[Discuss] Issues with new Linux computer mostly addressed

[Jean Taggart]

Did you ever update the bios?

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 20, 2018, at 1:06 AM, Alan W. Irwin <Alan.W.Irwin1234 at gmail.com> wrote:

>> [A kind responder to one of my bug reports concerning the lockups said the following]
> 
>> To prevent random kernel lock ups with Ryzen, enable RCU_NOCB_CPU in
>> the kernel configuration and boot the kernel with the rcu_nocbs=0-X
>> command line parameter. X is the cpu thread count -1 [which would be
>> 15 for my Ryzen 7 1700]. To fix this with bios, set to Typical Current
>> Idle in the bios Advanced/AMD CBS menu.
>> 
>> Using this comment to refine my google search terms I quickly found
>> <https://community.amd.com/thread/225795> and
>> <https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=196683> which confirmed
>> that my Ryzen linux lockup problems are common, but could be
>> addressed by the two methods (kernel parameter or BIOS option) he discussed
>> with some users finding that only the latter option worked, but they typically
>> needed the absolutely latest BIOS update to get access to that option.
>> 
>> So as a result I plan to rebuild my Debian kernel with CONFIG_RCU_NOCB_CPU=y and set
>> the kernel parameter rcu_nocbs=0-15 (15 is appropriate for Ryzen 7 1700)
>> for that custom kernel.  And I hope that will finally solve these lockups[...]
> 
> Status report:
> 
> We have been running this system with the above combination of custom kernel and
> special kernel parameter that is recommended to help stabilize all
> Linux Ryzen systems.  This uptime test has been run with our standard
> two-user mode where Barbara accesses her desktop on this box with an
> X-terminal (X server run and displayed on separate low-end hardware)
> while I simultaneously access my desktop on this box with a local X
> server (which uses the AMD RX 550 graphics card attached to this box
> to display results).
> 
> The uptime is now 5+ days without a lockup with us both being quite
> active users.  This result exceeds our previous uptime record for this
> hardware in our standard two-user mode by roughly a factor of two.  So
> this is a promising first result which makes me believe I am finally
> (after 6 months of uncertainty) on the right track for stabilizing
> this box.  However, we plan to continue this two-user uptime
> experiment until the system locks up or ~40 days uptime (whichever
> comes first) to see whether more steps are required to completely
> stabilize this box or whether running this custom kernel with special
> kernel parameter is all that is necessary to stabilize this particular
> Ryzen system.
> 
> Alan
> __________________________
> Alan W. Irwin
> 
> Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
> implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time
> Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting
> software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project
> (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net);
> and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net).
> __________________________
> 
> Linux-powered Science
> __________________________
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at vlug.org
> http://vlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_vlug.org