error/freeze during install (Dell Studio 1749)

[Daniel]

Hello,

I've some trouble with i8kutils and my Dell Studio 1749 (with Xubuntu 16.04), because the system is freezing during the installation. After a hard-reset the system stop at "Started WPA supplicant". The only way to boot correctly is to select an older kernel, remove i8kutils and reboot with the normal kernel (4.4.0-59-generic)

Here is some more information about the dell:

System: Host: ***** Kernel: 4.4.0-59-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 Distro: Ubuntu 16.04 xenial
Machine: System: Dell product: Studio 1749
           Mobo: Dell model: 0KVMW2 Bios: Dell v: A08 date: 03/24/2011
CPU: Dual core Intel Core i7 M 620 (-HT-MCP-) cache: 4096 KB
           clock speeds: max: 2667 MHz 1: 2266 MHz 2: 1599 MHz 3: 2533 MHz
           4: 2667 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Madison [Mobility Radeon HD 5650/5750 / 6530M/6550M]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1600x900@60.28hz, 1680x1050@59.95hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD REDWOOD (DRM 2.43.0 / 4.4.0-59-generic, LLVM 3.8.0)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 12.0.6
Audio: Card-1 Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio
           driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Redwood HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5000 Series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-59-generic
Network: Card-1: Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY driver: wl
           IF: wlp8s0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169
           IF: enp32s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1120.2GB (6.5% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_850 size: 120.0GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: ST1000LM024_HN size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 102G used: 61G (63%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1
           ID-2: /boot size: 472M used: 115M (26%) fs: ext2 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.44GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-2
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 34.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 30.5
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 355 Uptime: 2:41 Memory: 1622.6/7844.4MB
           Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.35

[vitorafsr (vitorafsr)]

Please, removing i8kutils, see if you have 'dell_smm_hwmon' listed in the 'lsmod' command.

[Daniel (nobody2311)]

Yes I have, but this module is used by nobody?

Module Size Used by
...
dell_smm_hwmon 16384 0
...

[vitorafsr (vitorafsr)]

Recent kernels does not have i8k module, and yours is the one, so i8kutils was supposed only not to work.

As you say the system stops at some point at boot time, it seems to be the monitor i8kmon that blocks it. It is hard to conclude anything from 'After a hard-reset the system stop at "Started WPA supplicant"' because at boot time many services start at the same time.

Are you installing via 'apt' or from source?

[Daniel (nobody2311)]

Okay, thank you for the explanation :)

Yes, I installed i8kutils via 'apt'. Sorry, I see now there are different versions of i8kutils. The version via 'apt' is 1.41.

Should I try the latest from source?

[vitorafsr (vitorafsr)]

Perhaps installing the newer version will solve the problem if the freezing occurs momentarily. As you said your computer has to be rebooted with hard-reset, it is not the case, then the older version should work.

You could investigate the problem doing the following if you know how to compile from source code:

1. download latest version and compile;
2. execute i8kctl:
 $ ./i8kctl
 $ ./i8kctl temp
 $ ./i8kctl fan 0 0
 $ ./i8kctl fan 2 2

3. put here results.

[Daniel (nobody2311)]

Ok, now I got an error during compile from source code:

*****@*****-laptop-xubuntu:~/Downloads$ tar -xvJf i8kutils_1.42.tar.xz
...
*****@*****-laptop-xubuntu:~/Downloads$ cd i8kutils/
*****@*****-laptop-xubuntu:~/Downloads/i8kutils$ make
cc -c -o i8kctl.o i8kctl.c
gcc -Wall i8kctl.c -o i8kctl
gcc -Wall -c -g -DLIB i8kctl.c
gcc -Wall -c -g -DLIB probe_i8k_calls_time.c
gcc -o probe_i8k_calls_time i8kctl.o probe_i8k_calls_time.o
probe_i8k_calls_time.o: In Funktion `main':
/home/*****/Downloads/i8kutils/probe_i8k_calls_time.c:37: Nicht definierter Verweis auf `timestamp'
/home/*****/Downloads/i8kutils/probe_i8k_calls_time.c:39: Nicht definierter Verweis auf `timestamp'
/home/*****/Downloads/i8kutils/probe_i8k_calls_time.c:41: Nicht definierter Verweis auf `timestamp'
/home/*****/Downloads/i8kutils/probe_i8k_calls_time.c:43: Nicht definierter Verweis auf `timestamp'
/home/*****/Downloads/i8kutils/probe_i8k_calls_time.c:45: Nicht definierter Verweis auf `timestamp'
probe_i8k_calls_time.o:/home/*****/Downloads/i8kutils/probe_i8k_calls_time.c:47: Weitere nicht definierte Verweise auf `timestamp' folgen
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
Makefile:24: die Regel für Ziel „probe_i8k_calls_time“ scheiterte
make: *** [probe_i8k_calls_time] Fehler 1

[vitorafsr (vitorafsr)]

Although the errors, the i8kctl tool have been compiled.

With that, you would be able to control the fan with 'i8kctl fan 2 2', for example, to turn on both of your fans at max speed.

Unfortunatelly, I discovered that the 'dell-smm-hwmon' kernel driver that was modified at kernel tree recently does not allow 'i8kctl' to control fan. It needs some configuration that I am about to see.

Then, i8kutils is not useful to you now, and to everybody with recent kernels that has dell-smm-hwmon module insted of old i8k module as kernel module. It was modified recently, and needs some configuration to work.

Let me see first how to enable dell-smm-hwmon to work with i8kutil.

[vitorafsr (vitorafsr)]

Back to the tests: dell-smm-hwmon module has to be loaded with parameter 'restricted=0' as below

$ sudo rmmod dell_smm_hwmon
$ sudo modprobe dell-smm-hwmon restricted=0

The two lines above will unload the module, and then load it with the parameter set. After that you can try to manually control your fan with 'i8kctl' command that you have previously compiled, like below.

$ ./i8kctl fan 0 0
$ ./i8kctl fan 2 2

Try that and check if any freeze will happen.

[Daniel (nobody2311)]

Thanks a lot for that! It works without any freeze :)
You did a great job!

Please, can you tell me how long does it need to update the package for all users?

[vitorafsr (vitorafsr)]

I will work in the update process from now on, and plan to release i8kutils 1.43 as soon as possible but I can not say by now how long it is going to take me as I work full time during working days.

To linux always load the module with the parameters, creates the file /etc/modprobe.d/dell-smm-hwmon.conf with the content below.

options dell-smm-hwmon restricted=0

[Daniel (nobody2311)]

Okay, thank you for your support! :)

[Ana cleto (anacletus)]

Hi.
I'm on Ubuntu 16.04 with a Dell Studio PP33L (1535 I think). After downloading the source and compiling it, the command i8kctl fan x x works, but it freezes the computer for about 6 seconds. After the freeze, the fan speed is adjusted well. i8kmon works also, but again the computer freezes for 6 seconds on every fan speed change.

I have followed all the instructions of this thread (unloaded the module and loaded with the parameter).

Thanks

[vitorafsr (vitorafsr)]

anacletus, compile 'probe_i8k_calls_time' from source code as follows

$ make probe_i8k_calls_time
$ ./probe_i8k_calls_time

then see the time it takes for each call; post results here for us to see together.

Some models freeze computer during calls, and your model may be one of them.

[Ana cleto (anacletus)]

vitorafsr, here are the results. I've also noted that running 'sensors' also freezes the computer for about 3 seconds...

/usr/src/i8kutils$ ./probe_i8k_calls_time
functions time
i8k_get_bios_version() = 3.836393
i8k_get_machine_id() = 0.000005
i8k_get_cpu_temp() = 0.005763
i8k_get_fan_status() = 0.005102
i8k_get_fan_status() = 0.004912
i8k_get_fan_speed() = 1.932453
i8k_get_fan_speed() = 1.919286
i8k_get_power_status() = 0.000263
i8k_get_fn_status() = 0.000250
i8k_set_fan() = 3.806164
i8k_set_fan() = 3.807876
i8k_set_fan() = 3.808664
i8k_set_fan() = 3.893163
i8k_set_fan() = 4.004601
i8k_set_fan() = 3.812488

[vitorafsr (vitorafsr)]

anacletus,

biased only on the results you posted we can conclude your notebook model will freeze always with any program that works with the kernel module 'dell-smm-hwmon

[vitorafsr (vitorafsr)]

i8kutils can not avoid the freeze you are facing!