boot failure with linux-image-3.2.0-40-generic

[Daniele Visaggio]

From this morning the boot process on my laptop is no longer working. The only relevant change from yesterday (when all was working fine) has been a kernel update (from 3.2.0-39-generic to 3.2.0-40-generic).

When grub tries to boot the 3.2.0-40-generic kernel, I get only a black screen (the screen seems really powered off).

After many tries and googling around, I found the following: if I change the CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT grub parameter (inside /etc/default/grub) from the default value "quiet splash" to "nomodeset" the boot process works but the screen has a lower resolution than before (from 1600x900 to 800x600).

This is not happening with the previous kernel version (3.2.0-39-generic). Even with "quiet splash" enabled, all is working fine with the correct resolution.

An important note: my disk is fully encrypted (actually the setup is LVM + encryption). So when the boot works fine, after the grub selection screen I am asked to insert the passphrase for decrypting the whole file system.

Further info:

daniele@ThinkPad:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS
Release: 12.04

daniele@ThinkPad:~$ cat /etc/crypttab
# <target name> <source device> <key file> <options>
lvm_crypt UUID=46e9297f-56f8-4118-8542-600cbd6e0961 none luks

daniele@ThinkPad:~$ sudo cryptsetup status lvm_crypt
/dev/mapper/lvm_crypt is active and is in use.
  type: LUKS1
  cipher: aes-xts-plain
  keysize: 512 bits
  device: /dev/sda4
  offset: 4096 sectors
  size: 234090496 sectors
  mode: read/write

daniele@ThinkPad:~$ sudo pvdisplay -m
  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name /dev/dm-0
  VG Name ubuntu
  PV Size 111.62 GiB / not usable 2.00 MiB
  Allocatable yes (but full)
  PE Size 4.00 MiB
  Total PE 28575
  Free PE 0
  Allocated PE 28575
  PV UUID yXdajA-Qgok-O3FC-5ZEl-WKgI-Akhw-StRkuX

  --- Physical Segments ---
  Physical extent 0 to 2599:
    Logical volume /dev/ubuntu/swap
    Logical extents 0 to 2599
  Physical extent 2600 to 8849:
    Logical volume /dev/ubuntu/root
    Logical extents 0 to 6249
  Physical extent 8850 to 28574:
    Logical volume /dev/ubuntu/home
    Logical extents 0 to 19724

daniele@ThinkPad:~$ sudo lvdisplay -m
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name /dev/ubuntu/swap
  VG Name ubuntu
  LV UUID 1ejZXC-IJ32-Bx4L-UgAM-pxtc-gjxv-2LdIGE
  LV Write Access read/write
  LV Status available
  # open 2
  LV Size 10.16 GiB
  Current LE 2600
  Segments 1
  Allocation inherit
  Read ahead sectors auto
  - currently set to 256
  Block device 252:1

  --- Segments ---
  Logical extent 0 to 2599:
    Type linear
    Physical volume /dev/dm-0
    Physical extents 0 to 2599

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name /dev/ubuntu/root
  VG Name ubuntu
  LV UUID 2NGOW0-1B4x-BPI2-B0kc-RJ45-J523-ySGhla
  LV Write Access read/write
  LV Status available
  # open 1
  LV Size 24.41 GiB
  Current LE 6250
  Segments 1
  Allocation inherit
  Read ahead sectors auto
  - currently set to 256
  Block device 252:2

  --- Segments ---
  Logical extent 0 to 6249:
    Type linear
    Physical volume /dev/dm-0
    Physical extents 2600 to 8849

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name /dev/ubuntu/home
  VG Name ubuntu
  LV UUID IystsZ-R5nq-9yXD-naIk-1zqD-nqSL-ys2OyC
  LV Write Access read/write
  LV Status available
  # open 1
  LV Size 77.05 GiB
  Current LE 19725
  Segments 1
  Allocation inherit
  Read ahead sectors auto
  - currently set to 256
  Block device 252:3

  --- Segments ---
  Logical extent 0 to 19724:
    Type linear
    Physical volume /dev/dm-0
    Physical extents 8850 to 28574

daniele@ThinkPad:~$ mount | column -t
/dev/mapper/ubuntu-root on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755)
none on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880)
none on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda3 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
/dev/mapper/ubuntu-home on /home type ext4 (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/daniele/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=daniele)
daniele@ThinkPad:~$

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: plymouth 0.8.2-2ubuntu31
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-40.64-generic 3.2.40
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-40-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Apr 10 09:37:48 2013
DefaultPlymouth: /lib/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-logo/ubuntu-logo.plymouth
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
MachineType: LENOVO 4236VMT
MarkForUpload: True
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.2.0-40-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu-root ro nomodeset
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 VESA VGA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.2.0-40-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu-root ro nomodeset
SourcePackage: plymouth
TextPlymouth: /lib/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 11/28/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 83ET67WW (1.37 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 4236VMT
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr83ET67WW(1.37):bd11/28/2011:svnLENOVO:pn4236VMT:pvrThinkPadT420:rvnLENOVO:rn4236VMT:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 4236VMT
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T420
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Torsten Casselt (blu2lz)]

Same for me on a Samsung R60 notebook.

I changed the title (hope it's okay) because it has nothing to do with neither "quiet splash" in grub nor full encryption.

My boot parameters are empty, except removing plymouth it is a quite normal install.

Removed plymouth on more than five systems on which 3.2.0-40 works well, so it is not the point.

The boot failure is not happening with 3.2.0-39! Setting "nomodeset" fixes the problem, but it is a no-go that a security upgrade on the kernel breaks the system.

If I kill the system and boot again grub pops up and asks for a kernel to load as always when you hardreset a system. If you choose 3.2.0-40 it boots! Then I shutdown and boot again...again black screen. And so on.

[Torsten Casselt (blu2lz)]

Forgot to mention that it is a 32-bit install, so it affects both 32- and 64-bit kernels.

No log entry is made in /var/log/syslog when boot failure occurs, so no trace of what is going wrong.

Using radeon driver.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream stable kernel? Please test the latest v3.2 stable kernel[0] and install both the linux-image and linux-image-extra .deb packages.

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'.
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/v3.2.43-precise/

[ScottMarlowe (scott-marlowe)]

Upstream kernel 3.2.43-030243-generic fixes the issue for me (on a sony SA model laptop)

[ScottMarlowe (scott-marlowe)]

Note that the upstream kernel makes my laptop run at 95C while at idle, so I have to revert to the -39 kernel to get a useful machine. If you need me to run any of the reporting tools others have run I'd be glad to help work on getting this fixed.

[Willsmith3389 (willsmith3389)]

Same problem.
Still not resolved.
So I have to downgrade to the previous kernel.

[Julian Wiedmann (jwiedmann)]

Daniele Visaggio,

could you please test the latest kernel in -updates (3.2.0-41.66) and see if this bug is still reproducible? Thanks.

[Daniele Visaggio (visaggio-daniele)]

Julian,

I'm using the latest kernel 3.2.0-41.66 and the bug is disappeared! I can boot normally, all is working fine.

########
daniele@ThinkPad:~$ uname -a
Linux ThinkPad 3.2.0-41-generic #66-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 25 03:27:11 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
########

So, at least we have a workaround.

Hope it helps,

Daniele

[Julian Wiedmann (jwiedmann)]

Thanks for the fast follow-up! So this was another duplicate of the fbcon regression tracked in bug 1168961.