I have a Ryzen 3 1300X at the moment and it's always had this soft lock freezing bug on Linux. I used to dual-boot Windows on this machine and Windows never had the same problem, so I think it is an issue with the Linux kernel (I've also replaced nearly every bit of hardware that I originally built the PC with, except for the CPU and motherboard, so it probably is an issue the kernel has with my CPU, or possibly the motherboard firmware).
I've changed the kernel parameters as suggested by the Arch Wiki. The bug is pretty inconsistent about happening so only time will tell if this solves the issue. But if it doesn't solve the issue, I'd honestly consider just getting a new CPU that doesn't have this issue, as completely freezing up, unable to get to a tty or anything, and only being able to power off by physically holding down the power button, is a pretty major issue, even if it only happens sometimes.
So if I do get a new CPU, or maybe just for when I'm next buying a CPU for reasons unrelated to this bug (been considering an upgrade to something that's better for compiling anyway), are there any good options out there? Intel is investing $25 billion into Israel and the BNC has called for "divestment and exclusion" from it (it's not officially on the BDS consumer boycott list, but I'm still very much not comfortable buying from Intel). But the Arch Wiki article seems to suggest this bug is applicable to Ryzen CPUs in general, or at least it never specifies a particular model or range of models. So maybe I'm limited to non-Ryzen AMD CPUs?
I'm guessing this is one of the situations where two companies have a complete duopoly over the market and there isn't an all-round good solution, but thought I'd ask in case anyone had some useful input.
Well, that brings to light why I had an issue with my 3900x. Couldn't find it on google to save my life, but then it shows up randomly here, lol.
If it means anything, my 7800x3D doesn't have that bug. I've been using it now for about 3 months without issue. So maybe the rest of the 7000 series is good to go?
EDIT: I'd also like to mention that I'm heavily biased against Intel processors for that long line of severe security issues that they had on their processors a few years ago. I don't trust them at all.
Ah, that sounds a bit unfortunate. I've run AMD CPUs on Linux desktops with Bulldozer / Piledriver / Ryzen 7, my current laptop is a Ryzen 7 as well, never run into that at all. Hopefully the Arch wiki will sort you out. If not that, the third option would be 'install Linux on an M-series Mac' - don't know how feasible it is at the moment, and paying the 'Mac premium for hardware and software integration and then overwriting the software' doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I've never had any issues with Ryzen, but I never had first gen. If you don't want Ryzen, and Intel is unethical, maybe you could try a Epyc /s?
Buying used Intel stuff might also be an option. No more money would go to Intel, and using used stuff is good on the e-waste front.
I never managed to fix this bug with my first gen Ryzens. Worth upgrading to something newer for sure.
Ah. I'm getting this answer a lot actually. I might try a newer Ryzen then if a lot of people are saying the newer Ryzens work
Here I was hoping we would get a breakdown on the companies making ARM processors ... Still an informative comments section.
Get another AMD chip, you've just been unlucky. I've had AMD running Linux for 5 years with no issues.
I have this same bug on the same platform! It was infuriating to track down. I was able to get around this by disabling c-states in the bios. I've heard that updating your aesga firmware also helps, but I can not confirm that.
RK3588 is used in many Linux devices, but I'm not sure if Rockchip is in the BDS list. I don't know which factory was RK3588 from.
What motherboard do you have? Also what happens exactly when the lock-ups happen? Have you ever been playing audio when the lock-ups happen and does it loop or stop or keep playing?
I recently had to "fix" (workaround) a similar issue in the OpenBSD kernel with a specific hardware peripheral on my PC (running a 2nd-gen Ryzen), the High Definition Audio controller. For whatever reason (and only when I was running OpenBSD) interrupts from the HDA controller (to let the CPU know to refill audio buffers) would just randomly stop making it to the CPU and audio would loop for a few seconds and then shut off. I spent a long time trying to figure out what causes it and reading Linux driver code but I couldn't find a cause or why only OpenBSD would trigger it. I ended up having to write kind of a hacky polling mode into the HDA driver. My only guess is some of these AMD-chipset-having motherboards have faulty interrupt controllers.
Maybe there is a similar issue with your system and timer interrupts aren't making it to your CPU or something. But I'm not really an expert on PC architecture and idek if it even works like that on PCs lol
Sorry for so many questions but do you also have any kernel logs available from when this happens?
Also what happens exactly when the lock-ups happen?
Screen is frozen, doesn't respond to keyboard or mouse input, including unable to switch to a tty or kill the graphical session (I have a keybind to exit my Wayland compositor, which I launch from the tty, so when I use the keybind it sends me to the tty—that is, if my computer isn't locked up lol).
I don't remember if this has ever happened with audio playing, idk what happens to audio if it happens with audio playing.
I think I did post kernel logs to a forum way back in the day when I first got this PC and started having this issue, to no avail—at this point I'd rather just get a new CPU and save the headache and stress, especially since this is a known issue with Ryzens
I see. Our motherboards have different chipsets (I have an X570 in mine). It probably has nothing to do with my issue...
Hoping those kernel parameters fix it. I wish I could help further. PCs are just a bottomless, mostly undocumented rabbithole :(
Afraid the kernel params didn't fix it. Have invested in a newer Ryzen cpu as people are saying that the first gen ones were particularly buggy so I'm hoping it's fixed in the newer ones.
I heard that Linux gets new patches for Loongson, but I didn't try it yet.
Buy Intel used so that you're not directly contributing?
Other than that or AMD, your only other option is ARM.
