[solved] GPU hangs when using OpenOffice/LibreOffice Writer

[bluesapphire]

Hi,

I've experienced a strange issue since yesterday that is the most annoying thing that ever happened to me on linux. When I open a document in libreoffice-bin or openoffice-bin and type something, the GPU hangs after some time varying between a few seconds (especially openoffice-bin) and 30 minutes.

The error message is

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

bluesapphire, i am sure that you can find out more here in the forum if you post the output to either or both of

[Ant P.]

[bluesapphire]

Thank you very much for your reply.

emerge --info

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

bluesapphire, if you have the lspci tool installed already, please print the output to the following, and if you like add some -v -vv or even -vvv if you can manage a way to show it:

[bluesapphire]

Thank you, here is the output of lspci -vv | grep -i VGA:

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

My mistake, what i meant to request was two commands consecutively but since i did not say that you gave the first one only, here is what you will need to post next (sorry for the hassle, what i want to know is the driver in use for your hd 570 intel graphics card)

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

Also since there is no definitive evidence yet of VGA controller being an issue, I would recommend following advise of another forum member here to capture the log at the time of the hang (using a script if necessary to do the job).

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

And just as another way of doing something of a final check to make sure that the configuration setting for X.org is probably already but should be according to the manual for Gen4+ video cards (again i'm referring to this as the likely cause:

[bluesapphire]

Thank you, I tried to use "lspci -d 00:02 -v" with one, two, three, four and none "v" but there is no output.

Does lshw help in this case (I've just searched for another way to find out the driver and it says driver=i915)?

lshw -class display

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

Based on the specific driver in use, and the information within the link that was previously posted from the wiki (about intel driver), be sure to check if xf86-video-intel package is installed. I have already seen another issue (from just today) that was fixed simply with the addition of this package. Wouldn't be surprised if it was the case again!

[dmpogo]

In video drivers 'intel' tells to use x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel driver while 'i965' tells to use new kernel modesetting driver and requires 'glamour' (openGL based 2D accelration) to be compiled for in xorg-server. If both are defined, i965 takes precedence.

[dmpogo]

BTW, what kernel are you using ? On my thinkpad X1 carbon I see GPU hangs on resume from hibernation with 4.9.34 but not with 4.9.16

[bluesapphire]

Thank you all so much for your replies, it seems like installing xf86-video-intel and putting the following into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ has solved the issue (probably installing xf86-video-intel would have been enough, but I did not have the patience to test it separately).

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

Just to be clear, bluesapphire is the problem still happening for you? I know what writers block can feel like, my best guess is that it is majorly in need of an outdoor activity for inspiring awe.

[bluesapphire]

It really disappeared, I had finally enough time to test it for a few more hours yesterday Thank you very much for your help, I never would have thought I had to install xf86-video-intel.

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

Glad it did. I am a bit curious, why if your portage variable was set correctly then it wasn't already pulling in...but at least you found a fix. If you want to mark it as solved, that would be great. And then also be sure to identify the generation of chip being used for you Intel HD Graphics 520 and whether or not there is further compatibility with the newer driver called Modesetting DDX, but also requires some kernel configuring.

Have you given that a try?

[bluesapphire]

With kernel 4.12.5 the GPU hangs seem to have completely vanished, even with the modesetting driver. Additionally, abiword does not flicker anymore

Furthermore, I've realized now that the issue really was the modesetting driver in kernel 4.9.16 and 4.9.34: In my first post, I did not have any file for the graphic card in /etc/X11/xorg.conf/, therefore (as dmpogo pointed out) the modesetting driver was used. Then, I installed x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel and put a config file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf/ for the intel driver, and the GPU hangs disappeared because the intel driver was used. When I changed "intel" to "modesetting" in the config file, the issue was there again.