[SOLVED] Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

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Auerilas
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[SOLVED] Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by Auerilas »

Hi,
I wasn't sure what forum to post this in, so I went for Other Topics. I also had no idea what to title the post because I can only describe what happened, and I'm not 100% sure if all of these problems are related or if I stumbled across multiple unrelated issues. Anyway, here goes:

I was working on my laptop all day yesterday, everything was running flawlessly. I left the laptop on overnight, and I went to use it this morning and all of a sudden everything was crashing, software was frozen, etc. So I tried a hard reboot by toggling the power. When the computer rebooted, I got the errors:

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Jul 28 10:31:14 ralien kernel: [    0.040532] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged
Jul 28 10:31:14 ralien kernel: [    0.040533] mce: [Hardware Error]: CPU 0: Machine Check: 0 Bank 6: ee0000000040110a
Jul 28 10:31:14 ralien kernel: [    0.040538] mce: [Hardware Error]: TSC 0 ADDR fef1ff40 MISC 47880018086 
Jul 28 10:31:14 ralien kernel: [    0.040542] mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:806e9 TIME 1532795464 SOCKET 0 APIC 0 
and then the boot dropped into a Busy Book (initramfs) prompt. Following the instructions here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/137655/ ... ts-busybox, I typed exit and fsck found errors or /dev/sda2. I ran

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fsck /dev/sda2 -y
and it found and corrected some errors. I typed reboot, and the system rebooted, tossed our the hardware errors again, but then booted up just fine. I googled the hardware errors which might or might not be related to intel microcode issues. So I followed some other instructions and typed:

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dmesg | grep microcode
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x84, date = 2018-01-21
[    0.040380] mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:806e9 TIME 1532797760 SOCKET 0 APIC 0 microcode 84
[    0.040386] mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:806e9 TIME 1532797760 SOCKET 0 APIC 0 microcode 84
[    1.186360] microcode: sig=0x806e9, pf=0x80, revision=0x84
[    1.186474] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.
I then ran

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sudo apt-get install intel-microcode microcode-ctl
and found that my intel-microcode was up to date, but it did install microcode-ctl. I rebooted, the hardware errors didn't show up, and everything seems to be working fine. However, I still get

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dmesg | grep microcode
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x84, date = 2018-01-21
[    0.040380] mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:806e9 TIME 1532797760 SOCKET 0 APIC 0 microcode 84
[    0.040386] mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:806e9 TIME 1532797760 SOCKET 0 APIC 0 microcode 84
[    1.186360] microcode: sig=0x806e9, pf=0x80, revision=0x84
[    1.186474] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.
So the problem here is that I have no idea if the microcode issue was occurring before the crash, or if its related to the crash, or if the crash was fixed by fsck and I somehow found an unrelated microcode issue. Either way, if anyone has a guess as to what happened, or how to resolve the hardware errors, I'd appreciate it:

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inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: ralien Kernel: 4.15.0-29-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.8 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1)
           Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine:   Device: laptop System: Dell product: XPS 13 9360 serial: N/A
           Mobo: Dell model: 05JK94 v: A00 serial: N/A
           UEFI: Dell v: 1.2.3 date: 12/01/2016
Battery    BAT0: charge: 47.0 Wh 97.5% condition: 48.2/60.0 Wh (80%)
           model: LGC-LGC7.790 DELL RNP726C status: Discharging
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-7200U (-MT-MCP-) 
           arch: Kaby Lake rev.9 cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 10848
           clock speeds: max: 3100 MHz 1: 700 MHz 2: 700 MHz 3: 700 MHz
           4: 700 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel HD Graphics 620 bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 )
           drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@59.93hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 620 (Kaby Lake GT2)
           version: 4.5 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-29-generic
Network:   Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
           driver: ath10k_pci bus-ID: 3a:00.0
           IF: wlp58s0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Atheros usb-ID: 001-002
           IF: null-if-id state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 128.0GB (48.2% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA_THNSNK12 size: 128.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 117G used: 58G (53%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 34.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 208 Uptime: 12 min Memory: 2970.7/7859.2MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56 
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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thx-1138
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Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by thx-1138 »

...update properly your BIOS at some point, and, more importantly, don't hard reboot by toggling the power button...
Auerilas
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Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by Auerilas »

How do I update my BIOS? Runing Dell XPS 13. I looked into that at one point, but everything I read basically said "don't do that unless absolutely necessary!!" so I've avoided doing it so far.
DAMIEN1307

Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by DAMIEN1307 »

hi auerilas...i noticed that you were running this code...dmesg | grep microcode...and got something like this

damien@damien ~ $ dmesg | grep microcode
[ 0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x24, date = 2018-01-21
[ 0.776795] microcode: sig=0x306c3, pf=0x2, revision=0x24
[ 0.776844] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.
damien@damien ~ $

that appears normal to me...that is a normal dmseg message also on my system and no crashes on the system here...could you possibly run this code and paste here...dpkg -l | grep microcode...this will correctly show just what microcodes your system has, (and yes, it should show both the intel as well as the amd microcodes)...it should look something like this...could you post the results ?...once i see what microcode you are using, i can direct you to the same microcode im using because im also using the i5 core intell...as you can see below, im using 3.20180703.2...it works flawlessly...

damien@damien ~ $ dpkg -l | grep microcode
ii amd64-microcode 3.20180524.1~ubuntu0.18.04.1 amd64 Processor microcode firmware for AMD CPUs
ii intel-microcode 3.20180703.2 amd64 Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs
ii iucode-tool 2.3.1-1 amd64 Intel processor microcode tool
damien@damien ~ $

ps...the last update for bios i could find from dell for linus showed ubuntu versions 14.04...on LM 19 we are running bionic 18.04 so personally i would not try it...DAMIEN
Auerilas
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Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by Auerilas »

Hi Damien,

Appears we're running slightly different versions of the microcode:

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dpkg -l |grep microcode
ii  amd64-microcode                               3.20180524.1~ubuntu0.18.04.1        amd64        Processor microcode firmware for AMD CPUs
ii  intel-microcode                               3.20180425.1~ubuntu0.18.04.1        amd64        Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs
ii  iucode-tool                                   2.3.1-1                             amd64        Intel processor microcode tool
ii  microcode.ctl                                 1.18~0+nmu2                         amd64        Intel IA32/IA64 CPU Microcode Utility (transitional package)
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thx-1138
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Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by thx-1138 »

...Auerilas, this doesn't really have to do with the issue above,
but more in regards to the "do-not-update-the-BIOS" advice out there, that seems to be surviving even under...2018.
It really has to be one of the most ill-advised techno-phobia ever...probably a remnant from early/ mid-90s,
from people blindly following experimental diy overclocking guides that were popping up in the net back in the day.

Vendors release BIOS updates for a good reason (to fix performance & security-related bugs):
not because they didn't had anything better to do in their spare time.
Not to mention the even more obvious - that it costs them $ to make them & test them...
(they could simply ignore doing so after having sold the 'goods' to customers, no law is forcing them to provide further updates).

...even in the relatively rare case someone manages to have a totally b0rked bios update,
he / she could still reset such by using an external flasher.
Alternatively, any decent local repair computer shop could also do such for a few bucks.
The chances it gets b0rked that much badly that not even an external flasher 'fixes' it, are almost the equivalent of...
swimming & getting killed due to being hit by a thunder: yes, it happens every 2 blue moons,
and exactly due to it being rather extra-ordinary, you then see it in the 8 o'clock news...

Taking back-ups before doing such operations is nothing more or less than (the rather obvious) common sense...

...back to topic now: there is absolutely no 'guarantee' that updating the BIOS will solve the 'issue' above -
it's just a 'good practice' advice ('avoid running obsolete firmware if possible')...
Of course, an equally valid 'good practice' advice is 'if it ain't broken'...
(and the reason i don't really like telling people what they 'should' or 'should not' do - i usually only say what "I" would do).

For certain though, i'd recommend avoid hard rebooting - REISUB / REISUO were included in the kernel exactly for such reasons...
DAMIEN1307

Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by DAMIEN1307 »

click this url for oregon state university microcode repository...then scan down to entry dated 05-Jul-2018 17:35 for microcode 3.20180703.2 amd64 Processor microcode firmware (it will say amd64.deb but this is the INTEL microcode page)...just click on it and the normal LM installer will show up and allow it to be installed...just reboot and run that same code i gave you before and it should show this new version...do not use the later dated ones on that list since they are regressions...DAMIEN

http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/no ... microcode/
Auerilas
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Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by Auerilas »

Hi Damien,
Did as you suggested and still get the hardware errors:

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nate@ralien:~$ dpkg -l |grep microcode
ii  amd64-microcode                               3.20180524.1~ubuntu0.18.04.1        amd64        Processor microcode firmware for AMD CPUs
ii  intel-microcode                               3.20180703.2                        amd64        Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs
ii  iucode-tool                                   2.3.1-1                             amd64        Intel processor microcode tool
ii  microcode.ctl                                 1.18~0+nmu2                         amd64        Intel IA32/IA64 CPU Microcode Utility (transitional package)
nate@ralien:~$ dmesg | grep microcode
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x84, date = 2018-01-21
[    0.041558] mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:806e9 TIME 1532805643 SOCKET 0 APIC 0 microcode 84
[    0.041564] mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:806e9 TIME 1532805643 SOCKET 0 APIC 0 microcode 84
[    1.194264] microcode: sig=0x806e9, pf=0x80, revision=0x84
[    1.194421] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.
I think I'm going to give BIOS updating a try. There's a very new version of BIOS available at Intel, and this thread http://aptosid.com/index.php?name=PNphp ... pic&t=2993 and this one https://askubuntu.com/questions/914653/ ... new-laptop and this https://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthre ... ew-machine suggests that BIOS updating might resolve the issue.

Finger's crossed!
Auerilas
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Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by Auerilas »

thx nailed it. I was running a sorely outdated BIOS version: 1.2.3, which Dell doesn't even offer for download anymore. I terrifyingly flashed BIOS to 2.8.1, and the errors are gone:

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nate@ralien:~$ dmesg | grep microcode
[    1.267857] microcode: sig=0x806e9, pf=0x80, revision=0x8e
[    1.267944] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.
Everything appears to be up and running as expected! I have no idea if those errors were serious or not (didn't appear to be), but I prefer not to have my system throwing hardware errors at me, so I'm glad I did it.

Thanks for your help and suggestions, to both of you!
DAMIEN1307

Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by DAMIEN1307 »

yeaaaah...its great to see a problem resolved...and yes, thx nailed it...lol...DAMIEN
mmm1

Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by mmm1 »

thx-1138 wrote: Sat Jul 28, 2018 1:53 pm ...update properly your BIOS at some point, and, more importantly, don't hard reboot by toggling the power button...
Why is it so sensitive? One crash an it goes straight to hell initframs.
Just some example. Premieval motherboard A780L. Used Nadia and Lubuntu fork for some time and recently installed 18.3 on SSD drive. Poor thing don't hold a week without falling to initframs and this is without hard reboots . It's okay, easy enough to fix, right? But at some point it somehow managed totally screw up where regular means to recovery don't work. At that time Mint 19 released. Great, time to check it. Totally fresh install on SSD, it worked for two weeks. Another matter is problems with samba but this is another story. Only 2 times it fallen to initframs in 10 days. But today only firefox was active and suddenly it crashed, nothing else responds. Quite similar symptoms. Luckily shutdown button worked. And it rebooted straight to initframs. Usual drilll, loading from usb stick with 19, fsck and reboot. And it show
"error: unknown filesystem.
Entering rescue mode..."
This is over the top. Loaded from old trusty lubuntu which never had such shit as mint with humpty dumpty cosplay.
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Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by bjmh46 »

thx-1138 wrote: Sat Jul 28, 2018 1:53 pm ...update properly your BIOS at some point, and, more importantly, don't hard reboot by toggling the power button...
What are you supposed to do with a total lockup--no mouse, no keyboard--no way to input anything?
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Re: Linux Mint 19 Crash, then Hardware Errors/Boot Error (Busy Box), then Microcode Error

Post by mint4all »

bjmh46 wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 10:36 am
thx-1138 wrote: Sat Jul 28, 2018 1:53 pm ...update properly your BIOS at some point, and, more importantly, don't hard reboot by toggling the power button...
What are you supposed to do with a total lockup--no mouse, no keyboard--no way to input anything?
Greetings! Though somewhat off this topic, but relevant to your question: remove the power plug/cord, allow the power supply to completely discharge 5-10 minutes, then reconnect & power up. If it boots to a BSD, repeat those steps, but then boot into the BIOS/Setup screen instead, save the setup (even without any changes) then boot from the BIOS into your hard drive's boot loader.

I have in my family 3 ancient PCs (2 Compaq & 1 HP, all single-core Athlon 2800, ca. 2004-2005) that occasionally freeze up for no discernible reasons. The above steps are the only way to get those dinosaurs running again ... Good luck!
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