Bug#1051367: regression: powersave screen blank causes system freeze after upgrade to Debian 12

[Marcin Owsiany]

Package: gnome
Version: 1:43+1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

After upgrading from Debian 11 to Debian 12, my system freezes hard at
the moment GNOME blanks the screen (the second setting in power saving
options in GNOME settings). Sometimes, additionally, after 10-15 more
seconds - the system hard reboots. Otherwise, I need to powercycle
manually. Either way, there is no clean shutdown.

This happens on AC power, and I confirmed this is the screen blanking,
and NOT suspend that causes this.

I also confirmed that if I switch to a text VT and leave the system
idle, the freeze does not happen.

I tried running `journalctl --follow` through an SSH connection to this
machine, but nothing appears before the connection freezes.

The system information about the computer that suffers from this problem
is below. Another laptop that I have (different hardware) running the
same software, does not exhibit this issue.

I'd be happy to try and isolate/debug this issue further, but I don't
know where to start. Hints most welcome.

regards,
Marcin

-- System Information:
Lenovo laptop: "ideapad FLEX 5-1570"
Graphics: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-8250U × 8
Using GNOME with Wayland

Debian Release: 12.1
APT prefers stable-security
APT policy: (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable-debug'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-11-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=pl_PL.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=pl_PL.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages gnome depends on:
ii avahi-daemon 0.8-10
ii cheese 43.0-1
ii cups-pk-helper 0.2.6-1+b1
ii desktop-base 12.0.6+nmu1~deb12u1
ii evolution 3.46.4-2
ii evolution-plugins 3.46.4-2
ii file-roller 43.0-1
ii gnome-calendar 43.1-2
ii gnome-clocks 43.0-1
ii gnome-color-manager 3.36.0-1+b1
ii gnome-core 1:43+1
ii gnome-maps 43.5-2~deb12u1
ii gnome-music 42.1-1
ii gnome-sound-recorder 43~beta-1
ii gnome-tweaks 42~beta-4
ii gnome-weather 43.0-1
ii gstreamer1.0-libav 1.22.0-2
ii gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly 1.22.0-2+deb12u1
ii libgsf-bin 1.14.50-1
ii libproxy1-plugin-networkmanager 0.4.18-1.2
ii libreoffice-calc 4:7.4.7-1
ii libreoffice-gnome 4:7.4.7-1
ii libreoffice-impress 4:7.4.7-1
ii libreoffice-writer 4:7.4.7-1
ii network-manager-gnome 1.30.0-2
ii orca 43.1-1
ii rhythmbox 3.4.6-2+b1
ii rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder 3.4.6-2+b1
ii rhythmbox-plugins 3.4.6-2+b1
ii rygel-playbin 0.42.1-1
ii rygel-tracker 0.42.1-1
ii seahorse 43.0-1
ii shotwell 0.30.17-1+b1
ii simple-scan 42.5-2
ii totem-plugins 43.0-2
ii xdg-user-dirs-gtk 0.11-1

Versions of packages gnome recommends:
ii gnome-games 1:43+1
ii gnome-initial-setup 43.2-6
ii gnome-remote-desktop 43.3-1
ii transmission-gtk 3.00-2.1+b1

Versions of packages gnome suggests:
pn alacarte <none>
pn empathy <none>
pn firefox-esr-l10n-all | firefox-l10n-all <none>
pn goobox | sound-juicer <none>
pn polari <none>
ii vinagre 3.22.0-8.1
pn webext-ublock-origin-firefox | webext-ublock-origin-chromium <none>

Versions of packages gnome-core depends on:
ii adwaita-icon-theme 43-1
ii at-spi2-core 2.46.0-5
ii baobab 43.0-1
ii dconf-cli 0.40.0-4
ii dconf-gsettings-backend 0.40.0-4
ii eog 43.2-1
ii evince 43.1-2+b1
ii evolution-data-server 3.46.4-2
ii fonts-cantarell 0.303.1-1
ii gdm3 43.0-3
ii gkbd-capplet 3.28.1-1
ii glib-networking 2.74.0-4
ii gnome-backgrounds 43.1-1
ii gnome-bluetooth-sendto 42.5-3
ii gnome-calculator 1:43.0.1-2
ii gnome-characters 43.1-1
ii gnome-contacts 43.1-1
ii gnome-control-center 1:43.6-2~deb12u1
ii gnome-disk-utility 43.0-1
ii gnome-font-viewer 43.0-1
ii gnome-keyring 42.1-1+b2
ii gnome-logs 43.0-1
ii gnome-menus 3.36.0-1.1
ii gnome-online-accounts 3.46.0-1
ii gnome-session 43.0-1
ii gnome-settings-daemon 43.0-4
ii gnome-shell 43.6-1~deb12u1
ii gnome-shell-extensions 43.1-1
ii gnome-software 43.5-1~deb12u1
ii gnome-sushi 43.0-2
ii gnome-system-monitor 42.0-2
ii gnome-terminal 3.46.8-1
ii gnome-text-editor 43.2-1
ii gnome-themes-extra 3.28-2
ii gnome-user-docs 43.0-2
ii gnome-user-share 43.0-1
ii gsettings-desktop-schemas 43.0-1
ii gstreamer1.0-packagekit 1.2.6-5
ii gstreamer1.0-plugins-base 1.22.0-3+deb12u1
ii gstreamer1.0-plugins-good 1.22.0-5+deb12u1
ii gvfs-backends 1.50.3-1
ii gvfs-fuse 1.50.3-1
ii libatk-adaptor 2.46.0-5
ii libcanberra-pulse 0.30-10
ii libglib2.0-bin 2.74.6-2
ii libpam-gnome-keyring 42.1-1+b2
ii libproxy1-plugin-gsettings 0.4.18-1.2
ii libproxy1-plugin-webkit 0.4.18-1.2
ii librsvg2-common 2.54.7+dfsg-1~deb12u1
ii nautilus 43.2-1
ii pipewire-audio 0.3.65-3
ii sound-theme-freedesktop 0.8-2
ii system-config-printer-common 1.5.18-1
ii system-config-printer-udev 1.5.18-1
ii totem 43.0-2
ii tracker 3.4.2-1
ii xdg-desktop-portal-gnome 43.1-2
ii yelp 42.2-1
ii zenity 3.44.0-1

Versions of packages gnome-core recommends:
ii firefox-esr [gnome-www-browser] 102.15.0esr-1~deb12u1
ii libproxy1-plugin-networkmanager 0.4.18-1.2
ii low-memory-monitor 2.1-1
ii network-manager-gnome 1.30.0-2

gnome-core suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

[Marcin Owsiany]

Today I switched to an Xorg-based GNOME session, and found out that invoking `xset dpms force off` also results in the system freezing. Interestingly, the system was responsive via ssh for another couple seconds or so.

So I think this regression must be related to the kernel version change more than anything else. Reassigning the bug.

Again, I'd be more than happy to do whatever is needed to investigate this deeper. The only idea comes to mind is to try and bisect the kernel history between 5.10.179-2 and 6.1.38-4, but I'm not sure how feasible it is these days (it's been almost two decades since I last built my own kernel package and don't know what config to use between these two versions).

[Marcin Owsiany]

Turns out this issue is already fixed in the 6.4.4-3~bpo12+1 version available in bookworm-backports \o/

[Marcin Owsiany]

Unfortunately it's not fixed. Looks like the probability of a freeze is just lower :-(

[Marcin Owsiany]

found 5.10.197-1

thanks

Yesterday I installed and tested a dozen or so kernel images from snapshot.debian.org starting with 5.10.197-1 and ending with 6.4.4-3~bpo12+1. Unfortunately I was able to reproduce the issue on every single one of them, although with older versions it usually takes around 10 executions of `xset dpms force off`, while on 6.x kernels it usually freezes on the first attempt.

One thing I noticed is that most of the time, regardless of kernel version, if I hit the keyboard within the first second of the screen going black, then the screen lights up again and the system does not freeze.

This issue might after all be a sign of a hardware issue - sometimes Windows that I dual-boot to seems to be similarly hung. I also used to have weird freezes at early boot time. That problem disappeared initially - when a device was plugged into a USB port, and later - seemingly without reason - disappeared altogether.

However I'll keep the bug open in case some kind soul decides to share a way to work around this.

Marcin