Intermittent boot issues if the proprietary amd64-microcode package is installed on Ubuntu 15.04

[neldogz]

Experienced intermittent boot issues when the proprietary amd64-microcode package is installed. The system would halt during systemd process.

Motherboard: Sabertooth 990FX
Chipset: AMD 990FX/SB950
Processor: AMD FX-8150

At first I thought it was a problem with my RAID 0 array I setup through mdadm since the problem would occur right after systemd ran through the drives.

The following error was visible each time:

NMI watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#7 stuck for 22s! [migration/7:64]

Installed this package from the additional drivers section GUI.

Description: Ubuntu 15.04
Release: 15.04

Package: amd64-microcode
Versions:
2.20141028.1

amd64-microcode:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 2.20141028.1
  Version table:
     2.20141028.1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/multiverse amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

uname -a
Linux computer1 3.19.0-15-lowlatency #15-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Fri Apr 17 00:03:20 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

System booted fine after removing this package and rebooting. Tested by shutting down and rebooting multiple times to confirm issue was resolved.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: amd64-microcode (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-15.15-lowlatency 3.19.3
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-15-lowlatency x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Wed Apr 29 15:57:12 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-04-28 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Release amd64 (20150422)
SourcePackage: amd64-microcode
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

If you are still experiencing this issue, please change this bug status back to "confirmed".

[neldogz (neldogz)]

Still experiencing this problem on Ubuntu 15.10

uname -a: Linux computer1 4.2.0-18-lowlatency #22-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Fri Nov 6 20:09:48 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

It seems the issue only started after I installed the lowlatency kernel. The amd64-microcode was already installed before I installed the lowlatency kernel. After removing this driver the system booted fine, consistently.

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh (hmh)]

There were several bugs in the AMD microcode loader, which were fixed (AFAIK, anyway) on later kernel stable updates from kernel.org. They could easily explain the boot failure with the low-latency kernel.

I am not sure if these fixes were incorporated on Ubuntu's 15.10 kernel updates or not. I am also not sure if the low-latency kernel changes to fundamental kernel structures is compatible with the early AMD microcode loader or not.

Is anyone still affected by this bug on *up-to-date* Ubuntu 15.10 with the normal kernel? With an up-to-date low-latency kernel?

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh (hmh)]

Bug tagged as incomplete due to its age and the high chances that it was fixed by a kernel update (the bug is not in the amd64-microcode package, but rather on the kernel driver).

Please retag it confirmed after re-testing on an up-to-date Ubuntu 15.10 kernel.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for amd64-microcode (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]