XPS 13 / Ubuntu 15.04 Freezes with Caps Lock Blnking

CAPS LOCK blinking is an indicator that the Linux kernel has entered "panicked" mode.  I have read elsewhere that there seems to be a problem with the latest Intel chipset drivers that have been causing kernel panics on other people's systems as well.  I can't be sure that this is the same root cause, but it makes sense.

Do you have a source for this? I don't doubt it.

I just saw my first kernel panic running ubuntu with 3.19.0-18 and A04. I'm thinking about compiling 3.19.0-18 with the USB serial console enabled as per  wiki.ubuntu.com/.../KernelDebuggingTricks

I wanted to give a positive followup to my own experiences with multiple daily kernel panics on this machine.

I took the plunge and went from kernel 3.19.0-15 on 15.04 to kernel 4.1-rc5.

I had to recompile the kernel with a patched broadcom wifi driver in order to get wifi to work.  I used links found here to get this working: forthescience.org/.../installing_ubuntu_14_04_on_the_new_dell_xps_13

Everything else functions correctly (touchpad, sound, keyboard, etc).

I have not had a single kernel panic in the 3 days that I've been on 4.1-rc5.  I wish I could provide more technical information to support why this is working, but these are my experiences so far.

JR

Per this post

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/os-applications/f/4613/t/19634054

I blacklisted kernel modules mei and mei_me and added the suggested kernel option by modifying this line in /etc/default/grub (then ran update-grub)

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i915.enable_ips=0"

and I am 99.9% sure my kernel panics are fixed.

It used to panic maybe 1/3 of the time I would put it to sleep, and today I put it to sleep many times to test and it never panicked once. It also fixed the flickering video during startup and shutdown.

I blacklisted kernel modules mei and mei_me

Thanks! I have suspended/resumed a least a dozen times today and I haven't seen a kernel panic since blacklisting mei and mei_me. I will report back if I do.

I had a kernel panic going into sleep (suspend) mode earlier today even though I have mei and mei_me blacklisted. However, it only happens ~5% of the time which makes it hard to reproduce for debugging.

Were you by chance changing anything with regards to your wireless card? I went for a couple of days without a panic, and yesterday had 3 in a row. I was setting a manual IP address on my wireless interface and also changing SSID's. Once I stopped messing with the wireless card settings, the panics stopped.

Good point - I was pondering the same thing. It's hard to tell whether crashes on wake from suspend are due to waking from suspend, or from wireless (perhaps the  Broadcom driver) because when it wakes, it immediately re-connects to wireless.

I have exactly the same issue, but running Kubuntu 15.04, kernel 3.19.0-18-generic.  I notice it in the exact same scenarios.  It seems to me that the changing wireless problem is even worse than for suspend.

+1 same problem with Ubuntu 15.04 (3.19.0-18-generic kernel) here. Still A03 bios.

And the screen goes completely blank randomly.

Great info - thanks. Looks like a C pointer bug with a 2-line fix.

Two questions:

1. When will this fix be applied to the PPA so we all get it in the next update?

2. How to apply this fix (build & install the broadcom driver locally)?

(Disclaimer, I'm no expert, not sure this is right)

So I kind of followed the instructions here:

bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php;p=5

I added the patch (http://pastebin.com/pATazP6K) to /usr/src/bcmwl-6.30.223.248+bdcom/patches/1234-crash.patch -- careful not to convert the tabs to spaces.

Then I edited /usr/src/bcmwl-6.30.223.248+bdcom/dkms.conf by adding the line:

    PATCH[9]="1234-crash.patch"    

And I removed/build/installed (using dkms) and I assume I got the patched module.

    $ sudo dkms remove bcmwl/"6.30.223.248+bdcom" --all

    $ sudo dkms build -m bcmwl -v "6.30.223.248+bdcom"

    $ sudo dkms install -m bcmwl -v "6.30.223.248+bdcom"

But no luck ... I did that yesterday, and today I already got a kernel panic (which with me often comes together with a sudden blank screen, so it may be something different?).

     $ uname -a

    Linux bit 3.19.0-18-generic #18-Ubuntu SMP Tue May 19 18:31:35 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Quite frustrating ... I wish I could return the laptop, I've lost too much time on it already to get these things running (both on windows and on ubuntu, neither works quite right), and I still got a laptop that occasionally crashes :(

<< Quite frustrating ... I wish I could return the laptop, I've lost too much time on it already to get these things running (both on windows and on ubuntu, neither works quite right), and I still got a laptop that occasionally crashes >>

My Intel wireless card is on its way. From what I read, this may be the solution. Everything else on my XPS-13 is working fine and I do like this machine. So if I can fix the occasional wireless glitches it would be great. I'll report back after it's installed.

Agreed with you, other than the crashes I like the machine.

The problem is that I'm also having occasional video breaks:

en.community.dell.com/.../20772290

and

https://bugs.launchpad.net/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/1432194

And bluetooth doesn't work ... :(

I got BT working by downloading the Windows driver, extracting firmware from it, and installing it. I found the instructions here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/533043/bluetooth-not-working-on-ubuntu-14-04-with-dell-inspiron-15-3521

After I replace the Broadcom card with the Intel, I won't need this hack, nor the Broadcom driver patch, and it should work better. The Intel is the card Dell should have installed in all the Ubuntu versions of the XPS-13.