Regression of v4.6-rc vs. v4.5 bisected: a98ee79317b4 "drm/i915/fbc: enable FBC by default on HSW and BDW"

Stefan Richter
2016-05-05T17:45:06Z

On Apr 30 Stefan Richter wrote:
> On Apr 29 Stefan Richter wrote:
> > On Apr 26 Stefan Richter wrote:
> > > v4.6-rc solidly hangs after a short while after boot, login to X11, and
> > > doing nothing much remarkable on the just brought up X desktop.
> > >
> > > Hardware: x86-64, E3-1245 v3 (Haswell),
> > > mainboard Supermicro X10SAE,
> > > using integrated Intel graphics (HD P4600, i915 driver),
> > > C226 PCH's AHCI and USB 2/3, ASMedia ASM1062 AHCI,
> > > Intel LAN (i217, igb driver),
> > > several IEEE 1394 controllers, some of them behind
> > > PCIe bridges (IDT, PLX) or PCIe-to-PCI bridges (TI, Tundra)
> > > and one PCI-to-CardBus bridge (Ricoh)
> > >
> > > kernel.org kernel, Gentoo Linux userland
> > >
> > > 1. known good: v4.5-rc5 (gcc 4.9.3)
> > > known bad: v4.6-rc2 (gcc 4.9.3), only tried one time
> > >
> > > 2. known good: v4.5.2 (gcc 5.2.0)
> > > known bad: v4.6-rc5 (gcc 5.2.0), only tried one time
> > >
> > > I will send my linux-4.6-rc5/.config in a follow-up message.
>
> .config: http://www.spinics.net/lists/kernel/msg2243444.html
> lspci: http://www.spinics.net/lists/kernel/msg2243447.html
>
> Some userland package versions, in case these have any bearing:
> x11-base/xorg-drivers-1.17
> x11-base/xorg-server-1.17.4
> x11-bas/xorg-x11-7.4-r2

Furthermore, there is a single display hooked up via DisplayPort.

> > After it proved impossible to capture an oops through netconsole, I
> > started git bisect. This will apparently take almost a week, as git
> > estimated 13 bisection steps and I will be allowing about 12 hours of
> > uptime as a sign for a good kernel. (In my four or five tests of bad
> > kernels before I started bisection, they hung after 3 minutes...5.5 hours
> > uptime, with no discernible difference in workload. Maybe 12 h cutoff is
> > even too short...)

I took at least 18 hours uptime (usually 24 hours) as a sign for good
kernels. During the bisection, bad kernels hung after 3 h, 2 h, 9 min,
45 min, and 4 min uptime. Thus I arrived at a98ee79317b4 "drm/i915/fbc:
enable FBC by default on HSW and BDW" as the point where the hangs are
introduced.

Quoting the changelog of the commit:

Oh, and in case you - the person reading this commit message - found
this commit through git bisect, please do the following:
- Check your dmesg and see if there are error messages mentioning
underruns around the time your problem started happening.

Well, I always had the followings lines in dmesg:
[drm:intel_set_cpu_fifo_underrun_reporting] *ERROR* uncleared fifo underrun on pipe A
[drm:intel_cpu_fifo_underrun_irq_handler] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO underrun

I always got these when I switch on the DisplayPort attached monitor.
Recently I changed userland from kdm to sddm and noticed that I
apparently get these when sddm shuts down. I am not aware of whether
or not this also already happened with kdm.

However, "around the time your problem started happening" there is
nothing in dmesg, because "your problem" is a complete hang without
possibility of disk IO and without netconsole output.

- Download intel-gpu-tools, compile it, and run:
$ sudo ./tests/kms_frontbuffer_tracking --run-subtest '*fbc-*' 2>&1 | tee fbc.txt
Then send us the fbc.txt file, especially if you get a failure.
This will really maximize your chances of getting the bug fixed
quickly.

Do you need this while FBC is enabled, or can I run it while FBC is
disabled?

- Try to find a reliable way to reproduce the problem, and tell us.

The reliable way is to just wait for the kernel to hang after about
3 minutes to 5.5 hours. I have not identified any special activity
which would trigger the hang.

- Boot with drm.debug=0xe, reproduce the problem, then send us the
dmesg file.

I can try this, but I am skeptical about getting any useful kernel
messages from before the hang.

PS:
I am mentioning the following just in case that it has any relationship
with the FBC related kernel freezes. Maybe it doesn't... There is
another recent regression on this PC, but I have not yet figured out
whether it was introduced by any particular kernel version. The
regression is: When switching from X11 to text console by [Ctrl][Alt][Fx]
or by shutting down sddm, I often only get a blank screen. I suspect
that this regression was introduced when I replaced kdm by sddm, but
I am not sure about that.
--
Stefan Richter
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