Boot freeze with Ubuntu 17.10 Live ISO on Surface Book

[Chatty]

When trying to boot 17.10-beta2 from USB key on a Surface Book the system freezes immediately after "boot" in grub. Not even a uncompressing message. Something similar happens even with Fedora 27: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1500057

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: evince 3.24.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-19.21-generic 4.10.8
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-19-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.380
CurrentDesktop: Unity:Unity7
Date: Wed Oct 18 20:42:20 2017
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: evince
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

Ubuntu 17.04 works just fine as you can see by this bug report.

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

I pinpointed the problem a little further. I can boot any kernel up to vmlinuz-4.12.14-041214-generic. Boot freeze happens starting from vmlinuz-4.13.0-041300rc1-generic.

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 1724657

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

No apport with affected kernel possible due to system freeze but see two posts above.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

SurfaceBook has a nvidia chip, right?
Can you try "blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau" kernel parameter?

Also, give this kernel a try: http://people.canonical.com/~khfeng/lp1723619-revert/

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

My Surface Book sports a NVidia 940M (10DE:134B).

With any kernel starting from 4.13 (including yours) I don't even get to the point of loading modules. When I omit loading of initrd and just do "linux vmlinuz" & "boot" the system freezes immediately (and my Intelli Explorer mouse red laser turns off).

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.14 kernel[0].

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'.

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.14-rc5

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

I already tested linux-image-4.14.0-041400rc5-generic_4.14.0-041400rc5.201710152230_amd64.deb to no avail. I guess since 4.13 something in the kernel compression has been changed.

[Benjamin Braun (bjmnbraun)]

To clarify: It still affects Arch Linux but the use of Launchpad to report arch-linux-linux bugs is not supported.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

Is it a regression in v4.13? Does v4.12 have this issue?

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

I already said four days ago that I can but any kernel up to the latest 4.12.14. Any kernel starting from 4.13 freezes at boot. So yes, it's a regression lying probably in the decompression code.

[Benjamin Braun (bjmnbraun)]

Does adding

debug earlyprintk=efi

to the kernel boot parameters give any output?

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

Sorry I didn't notice you already mentioned that.

Please find the first version of v4.13-rc* that has this regression.

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

@Ben: Does not change a thing. I grub cli I type "linux /casper/vmlinuz.efi debug earlyprintk=efi" and then "boot" and system freezes immediately.

@Kai: In #3 I already mentioned the latest working 4.12 kernel and the earliest non-working 4.13 kernel I could find. If you hapüen to find something in between just point me at it and I'll give it a try.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

v4.13-rc[1..7] from [1] is release between v4.12 and v4.13.

[1] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

That's where I took my kernels from. And the earliest 4.13 in there is 4.13.0-041300rc1-generic as I already said in #3!!!
In #15 I was asking for something in between 4.12.14-041214-generic and 4.13.0-041300rc1-generic.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

Right. My apology.

Please try kernel here: http://people.canonical.com/~khfeng/lp1724657-1/

$ git bisect log
git bisect start
# good: [6f7da290413ba713f0cdd9ff1a2a9bb129ef4f6c] Linux 4.12
git bisect good 6f7da290413ba713f0cdd9ff1a2a9bb129ef4f6c
# bad: [5771a8c08880cdca3bfb4a3fc6d309d6bba20877] Linux v4.13-rc1
git bisect bad 5771a8c08880cdca3bfb4a3fc6d309d6bba20877

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

Your 4.12 also freezes the system. No additional output with Ben's parameters either. Hope this helps?

[Benjamin Braun (bjmnbraun)]

Your intel microcode is
microcode : 0x9e
and 0xb2 or newer was needed to boot linux 4.13 without a hang at boot least for me. Try installing / upgrading the intel-ucode package.

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

How do I go about it? Consider me being a Windows GUI having the live ISO at hand.

[Benjamin Braun (bjmnbraun)]

Well, I'm not clear on the limitations of live ISOs but since you were able to install linux-image-4.14.0-041400rc5-generic_4.14.0-041400rc5.201710152230_amd64.deb, it shouldn't be any harder to install the .deb for intel-microcode-3.20170707.1~ubuntu17.04.0 or newer. I suppose try rebooting first with just the updated microcode installed and validate that /proc/cpuinfo shows a newer version, and then reboot with the new kernel additionally.

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

I just extracted the kernel image (vmlinuz.*) and made it boot using grub club (as described in #7 and #15).

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

Chatty, to be more clear, do you mean that the issue is gone with intel-ucode installed?

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

I beliebe the new ucode is saved in the initrd which I didn't use. It mighty bei possible to for users having an existing working installation to upgrade kernel and ucode (initrd). But Surface Book users starting from scratch with the live ISO are still faced with an instant freeze which they can't solve with the tools at hand (like additional boot parameter).
So this needs to be resolved by some package maintainer responsible for that part of the live ISO. I'll be a willing prey to help testing.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

http://people.canonical.com/~khfeng/lp1724657-2/

We just need to test 12 more kernels to find the regression.

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

Last one still is an instant freeze.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

http://people.canonical.com/~khfeng/lp1724657-3/

$ git bisect log
git bisect start
# good: [6f7da290413ba713f0cdd9ff1a2a9bb129ef4f6c] Linux 4.12
git bisect good 6f7da290413ba713f0cdd9ff1a2a9bb129ef4f6c
# bad: [5771a8c08880cdca3bfb4a3fc6d309d6bba20877] Linux v4.13-rc1
git bisect bad 5771a8c08880cdca3bfb4a3fc6d309d6bba20877
# bad: [e5f76a2e0e84ca2a215ecbf6feae88780d055c56] Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/ebiederm/user-namespace
git bisect bad e5f76a2e0e84ca2a215ecbf6feae88780d055c56
# bad: [1849f800fba32cd5a0b647f824f11426b85310d8] Merge tag 'armsoc-dt' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/arm/arm-soc
git bisect bad 1849f800fba32cd5a0b647f824f11426b85310d8

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

Another freeze. Could you please supply a bunch of kernels I can test? Could speed up the process.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

No I can't. You can't build a kernel before knowing next commit to try.

It can be much faster if you build your own kernel locally,

$ sudo apt build-dep linux
$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
$ cd linux
$ git bisect start
$ git bisect good v4.12
$ git bisect bad v4.13-rc1
$ make localmodconfig
$ make -j`nproc` deb-pkg

Install the newly built kernel.
If the issue still happens,
$ git bisect bad

Otherwise
$ git bisect good

Repeat to "make -j`nproc` deb-pkg" until you find the commit that causes the regression.

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

See comment #21. I don't have a productive Linux system. And again, I'm just extracting the plain kernel image "vmlinuz" from your deb and try to boot it via grub cli.

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

I finally solved it by inserting intel-ucode.img (taken from archlinux-2017.10.01-x86_64.iso) as the first initrd in grub.cfg. This updates the microcode very early in the boot process. I tried this with the kernel delivered with Ubuntu 17.10 (4.13.0-generic). So updating linux-firmware is the resolution. This also solves this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/intel-microcode/+bug/1724650

But I found that WiFi is unstable after like 10 mins it gets disconnected and does not see any network anymore. Time for another bug. And when I used a new kernel image (4.14-rc6) and insterted belonging modules into initrd then "(initramfs) unable to find a medium containing a live file system." Oh well.

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

Ok, the wifi problem is evident since more than two years (see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109681#c66).

[Chatty (mail-chatty)]

Now that I found a fix does noone care anymore?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Stephane (stephane21)]

It would be interesting to try the linux kernel v4.15, it had solved a boot freeze on my side.
See : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/intel-microcode/+bug/1746200