kernel 3.2.x causes system freeze on Intel Ivy Bridge platform(e.g. ThinkPad T430)?
 

Hi :)

I installed Slackware 14.0 x86_64 RC2(kernel 3.2.27) on my new laptop(info listed below) a few weeks ago. Since then, I keep meeting sudden system freeze. Usually, my linux box is opened for 8~10 hours every day. And the freeze issue appears almost at least once per day. In some unlucky days, it will be several times.

The most weird thing is that it's very hard to reproduce such a freeze problem. It shows up when I right-click on desktop, type url in web browser, switch to next song in Amarok and so on.

It seems not a bug of Nvidia graphics(disabed via BIOS), or KDE(xfce freezed as well), or RC's kernel 3.2.27(upgraded to RC4 3.2.28, freezed too). And I disabled Composite extension. When the system freezes, mouse and keyboard doesn't response, and ctrl+alt+backspace/ctrl+alt+fN can't kill X server or switch to console. But mute botton and dvd-rom works.

Then I found something relevant after google, "t430 freeze linux" and "freeze ivy bridge linux". Many user with kernel 3.2.x met crash or freeze issues on Ivy Bridge. It seems that kernel 3.2.x does not work well with Intel Ivy Bridge.

Some users solved this problem by upgrading kernel to higher version, >= 3.3.x. But for me, it may not be a good option. Cuz Slackware 14.0 final will stick with kernel 3.2.x(very likely 3.2.28). And I don't know if higher kernel works stable enough. This is really really annoying :( I can not study and work on Slackware 14.0 now. I really do need help, what am I supposed to do?

Appreciate any helps.

Slackware 14.0 RC4 x86_64, kernel 3.2.28 on

Well, freezed again just a few minutes after posting here. Attached Xorg.0.log*.

Why don't you try to disable the intel chip and use the nvidia driver?

I am experiencing the same behavior in my new Thinkpad T530 with Ivy Bridge and HD4000 graphics. It is disappointing too because everything else works so well with -current. My laptop doesn't have the Nvidia card, so that is not an option for me. I will attempt to upgrade to a newer kernel and see if things improve. I will report back here with the results. I have gotten spoiled in recent years by not needing to compile my own kernels, because the Slackware included kernels have worked so well. If a newer kernel does solve the problem, it would be nice if 14.0 included at least a config for a newer kernel.

Indeed. Except this issue, Slackware 14.0 works smoothly with ThinkPad T430. Pat, would you please put your kernel 3.4 config file in the testing/ or somewhere else :D

just tried, slackware could not boot, freezed after 10 seconds on something about nouveau...

Pat has put one some time ago, it resides in /source/k/config-testing-3.4.9/. You can have a try.

3.4 is the next long-term kernel but 3.4.10 has some possible issues with intel graphics (see here) -- so it may be no better off. You may have to try 3.5.x and see if that works (but 3.5.x is not a long-term kernel so you'd have to follow the latest kernel release after that).

So far so good with 3.5.3, I used the 3.2.28-generic config and just hit enter at all prompts through 'make oldconfig'. I am now a few minutes into a compile with the 3.4.9-generic config as a starting point with 'make -j5', which would have locked it up almost instantly with 3.2.28, so it seems to be resolved with the latest kernel.

Thanks!

Are you sure this is due to the kernel? I have a Thinkpad X220 table (Sandy Bridge) and I also see these freezes. I am running kernel 3.2.6 (even though it is in Slackware 13.37).

But I think in my case the problem is that I'm using ReiserFS. It seems that ReiserFS causes problems in multi-core CPUs, particularly in kernel 3.2.x. I am going to move to another filesystem as soon as I put Slackware 14 on it, hope that it goes away.

Of course your freezes may be from a different source than mine (since I have Sandy Bridge not Ivy Bridge), but it sure behaves like you described.

Oh, I found it, thank you dram :)

Thanks for this information.

Thanks for tips.

Well, I can not say 100% sure. And I also have a reiserfs partition.

Hi. Just converted my reiserfs partition to ext4, but freezed as usual :(

I had freezes before with ext4 as well. Still no freezes with 3.5.3, and I worked it pretty hard yesterday compiling all kinds of stuff.

Nice~ I would triy 3.4.10 first. Which .config did you use? Any modification?

I used the 3.4.9-generic config that is in the source directory on -current. Only change I made was to compile in support for ext4, took defaults on all the new stuff.

Good to know, thanks. It was worth a try (I am still moving away from ReiserFS, not sure yet if to ext4 or XFS)

Hey guys, I wanted to report on this issue as well. However, I am not on a ThinkPad. I'm on HP Pavillion dv7-7012nr laptop.

I don't know if anybody else is, but I am running bumblebee to switch between the nvidia and intel graphics chips whenever I need one over the other. I ran into the same freeze that many describe here and it was also random. However, for me it was more frequent. With the help of jgeboski with thought it might because I'm running compiz-fusion and the opengl materials that compiz-fusion uses.

However, after upgrading to 3.4.10, the problem no longer occurred. However, with 3.4.10 (using 3.2.28's generic configuration and my custom kernel configuration) my nvidia graphics card suffered severely when using bumblebee. An upgrade to 3.5.* fixed the odd nvidia chip problems.

Hi folks!

After I installed stable Slackware 14.0 with default choices yesterday, it freezed three times.
Any suggestions?

Thanks...

Upgrade the kernel to 3.4.11 or 3.5.4

Thank you for your suggestion. I switched my box to Slackware 14.0 64-bit today. Up to now I have not experienced system freeze, but freeze probably will occur in the next hours. There are a few testing phase kernels in "/testing/source" directory of the official release. How can I simply install these kernel options and attach to LILO? Are there any SlackBuild scripts to make binary kernel packages?

I have the same laptop you do, and I experienced the very same problems. Very frustrating, to say the least. I solved the problem by pulling 3.4.10 from kernel.org, and making slackware packages out of it (kernel-generic,kernel-modules,kernel-source). My laptop is running fast, and very stable. No freezing whatsoever.

I have the packages in a Dropbox account that I have, and if anyone cares, I have the packages available on my hard drive. Please reply if you want this. Thanks.

There are guides on compiling the kernel:
Alien Bob's guide:
http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:sla...kernelbuilding
My guide:
http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:sla...git_repository

Just use one of the config files provided to start with. Make sure to make an initrd if you use the generic one.

If you have separate graphics and sound cards then you don't have to compile a new kernel, just blacklist your intel graphics, and nouveau and install the nvidia driver from slackbuilds 13.37, also if you have a separate sound card blacklist the snd_hda_intel, and if your system is reacts the same way as mine then the freezing will stop.

intel i5 3550, Asus Z77 mobo, nvidia gt240.

samac

Stciker on the notebook says it has 2G B NVIDIA GT 630M GPU. On Lenovo site it is said that Z580 model has Intel HD Graphics 4000. Assuming my notebook has NVIDIA GPU, I blacklisted nouveau using "xf86-video-nouveau-blacklist-noarch-1.txz" binary package in /extra directory of install DVD, then installed libvdpau, nvidia-kernel and nvidia-driver correspondingly using slackbuild scripts on SlackBuilds.org and exited the X server. Running "nvidia-xconfig" command produced an "xorg.conf" file. But now "startx" command yields error message "No screens found". Trying to run "Xorg -configure" can not be succesful also. Just removing "/etc/xorg.conf" file and running "startx" without any xorg configuration file enters X succesfully. After entering X and launching NVIDIA X Server Settings shows following error message, but doing that action does not solve the problem.

If I can configure NVIDIA driver succesfully, will freezing problem be solved without upgrading kernel?

Thanks...

You should restart the computer, not just exist xorg for the nvidia driver to work. Leave in place the xorg.conf generated by nvidia during install or using nvidia-xconfig.

After running "nvidia-xconfig" command, system generated an "xorg.conf" file in /etc/X11. Rebooting system and running "startx" again did not reach to success. Following error message displayed.

[ATTACH]startx.jpg[/ATTACH]

Thank you H_TeXMeX_H, using your guide I successfully upgraded to kernel 3.5.4 along side the default Slackware 14.0 stable kernel :). Now there occurs no freezing.

As root, type 'lsmod' at the terminal. Check to see if the 'nvidia' module is even loaded.

Slackware's all 3.2.x kernels will freeze. I had run 3.4.10(~1 week), 3.4.11(~1 week) and 3.4.12(5 days), the issue never occurred.

I was about to post the same thing and I saw this post.

Mine Thinkpad E430 with i3 cpu running Slackware14 (3.2.29) is having the same problem. Frozen 2-3 times every night. Nothing I could do but reboot. I thought it was because of my computer...:banghead:

Hi TeXMeX,

I followed your instruction and when I "gpg --search xxxxxxxx", I got these 2 message:

I tried to use the kernel v3.6 and would that cause the problem?

===================================================

Just want to make a note for those it might be helpful. I got the problem fixed by:
#gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 00411886

;)

===================================================

Again, I've got another error:

#gpg --verify linux-$version.tar.sign
gpg: can't open `linux-3.6.tar.sign'
gpg: verify signatures failed: file open error

I just ignored this and go to next step :redface:

===================================================

When I built the new kernel,
there are at least 100 y/n options to choose. Is that normal?

.

Yeah, I fixed it, you also need the .sign file, which I forgot to mention.

When I built the new kernel,
there are at least 100 yes/no questions to answer. Is that normal?

What kernel version are you using, and did you use one of the slackware configs ?

Mine version is v3.2.29 and trying to up to v3.6

I don't have my installation medium on hand, so I did:

If we use the installation disk to copy the config file, there would not be any yes/no questions to answer?

Now I stopped the building kernel because I don't sure the kernel building is correct or not...~!

Yes that's pretty normal as there is a very big gap between the 3.2 and the 3.6 kernels. Instead of using the config file for your running kernel, what don't you download one in /testing from a mirror?

The BIG problems of those questions are, they are NOT understandable for normal people :banghead:... Those questions are deep!!!

BTW,where can I find a config file from mirror?

Try one of these configs:

ftp://ftp.slackware.at/slackware64-c...sting-3.6-rc4/

x64 for 64-bit.

Here for a 2.6 kernel. If you feel some questions are hard, just accept the default answer or request help.

EDIT H_TeXMeX_H was faster.

Eventually... I've installed the kernel 3.6.1 :D:D:D
Thx guys. :hattip:

Well. I marked this post "SOLVED" with the approach of upgrading to an upper kernel (3.4, 3.5 or 3.6).

another solution
 

I have an other approach to solve problem which is a wee bit more simple than upgrading the kernel.

on my x230 box the freshly installed slackware 14 froze between 30 sec and 1 hour after boot. each time the system froze firefox was running and some heavyly flash and script polluted pages were open.

To test if firefox is the problem i installed opera. i considered to deinstall flash but was to lazy on the first try.

since then my system didnt froze anymore even with slackwares original kernel installed. at last in my case not the kernel but firefox was causing the problem.

Just put 14.0 on Zareazon Strata, and had the same freezing problem in X, within an hour of boot. After upgrading to 3.4.14 it now worked for 12 hours without a hitch. Keeping my fingers crossed.

H_TeXMeX_H, is that normal? Do I need to import GPG Key?

Yes, it is normal, you don't have the gpg key used to sign the kernel.

Thank you very much.

FWIW, you used the wrong command for verification. Greg K-H signed the ".tar" file before compressed it using various compression algorithms. The right command in your case should be:

Oops, I missed the "unxz" command before that. Anyway, with the above method you keep things clean using just original downloaded files.

check this out -> http://kernel.org/signature.html#usi...nel-signatures