Kernel Update 4.15.0-122-generic kills the whale; it is ugly

[Martine Dee]

Hi,

I supposedly just updated my 16.04 with new Kernel (4.15.0-122-generic), and that brought it to the login loop: I enter a password, and a second later I am asked to do it again; and so repeatedly.

The syslog didn't say much, save for

> gnome-session-binary[5080]: CRITICAL: We failed, but the fail whale is dead. Sorry....

I am running the 16.04 in a vanilla-ish state, so it was with ligtdm. I've tried to switch to gdm3. Nopes, that brought up flickering of the following message, and made even use of terminals (ctr+alt+F\d) almost impossible.

> [ OK ] Created slice User Slice of gdm.
> Starting User Manager for UID \d+...
> [ OK ] Started Session c1 of user gdm.
> [ OK ] Started User Manager for UID \d+.
> Stopping User Manager for UID \d+...
> [ OK ] Stopped User Manager for UID \d+.
> [ OK ] Removed slice User Slice of gdm.

I restored lightdm. After an hour, I tried one older kernel, 4.15.0-120-generic. That works like candy, and I am writing this report from there. Nothing is wrong with that one, this report is about 4.15.0-122-generic. Pure evil that.

My Hardware (the relevant bits)

Box:
| OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
| Mobo: Asus ROG Maximus XII Extreme
| CPU: Intel Core i9-10900K
| Graphics Card: ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Strix Gaming, 11 GB VRAM
| RAM: G.Skill F4-4000C15Q-32GTZR
| Monitor: Asus ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN
| Sound card: Creative Sound Blaster AE-9

Regards,
Dee

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: linux-image-4.15.0-120-generic 4.15.0-120.122~16.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-120.122~16.04.1-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-120-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.25
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Fri Oct 30 21:35:03 2020
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-08-07 (84 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20190227)
SourcePackage: linux-signed-hwe
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Martine Dee (martine-dee)]

For now, I will look into freezing kernel updates. I don't want more of this.