[Nouveau] problems with NVS310

[Alberto Sentieri]

I have a Nvidia NVS310 installed in my Linux computer for a few years. 
It works well with the Nvidia driver, and not so well with the Linux 
nouveau driver. The Nvidia NVS310 has never worked well with Linux. In 
the beginning (many years ago) I decided to install Nvidia proprietary 
drivers, but every kernel upgrade would require an additional effort to 
have the driver working. That was enough for me to try the standard 
non-proprietary driver again.

Lately, with Debian stretch (and Mate), things got sort of stable with 
the nouveau driver, and I was getting one frozen screen every few 
months, which was kind of acceptable. A couple of weeks ago I upgrade to 
Debian buster (GNOME3) and the nightmare is back: I get a frozen screen 
at leas once a day. A simple F11 pressed on Firefox could cause the 
freeze, but there other things, which I could not determine, that also 
cause the freeze. The freeze is only a graphic freeze, I mean, I can ssh 
into the machine from my laptop, stop all services and shut it down, or 
restart it. But I could not figure out a way of restarting the video 
without a reboot. And every freeze usually means losing something, and 
losing many minutes.

Any suggestions?

Here is dmesg in one of the freezes:

[23664.639186] WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 7223 at 
drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/include/nvkm/subdev/i2c.h:172 
init_rdauxr+0xf4/0x130 [nouveau]
[23664.639187] Modules linked in: nfnetlink cfg80211 fuse rfcomm arc4 
md4 sha512_ssse3 sha512_generic nls_utf8 cifs ccm dns_resolver fscache 
8021q garp mrp bridge stp llc vboxnetadp(OE) vboxnetflt(OE) vboxdrv(OE) 
cmac bnep intel_rapl snd_hda_codec_hdmi btusb btrtl btbcm 
x86_pkg_temp_thermal btintel intel_powerclamp bluetooth nls_ascii 
nls_cp437 coretemp vfat fat kvm_intel jitterentropy_rng kvm 
snd_hda_codec_realtek snd_hda_codec_generic drbg irqbypass 
crct10dif_pclmul ansi_cprng crc32_pclmul snd_hda_intel 
ghash_clmulni_intel joydev ecdh_generic snd_hda_codec intel_cstate 
snd_hda_core efi_pstore snd_hwdep snd_pcm eeepc_wmi asus_wmi snd_timer 
intel_uncore mei_me pcc_cpufreq snd sparse_keymap iTCO_wdt mei 
intel_rapl_perf rfkill efivars wmi_bmof pcspkr soundcore sg 
iTCO_vendor_support evdev firewire_sbp2
[23664.639207]  parport_pc ppdev lp parport efivarfs ip_tables x_tables 
autofs4 ext4 crc16 mbcache jbd2 crc32c_generic fscrypto ecb 
hid_logitech_hidpp hid_logitech_dj hid_generic usbhid hid sr_mod cdrom 
sd_mod nouveau crc32c_intel video i2c_algo_bit mxm_wmi xhci_pci ttm ahci 
xhci_hcd libahci drm_kms_helper ehci_pci aesni_intel ehci_hcd libata 
aes_x86_64 drm crypto_simd usbcore cryptd e1000e glue_helper scsi_mod 
firewire_ohci i2c_i801 firewire_core lpc_ich mfd_core crc_itu_t 
usb_common wmi button
[23664.639224] CPU: 3 PID: 7223 Comm: kworker/u24:1 Tainted: G           
OE     4.19.0-8-amd64 #1 Debian 4.19.98-1+deb10u1
[23664.639225] Hardware name: System manufacturer System Product 
Name/P9X79, BIOS 4502 10/15/2013
[23664.639254] Workqueue: nvkm-disp gf119_disp_super [nouveau]
[23664.639275] RIP: 0010:init_rdauxr+0xf4/0x130 [nouveau]
[23664.639276] Code: e1 48 89 ef ba 09 00 00 00 be 01 00 00 00 e8 e3 9c 
03 00 85 c0 75 27 80 7c 24 0f 01 74 0e 48 c7 c7 10 bf 8e c0 e8 7a b9 b8 
dc <0f> 0b 48 89 ef e8 12 9a 03 00 0f b6 44 24 0e e9 39 ff ff ff 48 89
[23664.639277] RSP: 0018:ffffa53483adfc08 EFLAGS: 00010246
[23664.639279] RAX: 0000000000000024 RBX: ffffa53483adfc90 RCX: 
0000000000000000
[23664.639280] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffff9a2bff8d66b8 RDI: 
ffff9a2bff8d66b8
[23664.639281] RBP: ffff9a2bfb86e800 R08: 0000000000000571 R09: 
0000000000000007
[23664.639282] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: ffffffff9e7f46ed R12: 
0000000000000102
[23664.639283] R13: ffff9a2bfbbb3b00 R14: 0000000000000020 R15: 
00000000000000df
[23664.639284] FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff9a2bff8c0000(0000) 
knlGS:0000000000000000
[23664.639285] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[23664.639286] CR2: 00007f9acaa452c4 CR3: 0000000633e0a002 CR4: 
00000000000606e0
[23664.639287] Call Trace:
[23664.639310]  init_auxch+0xf6/0x180 [nouveau]
[23664.639331]  nvbios_exec+0x45/0xd0 [nouveau]
[23664.639359]  nvkm_dp_train_init+0x12e/0x170 [nouveau]
[23664.639386]  nvkm_dp_acquire+0x1a6/0xcb0 [nouveau]
[23664.639390]  ? update_blocked_averages+0x77b/0x950
[23664.639394]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x41/0x70
[23664.639395]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x41/0x70
[23664.639397]  ? syscall_return_via_sysret+0x14/0x83
[23664.639399]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x35/0x70
[23664.639400]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x41/0x70
[23664.639402]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x35/0x70
[23664.639404]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x41/0x70
[23664.639405]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x35/0x70
[23664.639407]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x41/0x70
[23664.639409]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x35/0x70
[23664.639410]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x41/0x70
[23664.639412]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x35/0x70
[23664.639414]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x41/0x70
[23664.639440]  nv50_disp_super_2_2+0x70/0x4a0 [nouveau]
[23664.639443]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x35/0x70
[23664.639444]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x41/0x70
[23664.639446]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x35/0x70
[23664.639448]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x41/0x70
[23664.639449]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x35/0x70
[23664.639451]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x41/0x70
[23664.639477]  gf119_disp_super+0x17e/0x2d0 [nouveau]
[23664.639480]  process_one_work+0x1a7/0x3a0
[23664.639482]  worker_thread+0x30/0x390
[23664.639484]  ? create_worker+0x1a0/0x1a0
[23664.639486]  kthread+0x112/0x130
[23664.639487]  ? kthread_bind+0x30/0x30
[23664.639489]  ret_from_fork+0x35/0x40
[23664.639491] ---[ end trace 4492926f317372bc ]---