On Wednesday, 12 June 2024 06:53:29 BST Walter Dnes wrote: > On Tue, Jun 11, 2024 at 07:45:09PM +0100, Michael wrote > > > The above errors are an indication something is amiss with the > > requisite firmware for your graphics. Have you specified this in > > your kernel, or in your initramfs? > > > > See here: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Intel > > No mention of my "Comet Lake" system. According to > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylake_(microarchitecture) > > > Skylake CPUs share their microarchitecture with Kaby Lake, Coffee > > Lake, Whiskey Lake, and Comet Lake CPUs. > > I assume that the "kbl" in "kbl_dmc_ver1_04.bin" refers to the Kaby > Lake family which my "Comet Lake" machine is part of. According to > https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Intel#cite_ref-firmware_9-0 > > > DMC firmware > > > > Display Microcontroller firmware provides support for advanced graphics > > low-power idle states. > My system has worked fine for years.
The software ecosystem around the hardware has evolved over the years. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume the current versions of kernel, graphics drivers, applications, etc. have been coded to deal with hardware involving the latest firmware blobs made available by the OEM. Power states of devices and their power management are known to cause and/or resolve bugs - I have a laptop which would crash from overheating before a new BIOS was released by the OEM. There have been wireless NICs where power management had to be disabled to stop drop outs. Consequently, what "worked fine for years" with your graphics may not continue to do so hereon. You can test your browser in full screen using a couple of benchmarking websites and see if it crashes again, repeatably: https://web.basemark.com/ https://browserbench.org/ > > The rtl8168h is related to your NIC. Assuming you have configured > > this, does 'ethtool -i eth0' or whatever you card is detected as > > show if the firmware has been loaded? > > I don't have "ethtool" installed but I know I don't have that blob. > According to a discussion at... > > https://superuser.com/questions/1736705/missing-firmware-to-network-boot-deb > ian-installer-via-ipxe-using-realtek-rtl8111 > > ...the blob is necessary for iPXE booting. > > Both of these blobs seem to support esoteric features, which are > "nice, but not necessary" for me. Fair enough, the iPXE function for the NIC should not be related to a graphics crash. The Intel firmware may or may not materially affect your use cases and the crash you reported.
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