Nouveau - Jan 2019 - Nouveau module X server not starting on a NP900X5N Kaby Lake machine

Hi Ilia, many thanks for answering my mail.

Tonight I tried to see what happens if I generate a xorg.conf file and place it
in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, as described here:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/4662/where-is-the-x-org-config-file-how-do-i-configure-x-there

When I do that X starts without the framebuffer error. X starts with a backtrace
list in the shell and then stops with the error:

'Segmentation fault at address 0x0.

Fatal sever error etc etc etc.

Hope this helps!

In fact the above is part of a much bigger issue I have with the 
machine. When I enable the i915 module (Kaby lake native video) my 
screen goed black after a while. The machine is totally stuck in that 
state. Even ssh connection is not possible. It shows no errors in the 
(saved) logs after restarting the machine.

So I disabled the i915 module and try to get the nvidia card running. 
Without any luck.

Thank you for inviting me for irc.freenode.net. What it the procss to 
get access?

I have included the full dmesg in zip format.

For me it is a showstopper using the machine with Linux. I really do not 
understand that I am the only person on this planet that cannot run 
Linux on a plain vanilla Kaby lake machine.


On 01-01-19 22:23, Ilia Mirkin wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 1, 2019 at 4:06 PM Jan Vlietland <j.vlietland at nisi.nl>
wrote:
>> Hi Ben, David and Daniel ,
>>
>> First of all happy new year. Based on advice of Greg K-H herewith a
mail
>> about a number of Nouveau issues with my laptop.
>>
>> I installed various Kali linux versions up to Linux 4.20.0-rc7
>> (downloaded, compiled and installed) on a Samsung NP900X5N laptop and
>> have an issue with the driver after loading.
>>
>> My configuration:
>>
>> - i7 7500
>> - 16 gb / 256 gb ssd
>> - nvidia 940MX (for 3D graphics)
>>
>> When I enable loading of the nouveau module for my Nvidia 3D card I get
>> three MMIO faults:
>>
>> [   35.984104] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: bus: MMIO read of 00000000 FAULT
at 6013d4 [ IBUS ]
>> [   35.997510] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: bus: MMIO read of 00000000 FAULT
at 10ac08 [ IBUS ]
>> [   37.551790] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: bus: MMIO read of 00000000 FAULT
at 619444 [ IBUS ]
>>
>> I see currenty varous discussions on bugzilla: (as summarized by Bruno
>> Pagani) https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=100423.
>>
>> But I do not see any confirmed solutions on the MMIO faults.
>>
>> The module is loaded but X server cannot run in framebuffer mode. I
>> assume that the module does not provide any video memory to X to run in
>> graphics mode.
>>
>> First of all I would like to understand what the faults impose.
>> And I also would like to help you providing testing to fix the errors.
> The faults are, generally, nothing to worry about, esp if they occur
> infrequently. It's one bit or another of code that's poking at a
part
> of the GPU it shouldn't be touching.
>
> To the best of my knowledge, 940MX (GM108) should work reasonably
> well. Perhaps it would make most sense if you posted about some of
> your other issues (usually GM108's are have no outputs, so only usable
> as offload devices). Feel free to join #nouveau on irc.freenode.net to
> get more info as well.
>
> Cheers,
>
>    -ilia
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On Tue, Jan 1, 2019 at 5:30 PM Jan Vlietland <j.vlietland at nisi.nl>
wrote:
>
> Hi Ilia, many thanks for answering my mail.
>
> Tonight I tried to see what happens if I generate a xorg.conf file and
place it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, as described here:
>
https://askubuntu.com/questions/4662/where-is-the-x-org-config-file-how-do-i-configure-x-there
>
> When I do that X starts without the framebuffer error. X starts with a
backtrace list in the shell and then stops with the error:
>
> 'Segmentation fault at address 0x0.
>
> Fatal sever error etc etc etc.
Unless you're an advanced user, you'll get the best results by not
supplying a manual xorg.conf. Generically, this indicates that you
messed something up. Without knowing precisely what the contents of
that file are, it would be difficult to say what exactly went wrong.
However I wouldn't advise this path without a good reason.
>
> Hope this helps!
>
> In fact the above is part of a much bigger issue I have with the
> machine. When I enable the i915 module (Kaby lake native video) my
> screen goed black after a while. The machine is totally stuck in that
> state. Even ssh connection is not possible. It shows no errors in the
> (saved) logs after restarting the machine.
>
> So I disabled the i915 module and try to get the nvidia card running.
> Without any luck.
>
> Thank you for inviting me for irc.freenode.net. What it the procss to
> get access?
It's an IRC network like any other. More info about the network
available at https://freenode.net/

It's open to anyone... #nouveau for nouveau, #intel-gfx for intel.
>
> I have included the full dmesg in zip format.
>
> For me it is a showstopper using the machine with Linux. I really do not
> understand that I am the only person on this planet that cannot run
> Linux on a plain vanilla Kaby lake machine.
I don't know the specifics of your laptop, but on many other GM108M
laptops, the displays are only attached to the Intel GPU. So running
without i915 is just not an option, if you want anything displayed.
You would be able to use the GM108M chip for 3D acceleration if you
chose, but nothing to do with actual display.

If your screen goes black with i915 loaded, I suspect that you'd be
better served reporting this issue to Intel.
>From your logs, you also appear to have a variety of combinations of
nomodeset/<driver>.modeset=0 combinations -- these will just impede
the proper mode of operation. The i915 and nouveau drivers effectively
do nothing under those conditions.

Cheers,

  -ilia