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Message #126043
[Bug 1446027] Re: SNA acceleration causes sudden shutdowns and corrupts CMOS data on the the Asus UX21E ultrabook on a wide variety of kernels since at least Ubuntu 14.04
[Expired for xorg (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60
days.]
** Changed in: xorg (Ubuntu)
Status: Incomplete => Expired
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1446027
Title:
SNA acceleration causes sudden shutdowns and corrupts CMOS data on the
the Asus UX21E ultrabook on a wide variety of kernels since at least
Ubuntu 14.04
Status in xorg package in Ubuntu:
Expired
Bug description:
SUMMARY: On the ASUS UX21E ultrabook, enabling SNA graphics
acceleration leads to spontaneous shutdowns while watching Flash video
in full screen AND using the battery as the power source, the problem
starts surfacing once the battery charge level drops below 33%. The
issue affects both x86 and x64 platforms, affects at least the 14.04
and 14.10 Ubuntu versions, affects at least the regular Ubuntu and its
Kubuntu and Lubuntu flavors, affects at least kernels 3.13, 3.14,
3.15, 3.16, 3.17, 3.18, 3.19 and 4.0. The issue can't be fixed by
changing the various i915 driver options like rc6 and semaphores,
neither does PCIE_ASPM play a role. Repetitive triggering of the bug
runs the machine into an even weirder state where it would chaotically
reboot every time a higher-than-moderate strain is put on the GPU, and
the only way to fix this is to detach both battery connectors from the
motherboard for a while (CMOS battery and the main power source
battery) The issue surprisingly disappears after a hard CMOS reset AND
setting the acceleration method to UXA. The BIOS version of my UX21E
is 214. I've also taken my UX21 to the official ASUS service center
and after running the tests they replied that the unit has no hardware
issues, so it is a Linux issue. A vaguely similar issue is reported to
affect UX21E running Windows 8, so it may be a crippled DSDT after
all.
THE LONG STORY:
=========================================================================================
IMPORTANT UPDATE! As of 14.04 and 14.10 using the default SNA graphics
acceleration instead of UXA leads to unexpected shutdowns and/or CMOS
settings corruption. To activate the bug, one must be:
-- Using the battery as the power source
-- Having the battery charge below 33%
-- Watching a FULLSCREEN video in Flash Player (e.g. youtube)
-- Both Pepper Flash in Chrome/Chromium and the regular Adobe Flash in
Firefox/Chromium are affected
This is the most typical scenario for triggering an unexpected
shutdown, but other variants do exist. Certain Flash-heavy sites like
speedtest.net can trigger this, as well as KDE's KWin window
compositor with certain GLX-accelerated eye candy options turned on.
The bug also affects at least Kubuntu and Lubuntu, but that's just
what I was able to confirm. Most likely it affects all other Ubuntu
flavors and even other distributions that use the latest Intel video
drivers AND employ SNA as the default acceleration method.
The issue persists with various Ubuntu versions (at least 14.04 &
14.10), various kernel versions (I tried almost every kernel from 3.13
to 4.0) and even using the cutting-edge drivers from the xorg-edgers
PPA does nothing to fix this. Both x86 and x64 platforms are affected.
Flash Player version plays no role, either. The bug apparently happens
because the ultrabook's ACPI-based power management mechanisms just
can't get on terms with the latest implementation of SNA. Something
happens when the battery charge drops below 1/3 -- and once SNA draws
too much power from the GPU, a shutdown happens. The various i915.*
driver options like rc6 and semaphores do nothing to fix this!
The worst thing is that after you get several unexpected shutdowns,
your UX21E may start rebooting chaotically whenever any program tries
to use graphics acceleration, be it Chromium's accelerated canvas
rendering or simply the window manager using transparency. This
further leads to file system corruption up to the point when you can
no longer boot into your user profile. You can still create another
user profile via the terminal, but this does not get rid of the reboot
glitch.
If you happen to run into this, you must perform a hard CMOS reset. To
do this, one must unscrew the twelve torx screws and remove the bottom
part of the casing, then detach *BOTH* the main battery connector and
the CMOS battery connector from the motherboard, then wait for a few
minutes and attach them back. Flushing CMOS programmatically with a
command-line utility like CmosPwd does not fix this issue! If you are
unsure how to open your UX21E or detach the battery connectors, search
youtube for an UX21E disassemby guide -- detaching the battery on this
model used to be a popular trick a few years ago when a certain
Windows glitch caused similar behavior and required hard CMOS reset as
well, so there are a number of videos and forum threads on this issue
across the web.
Once you have made sure your CMOS is okay (that is, you don't get
frequent shutdowns shortly after logging into the system while working
on battery with a charge below 33%) you can proceed to fix the
ultimate cause of this issue. If it exists, delete the
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf file then create a new one
containing the following lines:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reboot and the issue is fixed!
I also recommend using the following kernel boot arguments with this
model to provide maximum power saving and stability in 14.04 and
14.10:
intel_pstate=enable pcie_aspm=force pcie_aspm.policy=default
ath9k.ps_enable=1 i915.semaphores=1 i915.enable_rc6=7 i915.powersave=1
i915.lvds_downclock=1 drm.vblankoffdelay=1 i915.enable_fbc=1
Enabling 'i915.enable_fbc' and 'i915.lvds_downclock' can lead to minor
graphical glitches with SNA acceleration, but since SNA is a no go due
to the above mentioned bug, you can safely turn them on with UXA.
'pcie_aspm' absolutely needs being set to 'force' and
'pcie_aspm.policy' to 'default' -- the UX21E is very picky about this
as of the latest official kernels in 14.04 and 14.10.
'ath9k.ps_enable' is required to enable wireless power saving in power
managing software like TLP
I hope someone re-formats my remarks to fit into the article in a more
befitting manner and/or files a bug on the Ubuntu bug tracker because
I'm almost exhausted and broken while typing this. Tracking this
sucker down cost me almost two months of my life because once you run
into the chaotic reboot issue, you can't fix anything without hard
resetting the CMOS, and it took me too long to realize.
Thanks for understanding.
P.S. This may also affect other Asus ultrabooks with integrated Intel
graphics like UX31E. A Windows bug with very similar symptoms is known
to affect the whole model line, especially with Windows 8.1
=========================================================================================
---
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.360
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: vivid
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:1417]
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Release amd64 (20150422)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. UX21E
Package: xorg 1:7.7+7ubuntu4
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
TERM=xterm
PATH=(custom, no user)
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/cdrom/preseed/username.seed boot=casper quiet splash ---
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-15.15-generic 3.19.3
Tags: vivid ubuntu compiz-0.9
UdevLog: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/log/udev'
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-15-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 11/22/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: UX21E.214
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: UX21E
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrUX21E.214:bd11/22/2012:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnUX21E:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnUX21E:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: UX21E
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.12.1+15.04.20150410.1-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.60-2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.5.2-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.5.2-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.17.1-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.5.0-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917-1~exp1ubuntu2build1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.11-1ubuntu2build1
xserver.bootTime: Sun Apr 26 14:41:48 2015
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors:
xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:
product id 1161
vendor COR
xserver.version: 2:1.17.1-0ubuntu3
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