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Re: How Is Artix Running For you? - boot freezes

2 months ago I wrote about my experiences on installing Artix Linux.  Now that it's two months later I thought about informing you about how Artix Linux is running on my PC.

Over the last two months, the only issue I had when running Artix Linux was an issue with the desktop manager.  I switched from the default LXQT desktop to XFCE, but sometimes (not all the time) whenever I logged in to Artix Linux and load XFCE the screen would freeze before it displays the XFCE desktop, whereby in order to fix this issue I had to switch to another tty and reboot.  Whenever I rebooted then logged back in it would then work without any freezing.

I kept using XFCE and adding more and more packages and I think I needed, then after a while I decided to install KDE (Plasma 5) if only for the eye candy.  The freezing would still continue when "trying" to log in, and there was a time that if I couldn't fix this issue then I would go back to Manjaro, but just lately, whenever I log in to KDE or XFCE I have not had any freezes at the log in stage.  This I am very happy about because now I don't need to move back to Manjaro and systemd.

Anyway, I have not had any issues or problems with Artix Linux recently and I am very happy with it, but just in case something goes south with Artix Linux that I cannot fix then I do have a copy of Manjaro on a disk in reserve for that just in case moment.

Long may the stability continue.

I have had similar problems, but only on one laptop - 3GB C2D, SSD HDD. About every 20 or 30 boots it hangs at this point:
Code: [Select]
 * Starting local ...                                                                                                                                                         [ ok ]
 * Error: fopen(/run/openrc/rc.log) failed: No such file or directory
PID1: Received "poweroff" from FIFO...
Starting shutdown runlevel
 * Stopping local ...                                                                                                                                                         [ ok ]


Then if I press the power button it shuts down normally and then after it has done that I press the power button again and it starts. I have found no differences in the logs, so I just figured it was a race condition or something and ignored it as it didn't happen often or cause that much of a problem. One boot several months ago, not long after I had got this and fitted an SSD, it beeped and the BIOS said No OS found, but booted up fine restarting, so it is used HW too.
But recently a new boot hang has started. This happens after Grub, there is a message about loading the kernel image, and then the boot hangs at a blank screen with a prompt cursor in the top left corner. The power button has to be pressed and held to hard power off. It does this quite often but not every time. Just now it did it repeatedly 3 or 4 times, then I went to Grub advanced options and used the fallback initramfs. This worked except then it hung at the OpenRC logger message point. Shutting off with the power  button then restarting on the usual initramfs worked this time...
So there could be something with this kernel version or related current software.
$ uname -r
4.18.3-arch1-1-ARTIX
I have been updating frequently lately, and this new initramfs point hang has only started in the last few days I think. Also I don't think the logger error is related, that is probably only because the log is checked before any messages have been written so it doesn't exist.

Re: Re: How Is Artix Running For you? - boot freezes

Reply #1
Well it is booting today with no freezes and without having updated, so the initrd freeze could have been just a bit flipped on the ext2 boot partition on the ssd after excessive compiling recently.

Re: How Is Artix Running For you? - boot freezes

Reply #2
No - I change my mind on this again, there was 1 boot freeze yesterday at initrd loading cursor, and 1 again today, but earlier today I copied out the contents of /boot and reformatted that partion as btrfs, copied stuff back,  reinstalled the same kernel version, update-grub, then grub-install (from artools-chroot because it wouldn't boot without grub-install I then found). So you would think that kernel image ought to be OK. Intermittent problems like this make it difficult to determine what is going on. Why would it fail at those same points at boot even when the data is rewritten on the drive, presumably it will not occupy the exact same space?  But why would it work some times but not others?
Code: [Select]
$ inxi -v7 -z
Resuming in non X mode: glxinfo not found. For package install advice run: inxi --recommends
System:    Host: ax Kernel: 4.18.3-arch1-1-ARTIX x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 8.2.0
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.4 (Gtk 2.24.32) info: xfce4-panel dm: N/A Distro: Artix Linux
Machine:   Device: portable System: Dell product: Precision M4400 serial: N/A  Chassis: type: 8 serial: N/A
           Mobo: Dell model: 0NY980 serial: N/A BIOS: Dell v: A29 date: 06/04/2013
Battery    BAT0: charge: 71.1 Wh 100.0% condition: 71.1/73.3 Wh (97%) volts: 12.0/11.1
           model: Sanyo DELL U726H8A Li-ion serial: <filter>status: Full cycles: 0
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo T9900 (-MCP-) arch: Penryn rev.10 cache: 6144 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 12240
           clock speeds: min/max: 800/3068 MHz 1: 1610 MHz 2: 1699 MHz
Memory:    Using dmidecode: dmidecode is not installed.
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA G96GLM [Quadro FX 770M] bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:065c
           Display Server: N/A drivers: nouveau (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa) tty size: 178x43
Audio:     Card Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:293e
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.18.3-arch1-1-ARTIX
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection
           driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: efe0 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:10f5
           IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 0c:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:4235
           IF: wlp12s0 state: up mac: <filter>
           WAN IP: <filter>
           IF: wlp12s0 ip-v4: <filter> ip-v6-link: <filter>
           IF: enp0s25 ip-v4: N/A ip-v6-link: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 120.0GB (33.0% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: SSD2S120SF1200SA size: 120.0GB serial: <filter>
           Optical-1: /dev/sr0 model: MATSHITA DVD+-RW UJ862A rev: 1.02 dev-links: cdrom
           Features: speed: 24x multisession: yes
           audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition: ID-1: / size: 30G used: 22G (74%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda4
           label: root1 uuid: 7002a85b-74aa-4374-b55a-61067abb4e94
           ID-2: /boot size: 1.0G used: 62M (7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2
           label: N/A uuid: 75c0faca-5886-4abb-aa12-ee239202ffa4
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 17.18GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
           label: swap uuid: 402f9ace-25f8-4dc7-a7ab-c1ce4cbd34a8
RAID:      No RAID data: /proc/mdstat missing-is md_mod kernel module loaded?
Unmounted: ID-1: /dev/sda1 size: 0.00G label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID-2: /dev/sda5 size: 32.21G fs: BTRFS label: 50gb-space uuid: fd15ba9c-c421-4215-bfdb-eef8a7b565ae
           ID-3: /dev/sda6 size: 21.47G label: N/A uuid: N/A
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 38.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 56.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 184 Uptime: 14 min Memory: 477.6/7968.1MB
           Init: N/A v: N/A rc: OpenRC v: 0.38.2 runlevel: default Gcc sys: 8.2.0 alt: 5
           Client: Shell (bash 4.4.231 running in xfce4-terminal) inxi: 2.3.56

So I have just downgraded to linux-4.17.14.artix1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz - see what happens now I guess.


Re: Re: How Is Artix Running For you? - boot freezes

Reply #4
Yes, that was my suspicion / concern - yet no hangs today on the older kernel, and I just rebooted 4 times to up the count a bit, although it's still early to say for sure.


Re: Re: How Is Artix Running For you? - boot freezes

Reply #6
From that thread:
"The commit found to cause the issue might not be the real culprit either. It might just change the timing of some kernel processes and therefore uncover the bug."
Sorry Martin, perhaps it wasn't you after all.  ;D
They also tried that kernel version on Fedora without problem.
Now I have just tried it on AntiX full default install, updated using Sid repos : (I've since read you don't need AntiX Sid repos to get this kernel version)
4.18.4-antix.1-amd64-smp
3 boots - the first 2 hung early on, the third didn't, but there was a long pause with a black screen before the desktop came up, that I didn't get on the 4.9 standard kernel after I got rid of the eth0 hang I was getting earlier in the boot  by commenting out the /etc/network/interfaces eth lines and disabling ifplugd. Scarcely exhaustive testing but it shows that the bug exists there too.
Temporary links for AntiX onscreen display for 2 hangs, Artix just had a cursor in the top left:
https://yadi.sk/i/tsCxGcfi3ant8Q
https://yadi.sk/i/ky2OXleA3ant8K

Re: Re: How Is Artix Running For you? - boot freezes

Reply #7
From that thread:
"The commit found to cause the issue might not be the real culprit either. It might just change the timing of some kernel processes and therefore uncover the bug."
Sorry Martin, perhaps it wasn't you after all.  ;D
They also tried that kernel version on Fedora without problem.
Now I have just tried it on AntiX full default install, updated using Sid repos : (I've since read you don't need AntiX Sid repos to get this kernel version)
4.18.4-antix.1-amd64-smp
3 boots - the first 2 hung early on, the third didn't, but there was a long pause with a black screen before the desktop came up, that I didn't get on the 4.9 standard kernel after I got rid of the eth0 hang I was getting earlier in the boot  by commenting out the /etc/network/interfaces eth lines and disabling ifplugd. Scarcely exhaustive testing but it shows that the bug exists there too.
Temporary links for AntiX onscreen display for 2 hangs, Artix just had a cursor in the top left:
https://yadi.sk/i/tsCxGcfi3ant8Q
https://yadi.sk/i/ky2OXleA3ant8K


I have zero idea what you are refering to here??

Re: How Is Artix Running For you? - boot freezes

Reply #8
There is a long thread on the Arch forums I linked to earlier, it is up to 9 pages now. They bisected the kernel, found the issue, filed a bug report with the kernel, got a patch added, and now the fixed version has been released in Arch.
It should appear in the Artix stable repos soon, the next 4.18.9 version contains the patch.
warning: linux: ignoring package upgrade (4.17.14.artix1-1 => 4.18.8.artix1-1)

Re: Re: How Is Artix Running For you? - boot freezes

Reply #9
$ uname -r
4.18.10-artix1-1-ARTIX
The kernel is working fine now btw.