2019-01-01 20:31:51

by Jan Vlietland

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Subject: i915 module results in total lockups without any dmesg trace on a NP900X5N Kaby Lake machine

Hello all,

First of all happy new year. Based on advice of Greg K-H herewith a mail
about my continuous (frustrating) issue with my laptop.

I installed various Kali linux versions up to Linux 4.20.0-rc7
(downloaded, compiled and installed) on a Samsung NP900X5N laptop and
have an issue with the driver after loading.

My configuration:

- i7 7500
- 16 gb / 256 gb ssd
- nvidia 940MX (for 3D graphics)

Shortly after loading the module the screen goes black (af if screen
saver) and stays black. I tried to fix it myself.and 'studied' the
behaviour for about 20 hours, I think it is a bug in the i915 module
itself. I consider it much more efficient to ask you guys for some help.

A summary of the test I performed.

- I tried several versions and distributions (about 7). They all result
in the same behaviour. Screen goes black.I do not see any logging in
the  logs. I enabled ssh and the machine is unresponsive after the
screen going black. The more tests I do (rebooting via holding power
key) the sooner the screen goes black. I wonder if the gpu gets too hot
locally. Btw, the processor is not hot as the fan stays off.

- I tried changing various parameters in the i915 module. No luck. For
example, no compression, no power reduction.

- Guc/huc setting to 0x03 seems to delay the black screens but the black
screens continue.

- When I disable the driver in grub or in the modprobe.d dir I do not
have any black screens.

- After closing and opening the lid the machine does not wake up.

- With Windows 10 the machine does not results in lockups (kept the
machine on for more than 24 hours).

I would really appreciate some help here because the machine is unusable
with Linux. Furthermore my older NP900X4D is working with Linux for
almost 5 years now. I love linux and rather throw the machine away than
using Windows 10 :-)

ps: my Nouveau gives MMIO Faults so is not usable as well.

--

Met vriendelijke groet,

*dr. Jan Vlietland*, namens

spin-off

Nederlands Instituut voor de Software Industrie

[email protected]_| 06 – 20 411 834 | 030 – 268 53 98
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