Bug#1088682: linux-image-6.11.9-amd64: Abnormal delay at boot time (related to unstable tsc), also on installer image
Package: linux-image-6.11.9-amd64
Version: 6.11.9-1
Severity: normal
Dear Maintainer,
Since bookworm which runs kernel 6.1 I have an extended boot delay which can
last for a few minutes. Dmesg showed that the issue is with the clock source.
Setting the kernel parameter 'tsc=unstable' at boot time fixes the issue. I
have the same problem with Trixie which now has kernel 6.11 and of course the
issue is also with the Debian installer media. (Bookworm and Trixie)
The issue is that it is difficult to find out what is really making the boot
be
stuck for a long time and when booting the installation medium one would
believe that the system is completely frozen since that can last for a few
minutes. The system doesn't react to any user input when in that state.
Moreover if I remove the 'quiet' parameter from the kernel it seems stuck on
detecting USB. This is misleading. It is only by looking at the kernel logs
that I found it was suggested to use tsc=unstable.
How could we prevent users to be stuck at boot time for such a long time
without having a clue on what is happening? Here are a few ideas:
- run the installer by default with tsc=unstable, but maybe this would pass
the
value to the installed system, even when not appropriate? And if it doesn't
pass it to the installed system, that would just move the problem to 1st boot
time and reveal the delay at that time which isn't ideal either.
- build the kernel for the installer medium with
CONFIG_HAVE_UNSTABLE_SCHED_CLOCK ?
- write a notice in the installation guide?
In the meantime I sent a report to the kernel mailing list.
<https://lore.kernel.org/all/10cf96aa-1276-4bd4-8966-c890377030c3@yahoo.fr/>
Regards
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.8
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (991, 'stable-updates'), (991, 'stable-security'), (991,
'stable'), (990, 'proposed-updates'), (390, 'oldstable-security'), (390,
'oldstable'), (389, 'oldstable-updates'), (380, 'oldoldstable'), (379,
'oldoldstable-updates'), (370, 'oldoldstable'), (95, 'testing'), (94,
'unstable'), (93, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386
Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-27-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE, TAINT_OOT_MODULE,
TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8),
LANGUAGE=fr:en_US
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
Versions of packages linux-image-6.11.9-amd64 depends on:
ii initramfs-tools [linux-initramfs-tool] 0.142+deb12u1
ii kmod 30+20221128-1
ii linux-base 4.9
Versions of packages linux-image-6.11.9-amd64 recommends:
ii apparmor 3.0.8-3
Versions of packages linux-image-6.11.9-amd64 suggests:
pn debian-kernel-handbook <none>
ii firmware-linux-free 20200122-1
ii grub-efi-amd64 2.06-13+deb12u1
pn linux-doc-6.11 <none>
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