Keyboard stops responding in kernel 5.3.0-46, but 5.3.0-45 works

[Chris Ritson]

The symptoms are that I am working normally, often with a remmina remote session open and suddenly everything stops. The keyboard will no longer response (caps-lock and Alt/SysRQ/reisub both have no effect. This started with kernel vmlinuz-5.3.0-46-generic and my current workaround is tu drop back to the previous -45 kernel which has been solid for about 4 weeks of fairly intense remote working.

I think it is possibly another instance of existing bug 1872292 and I'm keen to help get you any diagnostic information I reasonably can.

Description: Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS
Release: 18.04

Chris Ritson

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu7.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.3.0-45.37~18.04.1-generic 5.3.18
Uname: Linux 5.3.0-45-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.14
Architecture: amd64
CompositorRunning: None
Date: Fri Apr 24 16:43:08 2020
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: bionic
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GpuHangFrequency: Several times a week
GpuHangReproducibility: Seems to happen randomly
GpuHangStarted: Since a couple weeks or more
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:22b1] (rev 21) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:7270]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-03-23 (32 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-MATE 18.04.4 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20200203.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.3.0-45-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--mate--vg-root ro
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
Title: Xorg freeze
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 06/01/2015
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.bios.version: PYBSWCEL.86A.0031.2015.0601.1712
dmi.board.name: NUC5PPYB
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: H76558-102
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntelCorp.:bvrPYBSWCEL.86A.0031.2015.0601.1712:bd06/01/2015:svn:pn:pvr:rvnIntelCorporation:rnNUC5PPYB:rvrH76558-102:cvn:ct3:cvr:
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.13.1+18.04.20180302-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.99-1ubuntu1~18.04.2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 19.2.8-0ubuntu0~18.04.3
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 19.2.8-0ubuntu0~18.04.3
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core N/A
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau N/A

[Chris Ritson (chrisritson)]

After another instance of this hang, I have confirmed that networking also stops when the freeze happens. I was hoping to be able to probe it remotely, but no such luck.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank, if the issue is due to a kernel update and isn't happening with an old kernel then it's likely a kernel bug, reassining

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

This change was made by a bot.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

Possible duplicate of #1872001?

[Chris Ritson (chrisritson)]

Nothing in my kernel log files matches with (grep -i 'kernel:.*gpu') so I'm not sure about this being that specific duplicate. The NUC has very limited integrated graphics...

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 21)

Any suggestions how I can track this down to get more useful information would be welcome - but the last time I did anything to a *nix kernel was an original edition 7 one I think!

[Francis Ginther (fginther)]

@chris

Reposting this here (as well as https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mate/+bug/1872292).

There may be events saved to /var/log/kern.log during the freeze. If you can reproduce the freeze again on 5.3.0-46, reboot then collect and post the contents of /var/log/kern.log around the time of the freeze.

[Chris Ritson (chrisritson)]

There's nothing consistently logged in kern.log just before a crash/restart. There are quite a few complaints along the lines of:

Apr 1 09:02:20 chris-nuc kernel: [ 1565.582004] perf: interrupt took too long (
2517 > 2500), lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 79250

with sample rates getting lower and lower. I see these with all kernels and have no reason to beleive they are linked to the fault. The attachment contains a full kern.log for over several weeks and kernel versions but with all start up lines with a time stamp up to T+99 seconds deleted to make them small enough to look at.

Yesterday I updated the BIOS (5 years out of date) and the system, so I now have one newer kernel to try, but for now will stay on 5.3.0-46-generic #38~18.04.1-Ubuntu to see if the BIOS update has helped.

[Chris Ritson (chrisritson)]

Following a full BIOS / firmware update on this NUC (which was 5 years out of date), I have had a stable kernel 5.3.0-46 on the system for up to 8 hours a day for most of a week. My guess therefore is that a feature update in the kernel had been tripping a previously fixed BIOS or microcode fault in the hardware. I'll run with the most up to date kernel this week and see if that is also stable for me.

Chris Ritson.