[Nouveau] System freeze: Debian Testing with C61 [GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a]

[Ilia Mirkin]

On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 5:03 AM riveravaldez <riveravaldezmail at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 12/11/18, Ilia Mirkin <imirkin at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> > On Tue, Dec 11, 2018 at 11:16 AM riveravaldez
> > <riveravaldezmail at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> The freezes appears randomly, in every situation, and not when I
> >> launch some 3D applications or anything similar.
> >
> > Try removing nouveau_dri.so -- that will ensure no 3d accel is used,
> > while keeping your 2d accel provided by the nouveau ddx.
>
> Sorry if it's wrong to continue this old thread, but after a good
> amount of testing (+1 year) I can confirm that both the problem and
> the solution where the mentioned ones.
>
> The problem (random full-system freezes) persists without change,
> identical. And removing nouveau_dri.so from
> /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/ effectively fixes it completely
> (leaving aside any lost of performance and some warning messages in
> system upgrades and programs launching[1]).
>
> So, after a GREAT thank-you to Ilia, I consult:
>
> 1. Is this something that could be fixed? Can I do anything to help?
>
> 2. If the only possible/viable solution is the mentioned one (remove
> nouveau_dri.so), which would be the proper way to make it permanent?
>
> 2'. In many dist-upgrades the nouveau_dri.so file is re-created in the
> same folder, what would be a clean/neat way to handle this?
>
> Thanks A LOT again.
>
> [1] A lot of lines like these on some dist-upgrades:
>
> W: Possible missing firmware
> /lib/firmware/nvidia/gp100/gr/sw_method_init.bin for module nouveau
> W: Possible missing firmware
> /lib/firmware/nvidia/gp100/gr/sw_bundle_init.bin for module nouveau
> W: Possible missing firmware
> /lib/firmware/nvidia/gp100/gr/sw_nonctx.bin for module nouveau
> (...)

Sounds like your initramfs builder tries to include these but they're
not available on your filesystem. As long as you're not plugging a
Pascal GPU into your system, you're fine.

>
> And a lot of programs producing messages like these on start:
>
> libGL error: unable to load driver: nouveau_dri.so
> libGL error: driver pointer missing
> libGL error: failed to load driver: nouveau

Hmmmm annoying. I hadn't considered that. I could add an option to the
DDX which makes the default driver "swrast" or something. I also
wonder if just not loading the "glx" and "dri2" X modules would be
sufficient to get rid of these.

You can also stick LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 into your /etc/environment
(or whatever location causes that env var to appear everywhere) which
will force it to use swrast. (With the added benefit of being able to
unset it for the programs where you really do want 3d accel.)

As for a more permanent fix, one could invest developer attention to
the nv30 gallium driver, but that one would first have to be located.
I'd be happy to provide some limited mentoring in such a case.

Cheers,

  -ilia