[SOLVED] - sparky-kernel 4.11.2 freezes xfce desktop

[piker]

I'm not that experienced with updating Linux kernels, but after reading that 4.10 had firmware improvements for my new laptop (intel Kaby Lake processor) I thought i'd give sparkys 4.11.2 kernel a try. The upgrade itself went well however programmes become unresponsive when trying to run them and the system fails to shutdown/reboot. For now i've gone back to the standard current kernel, but would like to get this one working, if possible.

[paxmark1]

Have you looked at your systemd logs?  Digital ocean has some good pages about using journalctl.  journalctl -b -1 | tail will give some info about the shutdown/reboot process of the last log. 

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-journalctl-to-view-and-manipulate-systemd-logs

[piker]

Thanks paxmark1, thats a great article and i've now setup persistent journal logging. I reinstalled the sparky-kernel and this is the journal output:
#8:01 - 8:02 seem to be only with this kernel?

Code Select Expand


-- Logs begin at Wed 2017-05-24 07:56:37 AEST, end at Wed 2017-05-24 08:10:48 AEST. --
May 24 07:56:37 metadog kernel: ACPI Error: [_UPC] Namespace lookup failure, AE_ALREADY_EXISTS (20170119/dswload-378)
May 24 07:56:37 metadog kernel: ACPI Exception: AE_ALREADY_EXISTS, During name lookup/catalog (20170119/psobject-227)
May 24 07:56:37 metadog kernel: ACPI Exception: AE_ALREADY_EXISTS, (SSDT:xh_rvp11) while loading table (20170119/tbxfload-228)
May 24 07:56:37 metadog kernel: ACPI Error: 1 table load failures, 9 successful (20170119/tbxfload-246)
May 24 07:56:37 metadog kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: priv: HUB0: 00d054 00000007 (19408216)
May 24 07:56:37 metadog kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: Pointer to flat panel table invalid
May 24 07:56:37 metadog kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: failed to create kernel channel, -22
May 24 07:56:37 metadog kernel: Error: Driver 'pcspkr' is already registered, aborting...
May 24 07:56:37 metadog avahi-daemon[585]: chroot.c: open() failed: No such file or directory
May 24 07:56:37 metadog bluetoothd[589]: Failed to obtain handles for "Service Changed" characteristic
May 24 07:56:37 metadog bluetoothd[589]: Sap driver initialization failed.
May 24 07:56:37 metadog bluetoothd[589]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1)
May 24 07:56:39 metadog pulseaudio[1223]: [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.
May 24 08:01:40 metadog console-kit-daemon[2098]: GLib-CRITICAL: Source ID 25 was not found when attempting to remove it
May 24 08:01:42 metadog console-kit-daemon[2098]: GLib-CRITICAL: Source ID 40 was not found when attempting to remove it
May 24 08:01:47 metadog console-kit-daemon[2098]: GLib-CRITICAL: Source ID 55 was not found when attempting to remove it
May 24 08:02:35 metadog kernel: INFO: task kworker/4:1:121 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
May 24 08:02:35 metadog kernel:       Tainted: G            E   4.11.2-sparky-amd64 #1
May 24 08:02:35 metadog kernel: "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
May 24 08:02:35 metadog kernel: INFO: task kworker/4:2:318 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
May 24 08:02:35 metadog kernel:       Tainted: G            E   4.11.2-sparky-amd64 #1
May 24 08:02:35 metadog kernel: "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
May 24 08:03:40 metadog kernel: iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: Failed to find station
May 24 08:03:40 metadog kernel: wlan0: failed to remove key (2, ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff) from hardware (-22)


[paxmark1]

I am not a kernel guru, I'm on 4.09.  What was the specific journalctl command for your output? Beginning or end? For showing the last lines for a stalled or frozen shutdown also "journalctl -b -1 -r" will allow you more than the ten lines of "journaltctl -b -1 tail" - it scrolls.  I am not sure what kworker does, oh it is a kernel function.  Good Luck.   I look at my logs a lot less after my not having a sid machine around.

[piker]

# ok, it took a few days of tinkering but I can now run the latest sparky kernel (4.11.3).
Apart from fixing a few firmware issues, I found an entry in my syslog "nouveau 0000:01:00.0: unknown chipset (136000a1)". After a bit of research I tried adding "nouveau.modeset=0" to the GRUB options and voila! Hope this helps someone else in the same trouble..