[Acer Aspire 5920] 15.04 with 3.19.0-17 kernel boot failure

[richard jones]

An Acer Aspire 5920 with Ubuntu 15.04 kernel 3.19.0-17-generic fails boot up going unresponsive very early in the sequence.
I installed the upstream kernel packages on my Acer Aspire 5920 laptop:
linux-headers-4.1.0-040100rc2-generic_4.1.0-040100rc2.201505032335_amd64.deb
linux-image-4.1.0-040100rc2-generic_4.1.0-040100rc2.201505032335_amd64.deb
The machine booted successfully 3 times with warnings about installed packages having unmet dependencies.
uname -r command confirmed that the expected kernel was running: 4.1.0-040100rc2-generic

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: linux-image-3.19.0-16-generic 3.19.0-16.16
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-16.16-generic 3.19.3
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-16-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: richard 1880 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Mon May 11 00:49:15 2015
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=f08d2e82-db26-49b2-b688-4df3cc5f0762
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-01-08 (122 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
MachineType: Acer, inc. Aspire 5920
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.19.0-16-generic root=UUID=bf544740-121f-4cd5-90fe-07cbe21fd0a2 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.19.0-16-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.19.0-16-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.143
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to vivid on 2015-04-24 (16 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 03/14/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: v1.3811
dmi.board.name: Chapala
dmi.board.vendor: Acer, Inc.
dmi.board.version: Not Applicable
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer, Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrv1.3811:bd03/14/2008:svnAcer,inc.:pnAspire5920:pvrNotApplicable:rvnAcer,Inc.:rnChapala:rvrNotApplicable:cvnAcer,Inc.:ct1:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Aspire 5920
dmi.product.version: Not Applicable
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer, inc.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

richard jones, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. As per http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers an update to your computer's buggy and outdated BIOS is available (3813). If you update to this following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BIOSUpdate does it change anything?

If it doesn't, could you please both specify what happened, and provide the output of the following terminal command:
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

For more on BIOS updates and linux, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette .

Please note your current BIOS is already in the Bug Description, so posting this on the old BIOS would not be helpful. As well, you don't have to create a new bug report.

Once the BIOS is updated, and the information above is provided, then please mark this report Status Confirmed.

Thank you for your understanding.

[volker kempter (v-kempter)]

3.19.0-17, no boot:

probably the same finding as reported in #1453302.

[volker kempter (v-kempter)]

3.19.0-17, no boot:

lubuntu 15.04 on dell e6500 boots normally with the upstream kernel 4.1-rc2

[penalvch (penalvch)]

volker kempter, it will help immensely if you filed a new report via a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

Please feel free to subscribe me to it.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Can you also test the latest 3.19 upstream stable kernel? This will tell us if the fix in 4.1 was also sent for inclusion in the stable releases. It can be downloaded from:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.19.8-vivid/

[volker kempter (v-kempter)]

at #6:

3.19.8-vivid boots.
Observation: startup under systemd appears to be unusually slow: startup finished in 8s (kernel) (as compared to normally about 4.7s).

[richard jones (richard-jones-1952)]

On my Acer Aspire 5920 I installed and successfully booted :
linux-image-3.19.8-031908-generic_3.19.8-031908.201505110938_amd64.
So this boot bug may be fixed.
I may have scrambled my grub as I needed to run grub-mkconfig to get the grub start menu updated to include the new kernel.
Part of my bios update journey requested above but not yet complete. Required an old 2008 vintage windows HDD to be resurrected.

[Subin P Thomas (ptsubin)]

I have the same issue on Dell Inspiron 1525. Linux 3.19.0-17-generic doesn't boot with upstart as well.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Subin P Thomas, it will help immensely if you filed a new report via a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

Please feel free to subscribe me to it.

[Jürgen (j-w-ott)]

My last running kernel is 3.16.0-38-generic
Starting a newer kernel will lead to a complete lock-up.
I have installed the latest bios twice.
I have split the partition and did a second install. With this partition I can boot newer kernels.
I haven't figured out the difference between these two installations.

All newer kernels fail shutting down or doing suspend or hybernate

3.16 has only problems with suspend to disk

I filed a bug and was asked to bisect a kernel to find the last working version but the descriptions to do this provide only basic help.

Sometimes even the 3.16 fails to boot After login the computer Acer Aspire E112-C43A is 100% stable.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Jürgen, it will help immensely if you filed a new report via a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

Please feel free to subscribe me to it.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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