexmix · 09-01-2012, 11:19 AM

Based on some lines I was seeing in syslog:

Code:

Aug 20 06:53:01 catbutt kernel: [ 1340.410648] CE: hpet increased min_delta_ns to 20113 nsec
Aug 20 06:53:43 catbutt kernel: [ 1382.030342] CE: hpet increased min_delta_ns to 30169 nsec
Aug 20 07:00:14 catbutt kernel: [ 1773.195007] CE: hpet increased min_delta_ns to 45253 nsec
Aug 20 08:21:29 catbutt kernel: [ 6648.320106] CE: hpet increased min_delta_ns to 67879 nsec

and some stuff I read on yon Internet, I added "hpet=disable" to my lilo.conf and rebooted. I'm waiting to see whether that makes any difference.

/GB

chexmix · 09-03-2012, 06:25 AM

Still getting freezes. So THAT wasn't the answer.

business_kid · 09-03-2012, 07:48 AM

Let's review:

ATI GPU hanging in X - that's the problem, right?

You're using the correct driver.
Firmware?
New install of distro; Is everything you need installed (libs particularly) you can check this with
ldd /path/to/executable |grep found
Anything missing shows. That works on libaries too.

Anything funny on the interrupts? Otherwise, it may just be hardware. I would try where the developers lurk on phoronix forums before calling that, however.

H_TeXMeX_H · 09-03-2012, 08:54 AM

Burn the UBCD and run these tests:

memtest86+
Video Memory Stress Test (Peripherals section)

chexmix · 10-01-2012, 09:28 PM

I'm not quite ready to mark this one solved but it seems, anyway, like the move to Slack 14 has helped this problem out. Still monitoring it.

That'd be ... nice if it turns out to be true!

/G