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[jbMacAZ <jbmacbrodie@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've been following these freeze issues since kernel 4.2.  cstate is no
longer as effective since 4.6-rc7+ and 4.5.4+.

The known relevant commits are (from bugzilla #109051):

Freezing started after 3.16.7 with commit 31685c258e0b0ad6aa486c5ec001382cf8a64212 
freezing worsened again between 4.1 and 4.2 with commit 8fb55197e64d5988ec57b54e973daeea72c3f2ff
Reverting these commits in later kernels does not solve the problem.  But for some users, it extends run time before the next freeze, sometimes substantially.  intel_idle.max_cstate={0,1} has helped the most users the most, but it is a just a bandaid, not always effective.

The most recent kernels have rendered the ..cstate argument ineffective.
Other improvements in the kernel have reduced my freeze rate from < 30
minutes to about 10 hours.  At those rates, it could take a month to
bisect.

Freezing only seems to occur on Intel processors (atom and later).  The
freeze rates vary widely from minutes to weeks.  It has dependencies on
the particular Intel processor & revision, the hardware platform and the
kernel version.  Linux distro does not seem to matter much.  I have
experienced freezes with Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro, and Android_x86 on
multiple platforms (Asus T100CHI & 2 Dell laptops) For me, cstate worked
to prevent freezes until very recent kernels.

As an intermittent problem, most freeze reports have been dismissed with
"It's not in my arena".  I believe this a cluster of problems requiring
concurrent fixes.  I'm not sure what Ubuntu can do to solve what seems
to be obvious upstream kernel problems.

Maybe Canonical can exert some influence on kernel.org to work on these
freezes rather than  breaking features that work while they push the
bleeding edge outward.  Many thousands of systems are affected, some of
which belong to IT professions who influence equipment purchase and
configuration for large corporations.  An 18 month old fatal bug is a PR
disaster waiting to happen.  By fatal I mean that the freeze can
irreparably corrupt an installed system (and I've had to re-install
twice so far.)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1503731

Title:
  8086:0f31 Ubuntu 15.04-15.10 freezes totally

Status in linux package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  Ever since I first installed 15.04 back in April/May on my new DELL
  Inspiron 3646 I have experienced frequent(daily/every-other-
  day)complete lockups(cannot even switch to console(Alt-F1,F2,etc.).

  I have determined that the issue is related to the 'i915' driver in
  relation to my GPU.

  I'm currently using intel-linux-graphics-
  installer_1.2.0-0intel1_amd64.deb from https://01.org/linuxgraphics
  with similar results (maybe a little better than the stock i915 stack
  in 15.04).

  WORKAROUND: Use kernel boot parameter:
  intel_idle.max_cstate=1

  I have gained _significant_ improvements in reliability / stability by
  using parameters in the i915 module:

  /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf:
  options i915 semaphores=1

  and / or

  /etc/default/grub:
  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet intel_pstate=disable"

  and / or
  /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf:

  Section "Device"
     Identifier "Intel Graphics"
     Driver "intel"
     Option "TearFree" "1"
  EndSection

  and / or
  Disable "Intel Virtualization Technologies" in the BIOS.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
  Package: xorg (not installed)
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-30.34-generic 3.19.8-ckt6
  Uname: Linux 3.19.0-30-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1.5
  Architecture: amd64
  CompositorRunning: None
  Date: Wed Oct  7 09:32:47 2015
  DistUpgraded: Fresh install
  DistroCodename: vivid
  DistroVariant: ubuntu
  ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
  GraphicsCard:
   Intel Corporation Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display [8086:0f31] (rev 0e) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:068d]
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-09-17 (19 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Release amd64 (20150422)
  LightdmGreeterLog:
   ** (lightdm-gtk-greeter:1005): WARNING **: [PIDs] Failed to execute command: upstart

   ** (lightdm-gtk-greeter:1005): WARNING **: Failed to load user image: Failed to open file '/home/chris/.face': No such file or directory
  MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 3646
  ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.19.0-30-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ef22be35-6f79-4356-be42-2689d1de0378 ro quiet
  SourcePackage: xorg
  UdevLog: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/log/udev'
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  dmi.bios.date: 08/17/2015
  dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.bios.version: A09
  dmi.board.name: 0V6D8J
  dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.board.version: A00
  dmi.chassis.type: 3
  dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.chassis.version: A09
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA09:bd08/17/2015:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron3646:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0V6D8J:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct3:cvrA09:
  dmi.product.name: Inspiron 3646
  dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
  version.compiz: compiz N/A
  version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
  version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.60-2
  version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.5.9-2ubuntu1~vivid2
  version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
  version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.5.9-2ubuntu1~vivid2
  version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.17.1-0ubuntu3.1
  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~exp1ubuntu2.2
  version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.11-1ubuntu2build1
  xserver.bootTime: Tue Oct  6 20:05:51 2015
  xserver.configfile: default
  xserver.errors:

  xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
  xserver.outputs:
   product id                                 990
   vendor                                     ACR
  xserver.version: 2:1.17.1-0ubuntu3.1

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