Bug#894211: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: Screen frozen every few seconds for less than a second

[Stanimir Stoyanov <ss@stansoft.bg>]

On Tue, 27 Mar 2018 20:54:47 +0200 Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de>
wrote:
> On 2018-03-27 14:37 +0300, Stanimir Stoyanov wrote:
>
> > Package: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
> > Version: 1:1.0.15-2
> > Severity: important
> >
> > Dear Maintainer,
> >
> > After a recent update the system become unusable. Every few seconds
it's frozen
> > for less than a second. From the dmesg I can see the timings match
a loop of
> > entries like
> >
> > [  461.313187] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: pci: failed to adjust lnkctl
speed
> > [  461.381089] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: Enabling via
vga_switcheroo
> > [  472.791114] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: Disabling via
vga_switcheroo
> > [  473.091231] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: Cannot lock devices!
> > [  473.091470] ACPI: \_SB_.PCI0.P0P2.PEGP: failed to evaluate _DSM
>
> What makes you think this is a bug in xserver-xorg-video-
nouveau?  This
> package has not seen "a recent update" (in fact, it has not been
changed
> for 9 months), and your Xorg.1.log shows that X does not even try to
> load the nouveau driver.
>
> Cheers,
>        Sven
>

Hi Sven,

The fact that I see the nouveau lnkctl speed error in the dmesg output 
makes me think it could be related. I've tried setting nomodeset in grub 
- the system boots, but after entering my credentials its showing only 
the gnome background image.

I'm sorry if the cause is not in the driver, and will be grateful for 
any suggestions or directions where to look for the issue.

Cheers,
Stan