Unknown freeze involving X and firmware?

[sgunhouse]

Something of a guess there, since I can never see any messages about this issue. I have a Toshiba laptop with an AMD E300 processor, ATI Graphics, 15.6" screen, touchpad, etc. If I boot to Mageia 2, the system freezes shortly after X starts. If I quickly switch to a terminal (Alt-F2) before it freezes, everything is fine in that terminal. If I boot Windows first, then restart and boot Mageia there is no freeze. That's why I think it must be some sort of a firmware issue on something, something is not getting properly initialized ...

Long time Mandrake/Mandriva user but not exactly an expert, not sure what to do on this one. Oh, since you're going to ask - this is using the free ATI driver, but the non-free driver was no better.

(I am glad to see it automatically installed the non-free firmware for my wifi. I was disappointed in this laptop when it had no wifi support in Mageia 1.)

[doktor5000]

Please show the output of

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rpm -qa | grep firmware

and

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grep -i driver /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[sgunhouse]

Code: Select all

[steve@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa | grep firmware
carl9170-firmware-1.9.4-1.mga2
kernel-firmware-20120219-1.mga2
rtlwifi-firmware-20120421-3.mga2.nonfree
radeon-firmware-20120322-3.mga2.nonfree
[steve@localhost ~]$ grep -i driver /var/log/Xorg.0.log
[    30.209]    X.Org Video Driver: 11.0
[    30.209]    X.Org XInput driver : 13.0
[    30.568] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/v4l_drv.so
[    30.568]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 11.0
[    30.575] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/ati_drv.so
[    30.575]    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[    30.575]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 11.0
[    30.578] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/radeon_drv.so
[    30.580]    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[    30.580]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 11.0
[    30.580] (II) v4l driver for Video4Linux
[    30.580] (II) RADEON: Driver for ATI Radeon chipsets:
[    30.611] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/radeon_drv.so
[    30.614]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 11.0
[    30.659] (II) RADEON(0): EXA: Driver will allow EXA pixmaps in VRAM
[    30.662] (II) RADEON(0): [DRI2]   DRI driver: r600
[    30.662] (II) RADEON(0): [DRI2]   VDPAU driver: r600
[    30.662] (II) EXA(0): Driver allocated offscreen pixmaps
[    30.662] (II) EXA(0): Driver registered support for the following operations:
[    33.562]    Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
[    33.562]    ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 13.0
[    33.562] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Power Button'
[    33.627] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Video Bus'
[    33.629] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Power Button'
[    33.631] (II) No input driver specified, ignoring this device.
[    33.632] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'TOSHIBA Web Camera'
[    33.634] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'AT Translated Set 2 keyboard'
[    33.637]    Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
[    33.637]    ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 13.0
[    33.638] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad'
[    34.040] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Toshiba input device'


Just for information ... I had switched to the proprietary driver before actually shutting down the first time, after encountering the lockup I had to do a few hard shutdowns (hold the power button until the system shuts down), after several of these somehow the boot got destroyed. I had to use the install disk (the Free DVD, x86_64) to redo the boot menu and also switched back to the free ATI driver at the time.

[isadora]

To have a clear look at the forum, it is very much advised code-tagging command-output.

[doktor5000]

Can you please try to boot by adding the following boot option to the kernel?

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radeon.modeset=0

For this, in the grub boot menu, press F3, select default and append this option at the end of the appearing line of options.

[sgunhouse]

Freezes before I can type my password in the login screen.

[doktor5000]

Please have a look at https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_2_Err ... rd_drivers and maybe try to switch to vesa driver as described in errata or maybe switch to fglrx driver.

[sgunhouse]

Obviously the fglrx driver is no help (as described, that is where I first noticed the issue) ... as I presume the vesa driver is unaccelerated I don't think I'll bother with it. Booting to the Windows login screen then rebooting isn't that much of an inconvenience. But it is an issue someone should fix, as another user may have a similar system but without Windows.

[doktor5000]

Well, if we don't know what the actual problem is, or if noone can reproduce it (as you seem to be the only one affected so far) we can't fix it ...
So if you don't even try if the vesa driver might cure the problem (even if it's only a temporary test) we don't know if that rules out the two other drivers as the source of the problem. Or who knows, maybe it's something totally different, just some weird ACPI/APIC issue or something like that ...
So what's the actual model of your Toshiba laptop?

For the fglrx driver, how did you check that you were actually using it?

[sgunhouse]

How did I check that I was using it? No reason I'd need to, the graphical boot screen is at a different resolution that is obviously stretched on this laptop screen, so it is clearly a different driver. But if you really need me to verify which driver, I suppose I could do so.

Per your other request, do I actually have to install a vesa driver? I would presume not, so then it's a matter of doing a full shitdown and then adding "xdriver=vesa" to the boot command. (Per the link above, I have to presume X will look terrible on this widescreen monitor, but if you insist ... I wouldn't have thought Toshiba Satellites were all that rare.)

Oh, more details I suppose. Opera 12 lists the graphics card as an ATI 6310 and drakeconf agrees. I bought it at Wal-mart back in March, it was the cheapest 15.6" laptop that had real accelerated graphics (I know the Intel graphics are not comparable).

Unfortunately I'll have to post from Windows (or find the box) to get the exact model number, I can't find it on the case and Linux doesn't seem to know it ... on second thought, I bet it's on Wal-mart's website. Yeah:

Toshiba 15.6" Satellite C655D-S5518 Laptop PC

link removed by moderator

Easy to spot from the price.

[sgunhouse]

VESA had no effect on the issue either, though as expected it was real ugly.

Last two meaningful tests I can think of would be either SVGA mode (1024x768 and no acceleration at all), and actually uninstalling the downloaded firmware. Since graphical boot is fine, I find it hard to believe SVGA mode would not work, though if you wish I could try anyway. Not sure on the firmware - probably no effect but I could be wrong.

If you really want, I can try SVGA mode. Given that it only freezes when Xwindows is actually displayed - switching to a terminal prior to lockup does not lock until I switch back to X - I really can't see it freezing in SVGA mode. But like I say, if you really want ...

Do the Live CDs actually include the firmware? I actually installed from the Free x86-64 DVD, but I have both CDs and have tried them both - yes, they both freeze, 32 and 64 bit.

(As far as the link, I'm sure there are half a dozen places online which could beat that price, it was purely so you could look at the rest of the specs yourself. But if you have some sort of policy, that's up to you.)

[sgunhouse]

I did stumble across another bug during this testing ... the dim screen backlight function (either in the KDE power management app or the special keys on the keyboard) only appears to work with the VESA driver enabled; when either the radeon or fglrx driver is in use both have no effect on the backlight at all. (I didn't look for a similar function in the Catalyst control panel while the fglrx driver was enabled, I may have to try that.)

[sgunhouse]

Well, now I know what it is. I finally hit Esc early enough in the boot process to catch the error message "udevd: Unable to load module by name 'rtl8192ce'" And here I thought it was the graphics firmware - that's the wi-fi firmware. Unfortunately the package with the Realtek wi-fi firmware doesn't include firmware for this particular chipset (yes, I looked). Not completely sure why X would lock up with missing network firmware, but I guess I'm content at least knowing what it is.

Oh, the backlight in my last post? Apparently the keys do work now (not sure why they didn't earlier), though KDE's power management utility still doesn't.

[doktor5000]

I finally hit Esc early enough in the boot process to catch the error message "udevd: Unable to load module by name 'rtl8192ce'"

Actually that's just a bogus message, and shouldn't be the cause to your X problems.

[sgunhouse]

So back to square 1?

[doktor5000]

Well, yes. Could you try to boot with nomodeset or nokmsboot boot toptions, does that help?

[sgunhouse]

I'll have to let you know, since it requires an actual shutdown and delay before rebooting to reproduce in the first place. ...

[sgunhouse]

Moderately interesting, but not useful.

I had installed a couple of other desktops originally (KDE of course, XFCE and E17) and had played around with them last time I used the laptop, so today it booted into XFCE rather than KDE (as the last one I used). Unlike KDE, it actually loaded the desktop completely before it froze - but it did still freeze.

(KDE generally locks up before the KDE startup screen displays; after a reboot from a freeze it locks up before I can even enter my password.)

[doktor5000]

Well, such freezes are mostly hard to debug, but it is defintely to be related to graphics driver or - firmware, IMHO.
Have you tried one of the livecds yet, they include most common drivers and firmware and such ...

[sgunhouse]

Both 32-bit and 64-bit KDE CDs, both freeze at the same point. Mentioned it previously.

[sgunhouse]

It occurs to me, perhaps this is related to the sound hardware? Linux identifies it as ... well,

Identification
Vendor: ‎ATI Technologies Inc
Description: ‎SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
Media class: ‎Audio device

In actuality, Windows identifies it as a Connexant HD audio - and there's a short time after the Windows volume control appears in the system tray before it actually becomes active. (Initially it appears with a "disabled" icon even though the startup sound played properly, several seconds later it changes to the standard volume control icon. Having only one Windows 7 machine, I don't know if this is normal, but it seems strange.)

[tom_]

To NOT load a kernel module,
you should declare it in a blacklist file, then reboot

for example try to type as root

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echo "blacklist snd_hda_intel" > /etc/modprobe.d/sgunhouse.conf

then reboot.
Audio should not work anymore until you remove /etc/modprobe.d/sgunhouse.conf
and restart the machine

[doktor5000]

FWIW, blacklisting only prevents automatic module loading at boot time, if anything else loads the module or you do it manually it will still load.

[vmunich]

My laptop (Toshiba Satellite M-165X) also freezes shortly after X comes up...
Just before choosing Mageia in the Grub menu, I press F3 and choose "no acpi".
Then everything runs fine.

Maybe you could try this ?

V

[doktor5000]

Good intention, but the last post was half a year ago