When trying to boot the latest stable Live ISO of Debian 13 GNOME (debian-live-13.1.0-amd64-gnome.iso) it gets stuck at the "Loading Initramfs (...)". The same issue occurs when upgrading from Debian 12 to 13. The device is an ASUS ExpertBook B1 with Intel i5-1235U (B1502CBA- BQ2057X). Here is the output of inxi -Fzxx (fingerprint scanner is missing for some reason): ------------------------------------------------ System: Kernel: 6.1.0-30-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0 Desktop: GNOME v: 43.9 tk: GTK v: 3.24.38 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM3 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) Machine: Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: ASUS EXPERTBOOK B1502CBA_B1502CBA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> Mobo: ASUSTeK model: B1502CBA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: B1502CBA.310 date: 11/28/2024 Battery: ID-1: BAT0 charge: 20.2 Wh (47.9%) condition: 42.2/41.9 Wh (100.7%) volts: 11.0 min: 11.8 model: X421-35 serial: N/A status: discharging CPU: Info: 10-core model: 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1235U bits: 64 type: MCP smt: disabled arch: Alder Lake rev: 4 cache: L1: 928 KiB L2: 6.5 MiB L3: 12 MiB Speed (MHz): avg: 400 min/max: 400/4400:3300 cores: 1: 400 2: 400 3: 400 4: 400 5: 400 6: 400 7: 400 8: 400 9: 400 10: 400 bogomips: 49920 Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx Graphics: Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-UP3 GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-12.2 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP- 1, DP-2, DP-3, DP-4, HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:46a8 Device-2: IMC Networks USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-7:3 chip-ID: 13d3:5463 Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 compositor: gnome-shell driver: gpu: i915 display-ID: 0 Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display 0x09cc res: 1920x1080 dpi: 142 diag: 395mm (15.5") API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (ADL GT2) direct-render: Yes Audio: Device-1: Intel Alder Lake PCH-P High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:51c8 API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-30-amd64 status: kernel-api Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.65 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin Network: Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-P PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:51f0 IF: wlo1 state: down mac: <filter> Device-2: Intel Ethernet I219-V driver: e1000e v: kernel port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:1a1f IF: eno2 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> Bluetooth: Device-1: Intel AX201 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-10:4 chip-ID: 8087:0026 Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.2 sub-v: 356b Drives: Local Storage: total: 477.88 GiB used: 9.91 GiB (2.1%) ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Micron model: 2400 MTFDKBA512QFM size: 476.94 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> temp: 26.9 C Partition: ID-1: / size: 468.09 GiB used: 9.91 GiB (2.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 5.8 MiB (2.0%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 Swap: Alert: No swap data was found. Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 28.0 C mobo: N/A Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A Info: Processes: 256 Uptime: 9m Memory: 15.25 GiB used: 1.51 GiB (9.9%) Init: systemd v: 252 target: graphical (5) default: graphical Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12 Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2336 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.15 running-in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.3.26 ------------------------------------------------ The same issue occurs with Fedora 42 so I narrowed the regression down to the following kernel versions: Last known working kernel version: 6.2.9 First known not working kernel version: 6.3.7
Hi, is this with quiet option enabled, and if so can you remove it, do we get more information? As I understand, you would be in easy position to build own kernels? Can you bisec the changes between 6.2. and 6.3.7 to identify whe breaking commit and report back? Regards, Salvatore
Unfortunately I am not very skilled in this and I figured these versions out by finding bootable ISOs with named kernel versions. To be precise I used the following: Last known working Fedora 38 Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-38-1.6.iso https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/releases/38/Workstation/x86_64/iso/Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-38-1.6.iso kernel.x86_64 6.2.9-300.fc38 First known not working Clonezilla live 3.1.1-6 https://free.nchc.org.tw/clonezilla-live/old/3.1.1-6/clonezilla-live-3.1.1-6-amd64.iso Kernel 6.3.7-1 https://clonezilla.org/downloads/stable/changelog.php
I have the same device with Intel i5-1235U, but the model is B1402CBA. Before the bios update it work fine with Debian 12 and 13. After updating bios from 305 to 312 (SHA-256 ：59A1598FF1B2CF515BB19C9AF6F5EFC024BC9DC3955523779D896E49EECE8875 https://www.asus.com/wa/supportonly/b1402cba/helpdesk_bios/) Debian 13 with kernel 6.12.43-1 does not boot - the laptop gets stuck after GRUB messages "loading kernel, loading initramfs". Debian 12 with 6.1 kernel still works fine. I have already write about this issue to ASUS support.
I built Debian packages with kernels from https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/tag/?h=v6.3.1. The v6.3.1 tag boots correctly. With the v6.3.7 tag it still does not hang after “loading initramfs,” but the output (debug information or whatever—ACPI and PCI device info, etc.) becomes garbled. The garbling occurs as follows: many lines are printed, some lines overwrite previously printed ones, then the output continues only on the first line while the other lines are “frozen.” Later on 6.3.7 i'm booted into recovery mode (grub menu entry) and reached the cryptsetup password prompt. I entered the correct password, but nothing was displayed afterward and the boot did not proceed. Later I’ll try to determine exactly which tag causes the boot failure. However, the behavior between 6.3.1 and 6.3.7 is different then first message about this bug: with 6.3.7 it at least reaches the cryptsetup password prompt, whereas with the 6.12 kernel it hangs completely after “loading initramfs.”
I built and installed kernels 6.12.1, 6.12.43, 6.12.48, and 6.11.11 — Debian booted correctly on all of them. Then I rebuilt kernel 6.12.43 using the Debian kernel config taken from /boot of the kernel from Debian repos, and Debian failed to boot with exactly the same symptoms as the original kernel. That means the problem is in the Debian kernel config. I’m attaching a git repository with the kernel configs: https://codeberg.org/johndoe9232/debian-bug-1114695. I can’t promise, but if I have time I’ll try to find the config option that causes the boot hang. If it's important, without "quiet" option I only saw "EFI stub: Loaded initrd from LINUX_EFI_INITRD_MEDIA_GUID device path" message.
the kernel option ibt=off in GRUB; when using ibt=off the system boots successfully.
So is this a kernel or UEFI issue? If it’s a kernel issue, should it be reported upstream?
Control: tag -1 moreinfo A different user reported the same problem with an almost identical device. Please verify if "ibt=off" on the kernel command line makes it possible to boot. Bastian
Confirming that ibt=off makes the Live ISO of Debian 13 GNOME (debian- live-13.0.0-amd64-gnome.iso) boot.
Thanks. This makes it a firmware issue. In https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1114695#30 it was reported that version 305 of the firmware works, but 312 fails. Bastian
When I wrote to ASUS support in my country, they replied that they do not support Linux and closed the ticket. Perhaps someone else should contact support, as they might be more responsive in another country. reported that version 305 of the firmware works, but 312 fails. Is it possible that the problem is not in the firmware but in the kernel code? For example, if firmware version 305 had Indirect Branch Tracking disabled and version 312 enabled it, could that have exposed a kernel bug that causes the system to hang at boot?