thanks for the detailed post. I will test out this lead in my next freeze session. However, now that you mention it I get the following msg on my boot screen,
firmware: failed to load i915/skl_dmc_ver1_26.
i915 is the open source intel graphics driver, so does the above refer to a specific version of the driver ? lsmod shows that the i915 module is loaded, furthermore
@gEck0: Thanks for letting us know! That definitely renews interest a bit
Since you’re using PureOS I can help, you need to add intel_pstate=disable to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in your /etc/default/grub file then regenerate your grub config with update-grub. The whole session should look like:
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
# at this point find the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and add
# intel_pstate=disable within the quotes, then exit with ctrl+X,
# press Y to save changes, enter to validate filename
sudo update-grub
You’ll need to reboot after this change for it to take effect.
@vrata: this file is “just” a firmware blob that helps with a feature called DMC, which provides additional graphics low-power idle states according to the documentation. I have tried installing it (you can find it in the non-free linux-firmwares package, or straight in the linux firmware git https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git ) – that did not help me.
Thanks @Asmadeus that worked without any problems, a little addition to that ‘GRUB_CMD…’ line must look like this to work:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=“quiet splash intel_pstate=disable”
I will keep posting the results for next couple of days. Hope this solves freezing problem on this Librem.
my guc is still at v9.14 which is I had earlier reported in this thread.
Am I missing something?
[EDIT] this is what I get when I install the firmware, its warns of several missing files, but still reports of a successful installation,
$ sudo ./install.sh
Success: /lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_ver9_33.bin installed!
Forcing initrd/initramfs update...
Trying to backup /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-1-amd64
Created a bakcup of your current initramfs /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-1-amd64.i915-fw.backup
Trying to update /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-1-amd64
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-1-amd64
WARNING: Setting CRYPTSETUP in /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf is deprecated and will stop working in the future. Use /etc/cryptsetup-initramfs/conf-hook instead.
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/bxt_dmc_ver1_07.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/skl_dmc_ver1_26.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_dmc_ver1_01.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/bxt_guc_ver8_7.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_ver6_1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_huc_ver02_00_1810.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/bxt_huc_ver01_07_1398.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/skl_huc_ver01_07_1398.bin for module i915
Adding /lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_ver9_33.bin
Success: Please reboot your machine!
ok, I got another freeze today, but due to lack of another computer I couldn’t try @Caliga’s suggestions of ssh’ing into my frozen laptop… BUT I got another interesting symptom to report, I was listening to SoundCloud, a streaming music platform on my browser when the freeze happened, and the music didn’t completely stop playing but instead looped over the last second of play. This platform streams mp3 which is partly cached on the browser, therefore I am assuming that the decoding froze, but the audio didn’t.
So can this point to a cpu issue as @Asmadeus suggested in his post?
I have to admit that all my freezes happen while running Firefox. Odd because this time I was running FF Quantum which I believe is a total re-write of FF.
I found a way to recover from a Firefox freeze. The screen is frozen and so is my external mouse/trackpad/keyboard unresponsive. I found that by actually closing the lid (I have mine configured to put the computer in sleep mode) and re-opening it, the screen is still in its frozen capture, but I can now press the ‘Enter’ key and the screen finally goes blank, I press the ‘Enter’ key again and this time the screen wakes up again and switches to the login unlock screen. After I have entered my password the screen is now active again and I can restart firefox.
So i guess this points to a graphics issue rather than a CPU issue?
We already know this and we have contacted some high-ranking developers. But since the issue is selective (few people are having it) we can’t tell for sure what and why is going on.
Could it be related to this one, by any chance? https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=884116 . I reported this bug to Debian (hoping that this would get forwarded upstream, because this is more a kernel bug than a pure distribution issue), it seems that a few people have problems with some kernels on Intel graphics (i915). For me, using transparency themes really triggered the bug much faster…
For me, it did not work… I must say that I don’t understand Debian’s kernel numbering. I see lots of sub-versions and I had the feeling that some “new” 4.9.0-3 were also affected (since I still had the bug after reverting to a 4.9.0-3). But at least, now Debian kernel developers are working on it (a patch has been committed), so a new version that fixes this bug should come out.
a number of people on this post observed freezing screens when using firefox / playing videos. @mladenreported that someone at pursim also got a frozen screen while using firefox. Did you get the issue while using firefox?
