system freezes randomly on sempron64 (amd64)

[Diego L Espiñeira]

The system freezes randomly. The only way out is a hard reset.
However I found that if I disable powernowd it never freezes again.
Is that a kernel bug?

This happens in feisty, gutsy, hardy, intrepid and jaunty.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thanks for the bug report and helping to make Ubuntu better. You mention this only occurs with the LiveCD and not after an install correct? Per the kernel team's bug policy, can you please attach the following information. Please be sure to attach each file as a separate attachment.

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

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.

[Diego L Espiñeira (despineira)]

Yes, this only happens in hardy alpha3 liveCD and the gutsy installed version.

[Diego L Espiñeira (despineira)]

I've reading reports that says it happens in feisty too, and people recommends editing powernowd script putting exit 0 at the first line as a workaround.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi espi3d,

Hardy Alpha4 will be out within days. Care to retest with the Alpha4 LiveCD and verify if the issue still exists? Thanks.

[Diego L Espiñeira (despineira)]

I tested it with Hardy Alpha 4 and it keeps freezing randomly only in live CD. It is not solved.
Maybe there's some diference between liveCD powernowd configuration and the installed system's one.

[Diego L Espiñeira (despineira)]

Well, after a few minutes of use, it seems to happen on installed system as well as in live CD with alpha 4.
I just got a freeze and I had to disable powernowd daemon.

[Artyom Pervukhin (logus)]

I confirm this with Hardy alpha 6. Just posted duplicate of this (bug #200613):
---- cite ----
Random system freezes, only hard reset helps.
System is Hardy alpha 6, dist-upgraded from Gutsy (which never freezed). Pattern undetectable - could freeze in 5 minutes after boot or after 12 hours. System can be highly loaded, or almost idle - all the same. Tried to boot with "noapic" kernel option, but that didn't help. Tried to use open NV driver instead of closed nvidia - results are the same.

Result of the following commands attached:
uname -a
cat /proc/version_signature
dmesg
lspci -vvnn
---- cite ----

However, I cannot tell for now if disabling powernowd helped: still waiting for freeze (w/o `powernow-k8` module loaded my cpu working on it's higher frequency).

[Artyom Pervukhin (logus)]

Disabling powernowd (as well as corresponding cpufreq_*|powernow_k8 modules) did not help - my system froze after approx. 2 hours of work.

What information could I provide to help diagnose this bug source?

[Artyom Pervukhin (logus)]

`dmidecode` output

[Yannis Tsop (ogiannhs)]

After upgrading from Gutsy to Hardy alpha 6, I have the same problem. My computer works fine. I leave it on and the next day I find it frozen (The last 3-4 days, when I did the upgrade to Hardy). Not even Alt+SysRq+o does anything, it seems the kernel freezes. I cannot find any message that relates to the problem. I have a 32-bit kernel on a 32-bit machine. Today I removed powernowd and I 'll wait to see what happens.

[Yannis Tsop (ogiannhs)]

My computer freezes 20 minutes after the screen is locked and the screensaver is activated. I had an opengl screen saver enabled. Now I am trying with another screensaver (not opengl) and the system continues to work ok. It doesn't matter whether powernowd is installed or not, it has something to do with opengl and turning off the monitor after some inactivity period.

[Yannis Tsop (ogiannhs)]

Maybe its the ATI driver in conjuction with opengl and turnibg the monitor off. I should also add that it seems that the cpu hits 100% after the freeze, since I the fan is very noisy.

[Diego L Espiñeira (despineira)]

Yannis: Well, I guess you'll have to post a new bug, cause what you describe happens in different circumstances than the original bug. I get this freezes with an nvidia 6100 go with no screen saver enabled.
I think I'm gonna test it more deeply, but I'm sure this is a completely different bug.

[Diego L Espiñeira (despineira)]

I've downloaded and tested the Hardy Heron Beta release and I could complete the installation process with no problems (I've installed without a live session, I went directly into the installation process). But then, before the first two hours of use it frozen. So I did a hard reset (the only known way out) and I stoped powernowd as soon as I could after logging on the gnome session. It then spent more than twelve hours on without freezes. It never frozen again. The next mourning I found a fully stable environment.

So... If you get a freeze even after disabling powernowd, you have to fill another bug.

I am really worried about the fact that this bug haven't been fixed and appeared in Alpha 3, Alpha 4, Alpha 5, Alpha 6 and Beta releases.

[David Santamaría Rogado (howl)]

This bugs makes ubuntu unusable in some pc's, in debian powernowd isn't installed by default. Also there is now a new version in intrepid of powernowd, the 1.0, should be checked for this bug and also is necessary to solve in hardy lts, upgrading the package if the 1.0 is solved. Someone could check this?

[David Santamaría Rogado (howl)]

I forgive to tell that in my personal case disabliing powernowd from start and rebooting the computer because it could be using the powernowd cpu powersaving anyway seems to solved my random hangs. 4 days without a break,

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[David Santamaría Rogado (howl)]

There is also a newer version of powernowd, ¿the bug could be in that package?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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.

[hahahafr (ullrich-999)]

2009 Jul 8, bug still around.
My system a k8 sempron64 and I got the same freezing problem.
It doesn't matter if its a LiveCD or an Installed version of ubuntu, it's unusable.
I can confirm that the origin of the problem seems to be powernowd : the fedora 11 installation stop at the powernowd step and freeze the whole system.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Diego L Espiñeira, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please do not test the kernel in the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. As well, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested.

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream', and comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it.

Please let us know your results. Thanks in advance.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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