Bug 1225217

Summary: OpenSUSE TW won’t boot without the “dis_ucode_ldr” parameter
Product: [openSUSE] openSUSE Tumbleweed Reporter: Charaf Rais <charafweb>
Component: KernelAssignee: openSUSE Kernel Bugs <kernel-bugs>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact: E-mail List <qa-bugs>
Severity: Normal    
Priority: P5 - None CC: charafweb, jslaby, nik.borisov, tiwai
Version: Current   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: x86-64   
OS: openSUSE Tumbleweed   
Whiteboard:
Found By: --- Services Priority:
Business Priority: Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: --- IT Deployment: ---
Attachments: hwinfo

Description Charaf Rais 2024-05-24 14:07:21 UTC
My specs: CPU i7 6700HQ, Nvidia Geforce 960M, 4k Screen, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and 2TB HDD (ASUS Laptop N552V).

OpenSUSE TW won’t boot without the “dis_ucode_ldr” kernel boot parameter.

I removed the “quiet” boot kernel parameter to get error output, but unfortunately, nothing shows up; the boot process stops very early. Even on a fresh install with default open-source drivers, I’m facing the same issue. So, it doesn’t seem to be related to the Nvidia drivers.

In fact, openSUSE boots without any issues the first time because the Intel microcode isn’t installed. But once it’s installed, the boot process hangs.

I’ve tried several rolling distros that use version 6 kernels, they all present the same problem. Only kernel 6.1.x seems to work with Intel-ucode (tested in Manjaro).

OpenSUSE Leap (kernel v. 5.x) works fine even when installing ucode. So, I thought the issue might be with the ucode for TW. I tried copying the microcode file (06-5e-03) from Leap and replacing the one in TW, following successfully all the necessary steps to install it manually, but the boot process continues to hang with no output.

Microcode code for i7 6700HQ is not updated anymore, the latest version is microcode-20220510.

It’s possible that something broke with kernel versions above 6.1.
Comment 1 Takashi Iwai 2024-05-24 14:24:55 UTC
You can try the old kernels from my OBS repo, e.g. home:tiwai:kernel:6.1
  http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/tiwai:/kernel:/6.1/standard/

Could you confirm whether it starts breaking since 6.2.x and 6.1.x works with the very same intel ucode?

Also, please give the hwinfo output.
Comment 2 Charaf Rais 2024-05-24 18:44:23 UTC
Created attachment 875081 [details]
hwinfo
Comment 3 Charaf Rais 2024-05-24 18:46:35 UTC
Thank you for you reply.

To give you unbiased information, I made a fresh install, update the system, installed latest ucode via "Yast Software Management" without installing gpu related drivers. I booted using "dis_ucode_ldr", and I downloaded bellow kernels from your repos, then tested them one by one:

please check hwinfo in attached file.

--------------------------------------------------------

kernel-default-6.1.12-1.1.g373f017.x86_64.rpm
kernel-default-devel-6.1.12-1.1.g373f017.x86_64.rpm

--> Boots normally!

rais@192:~> sudo dmesg | grep -i microcode
[sudo] password for root: 
[    0.000000] [    T0] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0xf0, date = 2021-11-12
[    0.076111] [    T0] SRBDS: Mitigation: Microcode
[    0.505522] [    T0] microcode: sig=0x506e3, pf=0x20, revision=0xf0
[    0.505739] [    T1] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

--------------------------------------------------------

kernel-default-6.2.12-1.1.geb3255d.x86_64.rpm
kernel-default-devel-6.2.12-1.1.geb3255d.x86_64.rpm

--> Boots normally!

rais@192:~> sudo dmesg | grep -i microcode
[sudo] password for root: 
[    0.000000] [    T0] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0xf0, date = 2021-11-12
[    0.078794] [    T0] SRBDS: Mitigation: Microcode
[    0.512834] [    T1] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

--------------------------------------------------------

kernel-default-6.3.9-1.1.g0df701d.x86_64.rpm
kernel-default-devel-6.3.9-1.1.g0df701d.x86_64.rpm

HANGS on first boot
Hangs on second boot
3d boot, I pushed "e" then F10 (without any editing) and the boot successed!
4 boot, passed without "e" + F10
5 boot Hangs
6 boot hangs
7 boot hangs even with "e" F10 trick
8 boot passed using dis_ucode_ldr
9,10 ... tested using dis_ucode_ldr , boot succeddfully evry time

rais@192:~> sudo dmesg | grep -i microcode
[sudo] password for root: 
[    0.000000] [    T0] microcode: updated early: 0xc6 -> 0xf0, date = 2021-11-12
[    0.078876] [    T0] SRBDS: Mitigation: Microcode
[    0.976939] [    T1] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

--------------------------------------------------------

kernel-default-6.4.12-1.1.gf5aa89b.x86_64.rpm
kernel-default-devel-6.4.12-1.1.gf5aa89b.x86_64.rpm

--> Working !

rais@192:~> sudo dmesg | grep -i microcode
[sudo] password for root: 
[    0.000000] [    T0] microcode: updated early: 0xc6 -> 0xf0, date = 2021-11-12
[    0.071282] [    T0] SRBDS: Mitigation: Microcode
[    0.514596] [    T1] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

---------------------------------------------------------

kernel-default-6.5.9-1.1.g1823166.x86_64.rpm
kernel-default-devel-6.5.9-1.1.g1823166.x86_64.rpm

--> NOT BOOTING.

--------------------------------------------------------

kernel-default-6.6.11-1.1.g05ae4ad.x86_64.rpm
kernel-default-devel-6.6.11-1.1.g05ae4ad.x86_64.rpm

--> Not booting

--------------------------------------------------------

kernel-default-6.7.9-1.1.gc6dad0c.x86_64.rpm
kernel-default-devel-6.7.9-1.1.gc6dad0c.x86_64.rpm

--> Not booting

---------------------------------------------------------

Kernel v 6.8 & 6.9 has been tested and they are not booting without dis_ucode_ldr.
Comment 4 Takashi Iwai 2024-05-27 10:10:30 UTC
Thanks.  So it seems that the issue was introduced between 6.4.x and 6.5.x.

Adding Nik and Jiri to CC, in case they know of something about the regression with intel ucode.
Comment 5 Charaf Rais 2024-05-27 11:22:43 UTC
All the thanks are for you and the community of devs active here.
Comment 6 Takashi Iwai 2024-05-27 15:56:20 UTC
Just a blind shot: is there any change if you pass mitigations=off option?
Comment 7 Charaf Rais 2024-05-27 18:20:15 UTC
on kernel 6.9 the boot hangs as always.
on kernel 6.1 the system boots normally.
Comment 8 Nikolay Borisov 2024-05-28 06:22:14 UTC
This seems to be an upstream kernel issue. Would it be possible to bisect the issue using v6.4/v6.5 as good/bad respectively ?