amd64: Random system hangs and mouse issues with 6.10 (cpufreq related?)

I don't know how to get more information about this problem, because every time I've got this problem the system hangs. Has anyone ideas to get more information about this, or can anyone confirm this? I still have this problem. Every time powernowd is running my system hangs after a (short) while.

I have the same problem with feisty. After I installed the system It froze and after I removed powernowd in the recovery mode, it was fine.

Do you need syslog, kernel.log and messages? I've got them from a just installed feisty herd5 system.

In version 0.97-1ubuntu7 is the problem solved. My system's working fine for a couple of hours now.

The problem isn't over. After a restart the OS froze again.

On Feisty, we don't actually run the 'powernowd', all we do is set the kernel's built-in scaling-governor. If I hadn't read the comment about "removing powernowd fixed the issue", I would have said this was likely completely unrelated to powernowd. If we don't run the '/etc/init.d/powernowd' initscript on boot, the kernel defaults to the 'conservative' governor.

That's not to say there's not something related to 'cpufreq', perhaps dropping interrupts during a state change, but I don't think it's powernowd, because powernowd simply isn't running (on Feisty).

I'm interested with any testing you can do on Feisty, but keeping the package installed and seeing whether the issue still occurs.

Please attach:

  lspci -vv
  lspci -vvn

and the contents of:

  /var/log/dmesg
  /var/log/messages

Please ensure you /attach/ these are attachments.

Many Thanks,

Other files that are of interest are:

sudo dmidecode > dmidecode.txt
ps ax > ps.txt

I've got all the files, without powernowd installed. Do you need them also with powernowd installed?

(without powernowd) means without powernowd installed.

Excuse for so many comments, but I don't know how to add all files at one time.
I've found the point in the old /var/log/message where the computer freezes. It's at Mar 14 15:21:18.
Just before syslogd says the system restarts, There is a message from gconfd, who says:
Mar 14 15:16:16 sense-desktop gconfd (sense-5379): Adres "xml:readwrite:/home/sense/.gconf" getraceerd naar een schrijfbare configuratiebron op positie 0
In English it means about:
Mar 14 15:16:16 sense-desktop gconfd (sense-5379): Address "xml:readwrite:/home/sense/.gconf" traced to a writeable configurationsource at position 0

I now it's very literally, but I don't know the exact string, and I'm only thirteen.

I have also seen number of random lock-ups. I'm running 6.10 and AMD64 (kernel 2.6.17) on Abit AB9-Pro motherboard. Everything usually works fine for maybe an hour or two, then the machine just freezes. I've been looking at different log files trying to see if there is anything happening when the system locks, but didn't find anything.

Stopping powernowd (/etc/init.d/powernowd stop) after system has started, *seems* to help.

The packages is still the old kernel(where the bug was also in). But is also in the feisty kernel. How do I add the 2.6.20 kernel? By using +Upstream?

I've been having similar hangs on dapper & now feisty. It seems to happen more when I'm moving the mouse, I don't remember it happening when using the keyboard.

with the attachment this time

I also have this problem, tends to freeze when certain high process load tasks (like 3D-stuff but not ripping a CD) and sometimes I just click something and it happens randomly. Will try disabling powernowd and will report back.

OK, I disabled powernowd then repeatedly ran 3D screensavers and it still crashed. Only did it once though. Next I'm going to use the open-source nvidia driver instead of the proprietary one and see if that fixes the issue (as that will disable 3d). If anyone wants me to do a specific test just ask :-D Because I want to be able to use my PC without it crashing all the time!!!

Remove this please - meant to select Ubuntu.

I've got the same problem at Fedora 7 32bit and removing cpuspeed seems to solve the problem.

Not sure if this helps, but I noticed that after disabling the powernowd the CPU went back to full speed. Perhaps it has more to do with the CPU throttling than anything else.

Aha! This issue has turned up again in Bug #109643 (although it was originally thought to be NVIDIA binary driver related)...

I think it isn't a 64bit issue, but an AMD problem. My brother doesn't have this problem at an Intel laptop, and this also isn't a problem at an Intel desktop. They're both 32bit. At an old AMD Duron 1000mHz I also have this problem. I think this is a kernel problem, which is also in other distributions, since I've got the same problem with Fedora 7 32bit at an AMD64 (and Fedora/Red Hat modifies his kernel significant).

(Red Hat try not to modify Fedora kernels all that much from upstream - see http://kernelslacker.livejournal.com/85039.html )

About the 100% processor usage, I sometimes have also that problem. I have only Firefox, Thunderbird and Rythmbox(playing) on. I think the priority should be higher, I couldn't install it with the livecd, and after I installed it with the alternate CD I had to remove powernowd in the recovery mode before I could properly use the system. But at the Duron, I could install it with the LiveCD, but after a while it began to freeze. A very few times after removing powernowd, it also freezes, but this happens almost never. I can't access the log files at the moment(and I still can't the next three weeks), but if you want them, please ask me.

Can someone test this with a Gutsy beta and see if this is any better?

hi,

unfortunately, i can confirm lockups with gutsy tribe 5 (32bit) and todays updates, which i could solve by deactivating amd cool'n'quiet in bios.

i've had the lockups with feisty (32bit) before, now switched to gutsy testing.

the lockups occur unpredictably and mostly on an (almost) idle system, eg. right after gutsy finished intall to hdd (still running off the live cd), during gutsy package update, during light web browsing, after running amule for a few minutes etc.
frequency of lockups ranges from within a few minutes to hours. after lockup, my screen is unchanged with the exact content it had before, so no distorted image whatsoever. mouse pointer and keyboard of course are frozen, too. hard reboot is the only way to recover the system. the log files show no entries that could be related to the time of the lockups.

the problem can be solved by deactivating amd cool'n'quit in bios. no other workarounds tried yet.

the lockups do not occur with a well known commercial operating system, where i tested with heavy system load under different software.

my system specs:

amd64 x2 4000+
asus m2n-e with nforce570 ultra
2gb patriot ddr2-800
ati radeon x1950xt
lg cdrw
maxtor 160gb ide hdd
sound blaster audigy
lg l226wtq-sf display

p.s. let me know if i can assist in debugging!

cheers,
roots.

roots:
Hmm. Your issue might be Bug #109643 ...

[Expired for linux-source-2.6.17 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Hi Sense, now that the 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon release of Ubuntu is out, we were wondering if you can still reproduce this issue. Could you please download and try the new version of Ubuntu from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download and report back your results. If the issue is still present in the new release, please attach the following information if you're able to:

* uname -a > uname-a.log
* cat /proc/version_signature > version.log
* dmesg > dmesg.log
* sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log

Please be sure to attach each file as a separate attachment. For more information regarding the kernel team bug policy, please refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies . Thanks again and we appreciate your help and feedback.

I can confirm that this bug is still present in Gutsy. It can we solved by removing the package powernowd.
I'll post the log files you requested.
The kern.log and dmesg.log are in the recovery mode with powernowd installed after it froze. The others are before that happened, but I don't think that makes any difference.

dmesg

uname -a

version.log

kern.log at freeze

kern.log after freeze, with powernowd started on boot.

I've temporarily triaged this against linux-source-2.6.22. However, it is most likely that this will be retargeted towards the Hardy kernel once it is released. I've tagged this as "hardy-kernel-candidate" so that we make sure to retarget this report once the new release is out. However against the linux-source-2.6.20 and previous packages this is being marked as "Won't Fix" as it does not meet the criteria for a stable release update. To learn more about the stable release update process please refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates . Thanks!

amd64 desktop running 32bit mainstream ubuntu, confirmed no hangs after disabling powernowd.
funny enough before disabling that init script, solution would be to go to text console after gdm started, and to type there some meaningless(for this case) commands like ps and ls, probably giving the driver some time to finish initialization or whatever. otherwise computer hangs during the gnome start or just after.

Hi Sense,

The Hardy Heron kernel was recently uploaded for testing. We'd really appreciate it if you could try testing with this newer kernel and verify if this issue still exists. Unfortunately, the Hardy Heron Alpha1 LiveCD was released with the older 2.6.22 kernel. You'll have to manually install the newer Hardy Heron kernel in order to test. This should not be the case for Alpha2. However, here are the instructions to install (if you choose to do so):

1) edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list and add the following line:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy main restricted

2) sudo apt-get update
3) sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.24-1-generic
4) reboot and select the new kernel from the grub menu

After you've tested, please feel free to revert back - ie boot into the old kernel, sudo apt-get remove linux-image-2.6.24-1-generic, and remove the line from /etc/apt/sources.list . Please update this report with your results. Thanks in advance!

I don't have these problems at 2.6.24, but I haven't had much time to test because then bug #176503 also appeared in the root account(partially though, I can see the desktop icons). But I waited for a while, the same amount of time it normally takes to freeze.

Hi Sense,

This sounds promising for resolving this bug at least. Just to be sure though I'll ask if you could test with the Hardy Alpha2 LiveCD once it comes out. I'll be sure to update this report when it is available. Thanks!

When I reinstall powernowd I get this error: /etc/init.d/powernowd: 156: cannot create /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0//cpufreq/scaling_governor: Directory nonexistent
Maybe it's useful.

Hardy Heron Alpha2 was recently released. It contains an updated version of the kernel. You can download and try the new Hardy Heron Alpha2 release from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/hardy/alpha-2/ . You should be able to then test the new kernel via the LiveCD. If you can, please verify if this bug still exists or not and report back your results. General information regarding the release can also be found here: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/hardy/alpha2 . Thanks!

Hello, I had an issue with very long blocking time after the "kernel alive" message, before the system continued to boot with my amd64 kubuntu 7.10 installation, running on an Intel Core2 Extreme CPU Q6850 inside a VMware workstation 6.0.2 virtual machine.

I tried to install the updated kernel (2.6.24-4-generic by now) as was described by Leann Ogasawara in his post earlier in this thread on 2007-12-04, and this works fine - no more delays!

Thanks a lot

I'm marking this report as 'Fix Released' against the actively developed Hardy kernel per the last few sets of comments. Thanks to everyone for testing and your feedback.

The problem was solved after I update the BIOS from my Asus M2NPV-VM, which was from June 2006(version 0303), to the newest available. Now I'm running the LiveCD with powernowd installed for more than an hour without any freezes. The things I had to disable in the BIOS to get the system booting are now also enabled. This problem has probably to do with older BIOSes. Anyway, thank you for your help. The community is one of the things that makes Ubuntu such a great operating system.

Sense Hofstede

(A small note: I accidentally installed the 32bit version. When I've got the Hardy CDs I'm going to install amd64 again and tell you if it still works. But I expect it will.)

It is also working on amd64 now. I'm using the latest version of Hardy Heron.
(Actually, it worked a lot earlier but I forgot to post a comment earlier. Sorry.)

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.