Firmware Bug in dmesg output?

[andyO]

Hi,
I was just looking through the output of dmesg after booting to see if there is anything I could do to speed boot time up a little and I noticed that two firmware errors are being reported. A section of the dmesg output with the two bug reports (at 17.23sec) is below:

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[    6.875535] systemd[1]: Created slice User and Session Slice.
[    6.875690] systemd[1]: Set up automount Arbitrary Executable File Formats File System Automount Point.
[    6.875722] systemd[1]: Listening on udev Control Socket.
[    6.875765] systemd[1]: Created slice System Slice.
[    6.875812] systemd[1]: Created slice system-systemd\x2dfsck.slice.
[    6.875817] systemd[1]: Reached target User and Group Name Lookups.
[    6.875840] systemd[1]: Listening on Journal Socket (/dev/log).
[    7.804250] amdgpu: [powerplay] VI should always have 2 performance levels
[    8.307297] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[    8.394332] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
[    8.410421] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: GPU pci config reset
[   17.146764] EXT4-fs (sda2): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
[   17.160964] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[   17.181232] systemd-journald[361]: Received request to flush runtime journal from PID 1
[   17.227727] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (65536 buckets, 262144 max)
[   17.232120] tpm_crb MSFT0101:00: [Firmware Bug]: ACPI region does not cover the entire command/response buffer. [mem 0xfed40000-0xfed4087f flags 0x200] vs fed40080 f80
[   17.232130] tpm_crb MSFT0101:00: [Firmware Bug]: ACPI region does not cover the entire command/response buffer. [mem 0xfed40000-0xfed4087f flags 0x200] vs fed40080 f80 
[   17.238665] ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[   17.238993] ACPI Warning: \_SB.IETM._TRT: Return Package has no elements (empty) (20170531/nsprepkg-130)
[   17.257921] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[   17.257932] NET: Registered protocol family 31

The output of my inxi is:

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 ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: blackbox Kernel: 4.13.0-32-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   System: Dell (portable) product: Inspiron 5567
           Mobo: Dell model: 05VRRG v: A00 Bios: Dell v: 1.0.2 date: 09/09/2016
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i7-7500U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 4096 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 11616
           clock speeds: max: 3500 MHz 1: 2900 MHz 2: 2900 MHz 3: 2900 MHz 4: 2900 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Device 5916 bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Topaz XT [Radeon R7 M260/M265] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,intel,amdgpu (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,radeon)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.01hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 620 (Kaby Lake GT2)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.4 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel Device 9d71 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 Sound: ALSA v: k4.13.0-32-generic
Network:   Card-1: Intel Wireless 3165 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (19.8% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA_MQ01ABD1 size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 138G used: 16G (12%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 9.67GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda4
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 38.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 39.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 210 Uptime: 24 min Memory: 1172.9/7874.8MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 

Two questions really:
1) Are those two "Firmware bugs" anything to worry about at all. I'm not experiencing any problems with my system so I'm inclined to ignore them for now, but it would be good to know if I should sort them out somehow.
2) Does anyone have any tips on speeding up boot time? It is interesting that there is a 9 second gap shortly before the bugs are reported?

Thanks for any input.

[catweazel]

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[   17.232120] tpm_crb MSFT0101:00: [Firmware Bug]: ACPI region does not cover the entire command/response buffer. [mem 0xfed40000-0xfed4087f flags 0x200] vs fed40080 f80
[   17.232130] tpm_crb MSFT0101:00: [Firmware Bug]: ACPI region does not cover the entire command/response buffer. [mem 0xfed40000-0xfed4087f flags 0x200] vs fed40080 f80 

Two questions really:
1) Are those two "Firmware bugs" anything to worry about at all. I'm not experiencing any problems with my system so I'm inclined to ignore them for now, but it would be good to know if I should sort them out somehow.
2) Does anyone have any tips on speeding up boot time? It is interesting that there is a 9 second gap shortly before the bugs are reported?

Thanks for any input.

1) This is a known Dell BIOS bug. It's up to Dell to sort it out with an updated BIOS however there are patches available for some kernels that will bypass the error. tpm_crb relates to what's called a trusted platform module (tpm). It's essentially an entropic random number generator used for encryption. I don't think it should be a concern because the error is saying "Hey! The BIOS said X but I calculated Y".

2) Sorry, I can't answer that. I don't do hybrid Intel/AMD video, and that's where at least part of your problem is.

[andyO]

Thanks for that catweazel, good to know the reported bug shouldn't be an issue.

[thx-1138]

Two questions really:
1) Are those two "Firmware bugs" anything to worry about at all. I'm not experiencing any problems with my system so I'm inclined to ignore them for now, but it would be good to know if I should sort them out somehow.
2) Does anyone have any tips on speeding up boot time? It is interesting that there is a 9 second gap shortly before the bugs are reported?

You can disable TPM in your BIOS: since you didn't knew about it, then you weren't using it in the first place (and chances are that you won't want to). It won't speed up boot time, but since this chip will be de-activated in the first place, it will save you some battery time in your Inspiron 5567. Do verify however afterwards that dmesg doesn't get spammed with numerous messages in regards to it, some kernels on occasion do so...