The officially official Devuan Forum!

Klmjab

Member

Registered: 2020-10-30

Posts: 12  

Machine freezes if I run a kernel greater than 6.1

My machine an HP Z10 (sep-2012) with the latest firmware published by HP (version: J51 v01.55 date: 06/13/2018) and with an Intel Core i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz has "Daedalus" installed. For some time now I have been able to verify that it freezes if a I run a kernel greater than 6.1 (no ctrl-alt-fx consoles). The freezes could be at anytime, four hours, five days... i don't know when it will come. Starting a 6.1 kernel I can view in dmesg that the first thing loaded is the microcode of the processor, with a newer kernel this microcode is not loaded though. Anybody knows how to solve this situation.

Thanks in advance

With kernel 6.1

root@delora:/var/log# head dmesg
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x2f, date = 2019-02-17
[    0.000000] Linux version 6.1.0-41-amd64 (debian-kernel@lists.debian.org) (gcc-12 (Debian 12.2.0-14+deb12u1) 12.2.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Debian) 2.40) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.158-1 (2025-11-09)
[    0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-6.1.0-41-amd64 root=/dev/mapper/delora-root ro quiet
[    0.000000] reserving inaccessible SNB gfx pages
[    0.000000] BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000000009ffff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x000000001fffffff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000020000000-0x00000000201fffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000020200000-0x000000003fffffff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000040000000-0x00000000401fffff] reserved

With kernel 6.12

root@delora:/var/log# head dmesg.0 
[    0.000000] Linux version 6.12.57+deb12-amd64 (debian-kernel@lists.debian.org) (x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc-12 (Debian 12.2.0-14+deb12u1) 12.2.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Debian) 2.40) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.12.57-1~bpo12+1 (2025-11-17)
[    0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-6.12.57+deb12-amd64 root=/dev/mapper/delora-root ro quiet
[    0.000000] reserving inaccessible SNB gfx pages
[    0.000000] BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000000009ffff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x000000001fffffff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000020000000-0x00000000201fffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000020200000-0x000000003fffffff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000040000000-0x00000000401fffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000040200000-0x00000000c4c33fff] usable

Last edited by Klmjab (2025-12-09 09:43:15)

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,939  

Re: Machine freezes if I run a kernel greater than 6.1

Hello:

... 6.1 kernel I can view in dmesg that the first thing loaded is the microcode ...
... newer kernel this microcode is not loaded though.

Kernel 6.17 is Sid/Ceres unstable.

You may need to install the microcode package from the non-free firmware repository
ie: http://deb.devuan.org/merged ceres/non-free-firmware amd64

Q: is it in your /etc/apt/sources.list file?
See here: https://pkginfo.devuan.org/cgi-bin/poli … 1.84.38.37

If that does not solve the issue, it may(?) be due to the box being ca. 2012 and having a BIOS issue.

Best,

A.

Last edited by Altoid (2025-12-09 09:23:44)

Klmjab

Member

Registered: 2020-10-30

Posts: 12  

Re: Machine freezes if I run a kernel greater than 6.1

I'm sorry, kernel version was 6.12 not 6.17. And not, after update to intel-microcode 3.20251111.1 (from ceres non-free-firmware) the problem still exists. Could be that 6.1 kernels and below where compiled with microcode support? Could be that the solution consist on compiling evrytime a new kernel ?

Last edited by Klmjab (Yesterday 13:26:44)

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,939  

Re: Machine freezes if I run a kernel greater than 6.1

Hello:

... version was 6.12 not 6.17.

Right, I sould have caught that one ...  8^°

Let's see ...

Kernel 6.1 (ie: Linux version 6.1.0-41-amd64) is the up to date Devuan Daedalus kernel version.
That is the one that does not have any issues.
Correct?

Kernel 6.12 (ie: Linux version 6.12.57+deb12-amd64) is a backported kernel.
It is found in http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-backports.
That is the one with the freezing problem.
Correct?

Bear in mind that (as I understand it) the case for using a backported kernel can be made when your box is running an oldstable release (like Daedalus today) on newish hardware which may be able to take advantage of whatever the backported kernel may offer for it.

Or not ...

That does not seem to be the case for your (ca. 2012) HP Z10.
ie: not newish.

For the sake of illustrating this: I run an up to date Devuan Daedalus on a ca. 2007 Sun Ultra 24 (Intel Q9550) on the very same 6.1 kernel you run on.
Without any issues so I don't think I need a backported kernel.

I doubt there is a microcode component to the freezing problem your box.
More knowledgeable members of the forum may have a different opinion.

You may want to consider burning a live Excalibur *.iso and testing it on your box to see how it behaves.
ie: freezes and such.

It may be that the backported kernel (for whatever reason) misbehaves but the Excalibur kernel does not.

Let us know about it.

Best,

A.

Last edited by Altoid (Yesterday 19:18:03)

kapqa

Member

Registered: 2019-01-02

Posts: 575  

Re: Machine freezes if I run a kernel greater than 6.1

have optiplex 960 at disposal, that is also maybe around 2012;

it runs newer devuan 5.0 without any issues, very quick indeed, with q9550 or q9650 cpu or so.

in some ways more responsive than newer computers.

EDIT : i remember microstuttering on Linux some time ago, but that was probably Debian, not Devuan. not exactly shure either what might have caused it.

Last edited by kapqa (Yesterday 20:04:23)