Re: Kernel stability on baytrail machines

From: Michal Feix
Date: Tue Jul 19 2016 - 00:51:33 EST


Dne 13.7.2016 v 12:48 Pavel Machek napsal(a)

Are there any updates on the status of this issue?

The current bugzilla report [1] marks this as a power management
issue. However, many reports indicate that it would only freeze
when running X, so it's not completely clear if it's related to
the gfx driver too.
Does

"intel_idle.max_cstate=1"

fix it for you?
Yes, it does.
If you feel it is X-only problem, you may want to provide details
about your graphics subsystem (DRM enabled? framebuffer only?) and
probably cc.
It's not X-only problem. Happens even in console mode, which is KMS
switched during boot though.
...actually... you may want to verify if it happens in unaccelerated X.
As it happens even in console mode, is this relevant test?
No, no need to test with X.

Would it be possible to test in good old VGA mode?
For past few days I updated to 4.6.3 kernel and tested with X and without X, in console mode and no KMS. My machine is way more stable than with previous 4.5.* and 4.4.* kernels I tried.

With 4.6.3 kernel and X running, I had only one freeze during Firefox session with video playback. For the rest of two days of testing, no hang.

I was not able to hang the machine during another 2 days of testing with 4.6.3 kernel and console mode with KMS disabled. It's fair to say, that stress testing of GFX is quite limited when running in console mode :-). I tried hard with mplayer with libcaca and with repeated kernel compilation task. No hang occured.

My conclussion is that 4.6.3 is surelly a huge improvement, compared to 4.5 and 4.4. kernels regarding Bay trail stability issue.

Michal Feix