[MSI H77MA-G43] Unable to boot from installation media

[Michael Snoyman]

I've been using Ubuntu 12.04 on my desktop for a number of years now. When I installed it, I had to pass the kernel option acpi=off in order to get it to boot correctly, both from the live CD and after installation. Otherwise, it has worked well (obviously, without ACPI features being present).

I am now trying to install my OS from scratch, and am attempting to do so with 14.04. However, I have been completely unable to get the system to boot into the installer without freezing or rebooting. I have tried the kernel options nolapic, noapic, acpi=off, acpi=ht, and irqpoll, in a large number of combination, and both with a BIOS and UEFI boot. I also flashed my BIOS to the latest firmware, which seems to have made the boot process last a bit longer before freeze/reboot, but given that I never timed it, that's a very non-scientific assessment.

I've tried booting with Debian, Fedora, and ArchLinux disks as well, all to no avail, so I do not believe this is an Ubuntu-specific issue. It seems that there's been some kernel level change since 12.04 causing issues. I'm hoping that there's some workaround or kernel boot option to be passed in.

I'm not certain what the most useful information to provide is. Since I'm currently running from Ubuntu 12.04, I can run any command that OS supports to provide you with more system information. In case it's useful, I've attached the output of dmidecode.

My motherboard is an MSI H77MA-G43.
---
AcpiTables:

AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version k3.8.0-44-generic.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.8
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: ubuntu 2516 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC2: ubuntu 2516 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ubuntu 2516 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7210000 irq 44'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC892'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0892,1462d756,00100302'
   Controls : 42
   Simple ctrls : 19
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xf7080000 irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'Nvidia GPU 0b HDMI/DP'
   Components : 'HDA:10de000b,10de0101,00100200'
   Controls : 28
   Simple ctrls : 4
Card2.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:2 'U0x46d0x81b'/'USB Device 0x46d:0x81b at usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.2, high speed'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB046d:081b'
   Controls : 2
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card2.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
   Capabilities: cvolume cvolume-joined cswitch cswitch-joined penum
   Capture channels: Mono
   Limits: Capture 0 - 16
   Mono: Capture 10 [62%] [21.00dB] [on]
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=76e7564e-2c94-4f29-ab80-9f499ae77547
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20130820.1)
IwConfig:
 eth0 no wireless extensions.

 lo no wireless extensions.

 docker0 no wireless extensions.
MachineType: MSI MS-7756
MarkForUpload: True
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB:

ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-44-generic root=UUID=f89efcde-9628-45b8-a2c8-244ff8360805 ro quiet splash acpi=off
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-44.66~precise1-generic 3.8.13.25
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.8.0-44-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.8.0-44-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.79.18
RfKill:

Tags: precise running-unity
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-44-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip docker lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo vboxusers
dmi.bios.date: 10/29/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: V1.13
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: H77MA-G43 (MS-7756)
dmi.board.vendor: MSI
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: MSI
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrV1.13:bd10/29/2013:svnMSI:pnMS-7756:pvr1.0:rvnMSI:rnH77MA-G43(MS-7756):rvr1.0:cvnMSI:ct3:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: MS-7756
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: MSI

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1424526/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

Since this is a boot issue, I've set the package to "linux", following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage#When_installing_Ubuntu_.28or_Derivatives.29

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1424526

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.

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

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[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

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[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

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[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Can you see if this issue also affects the latest daily image, which can be downloaded from:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

I just tested the daily image, and it has the same behavior. I tried two boots. The first froze at the GUI, the second almost immediately after grub. I passed in acpi=off

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

Is there something more I should test to provide more information? If there's a development version of the kernel, or some kernel compile time flags that would be useful to test, let me know. It's been a while since I've done it, but I have compiled my own kernels in the past.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Michael Snoyman, could you please capture the boot issue following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingKernelBoot ?

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

I tried booting Trusty 14.04.2 64-bit. It fairly reliably freezes at:

Begin: Running /scripts/casper-bottom ... Begin: Moving mount points... ... done.

I've attached a photo of the screen at the freeze point.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Michael Snoyman, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available from the very top line at the top of the page (the release names are irrelevant for testing, and please do not test the daily folder) following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue.

If the test did not allow you to test to the issue (ex. you couldn't boot into the OS) please make a comment in your report about this, and continue to test the next most recent kernel version until you can test to the issue. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon, next to the word Tags, located at the bottom of the report description:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-3.XY-rcZ

Where XY and Z are numbers corresponding to the kernel version.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-3.XY-rcZ

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

I tested with Linux 4.0rc2. Without acpi=off, my system froze during the boot process. With acpi=off set, I was able to boot into X-Windows, log in, and start my web browser. Soon thereafter, however, my system froze up complete: mouse pointer did not respond, and no key combination provoked any response. I tried switching to a text console immediately after boot, which also resulted in a complete system freeze at some point. Note that even Alt+SysRq commands were non-responsive.

After leaving the system frozen for enough time (~5 minutes), it rebooted itself.

I'll be happy to provide whatever logs would be useful, just let me know what would help.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Michael Snoyman, the next step is to fully commit bisect from kernel 3.8 to 3.13 in order to identify the last good kernel commit, followed immediately by the first bad one. This will allow for a more expedited analysis of the root cause of your issue. Could you please do this following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/KernelBisection ?

Please note, finding adjacent kernel versions is not fully commit bisecting.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

Just an update: I *am* working on bisecting this right now. Unfortunately, the instructions in the linked Wiki page were not conducive to a proper bisect. I'm following the instructions at:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/GitKernelBuild

I was able to get a stable system with the official v3.8 tag, and reproduce the crash with v3.13, and am now bisecting. This will probably take another few days.

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

I haven't looked into the commit yet, but the bisect ended at:

0e576acbc1d9600cf2d9b4a141a2554639959d50 is the first bad commit
commit 0e576acbc1d9600cf2d9b4a141a2554639959d50
Author: Thomas Gleixner <email address hidden>
Date: Fri Nov 29 12:18:13 2013 +0100

    nohz: Fix another inconsistency between CONFIG_NO_HZ=n and nohz=off

    If CONFIG_NO_HZ=n tick_nohz_get_sleep_length() returns NSEC_PER_SEC/HZ.

    If CONFIG_NO_HZ=y and the nohz functionality is disabled via the
    command line option "nohz=off" or not enabled due to missing hardware
    support, then tick_nohz_get_sleep_length() returns 0. That happens
    because ts->sleep_length is never set in that case.

    Set it to NSEC_PER_SEC/HZ when the NOHZ mode is inactive.

    Reported-by: Michal Hocko <email address hidden>
    Reported-by: Borislav Petkov <email address hidden>
    Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <email address hidden>

:040000 040000 e98d34fcc56a28e516d6282265f2de29bc0f4ad6 ec91edd6b6c6548dc58410a052c5fbc59f12690b M kernel

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Michael Snoyman, could you please test the latest mainline kernel 4.0-rc4 and advise to the results?

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

I just tested, and the bug is still present. I'm testing out a build after reverting 0e576acbc1d9600cf2d9b4a141a2554639959d50, I'll report results when available.

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

I can confirm that after reverting 0e576acbc1d9600cf2d9b4a141a2554639959d50, 4.0-rc4 works correctly on my system. I've had my system running for ~20 minutes now without any hiccups. I can't say I understand what that patch does or why it causes problems on my configuration in particular, but I'd be happy to help isolate it further.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Michael Snoyman, the issue you are reporting is an upstream one. Could you please report this problem to the appropriate mailing list (linux-kernel CC Thomas Gleixner <email address hidden> by following the instructions verbatim at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/kernel ?

Please provide a direct URL to your e-mail to the mailing list once you have made it so that it may be tracked via http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html . It can take a day for the new e-mail to show up in the respective archive.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

I've sent a bug report upstream: http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=142684024103574&w=2

Can you provide me with advice on how to work around this issue when installing my system? My goal is to install a fresh 14.04 system. I have no issue with compiling my own custom kernel, I'm just not certain of the best way to use that during the installation process. Pointers to existing documentation on this are most appreciated, I was unable to find any authoritative answer.

[Michael Snoyman (michael-snoyman)]

Bumping one more time, if someone can recommend a good approach to installing from a Live CD with a custom-built kernel, I'd appreciate it.