Comment 499 for bug 1690085

It appears that selecting the "Typical Current Idle" BIOS option (where available) eliminates the "freeze when idle" problem (somehow).

That said, it also appears that this is *not* the default.

The need for the option appears to be Linux specific, or at least it is not needed for W*nd*rs.

That said, I am damned if I can find any documentation for the option, or any authoritative recommendation for its use with Linux.

So, anyone bitten by this problem may struggle to find their way to selecting "Typical Current Idle". Particularly as the symptoms have all the appearance of a hardware issue -- possibly an overclocking step too far.

Would it be possible for the Kernel to set whatever the "Typical Current Idle" BIOS option sets ? Or invoke some BIOS function to select the option ? That way, at least an up to date version of Linux would avoid this problem "out of the box".

I have been clapping my hands vigorously for some time, but I am coming to the conclusion that the <email address hidden> fairy does not, in fact, exist (or perhaps not in this universe).

While I am practising believing the regulation six impossible things before breakfast, I note that the <email address hidden> fairy would have to be able to communicate with the AMD documentation fairy... perhaps using a 56k ouija board ?

Finally and FWIW, I tried turning off "rcu_nocbs=0-15" and "Typical Current Idle", and my Ryzen 7 1800X/ASUS X370-Pro/Linux 4.18/Fedora froze within hours. Before the "Typical Current Idle" option became available, I was running "rcu_nocbs=0-15" (following the advice in this thread), and my machine froze every week or so. I have now been running for some days with "Typical Current Idle" turned back on, but without the "rcu_nocbs=0-15" voodoo -- so far, so good (as the man said as he fell past the 7th floor).