Linux-libre > 5.15.12 leads to unbootable system

2022 has left me without a working Linux-libre kernel.

Breakage occurred sometime between:

• 92faad0adb93b8349bfd7c67911d3d95f0505eb2

(Jan. 3rd; Linux-libre 5.15.12)

• 43dd34c7777a212c99a97da7a2c237158faa9a1b

(Jan. 31st; Linux-libre 5.15.17)

The symptoms are that, on my x86_64 laptop, the kernel boots, I can

enter the passphrase for my root file system (‘cryptsetup’ is invoked

from the initrd), things get printed, the console font changes, and then

things get stuck here. The last messages are from my sound card driver

(Intel HDA). It hangs before syslogd is started, and I think before

shepherd is even started (I can’t be 100% sure because I cannot scroll

back at that point, but I did add print statements in ‘shepherd.conf’

and didn’t see them.)

The same config works in ‘guix system vm’.

I can work around the problem by reconfiguring from current ‘master’ and

doing this:

This suggests a kernel issue.

Ideas and suggestions on how to debug this most welcome!

Ludo’.

severity 54010 important

quit

On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 03:56:27PM +0100, Ludovic Courtès wrote:

Isn't this #53712?

I recommend trying the workaround described there, which is to blacklist

the iwlwifi kernel module, if you are not using it but have iwlwifi

hardware:

That worked for me and is consistent with the upstream discussion of

this bug:

Have you tried blacklisting the the iwlwifi kernel module on boot by

adding (kernel-arguments '("modprobe.blacklist=iwlwifi")) to

operating-system declaration? The problem may be a bug from upstream

linux. Please see

For your reference, there is a similar thread (bug#53712: Guix System

hangs after boot with linux-libre 5.15.17) in bug-guix at

The patch for it has just been applied in the newest upstream kernel

releases. (https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/ChangeLog-5.15.23)

On Wed, Feb 16, 2022 at 12:39:46AM +0800, Squirrel via Bug reports for GNU Guix wrote:

Are you sure the bug is fixed in 5.15.23?

I don't see anything relevant in the changelog and I still have to apply

the workaround in order to boot 5.15.23 on affected hardware.

On Tue, 15 Feb 2022 16:15:51 -0500, Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> wrote:

I'm not sure...I haven't tested. Sorry for that!

The iwlwifi patch is related to use-after-free, but not the one in

5.15.23 changelog. It's this one:

merge 53712 54010

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Hi,

Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> skribis:

It is!

I confirm that 5.15.23-gnu works for me with:

(kernel-arguments

'(; https://issues.guix.gnu.org/53712#12

"modprobe.blacklist=usbmouse,usbkbd,iwlwifi"

"quiet"))

Thank you!

Ludo’.