Are there any CPUs that work well with Linux that aren't made by Intel or another company on the BDS list/that supports Israel?

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.

addie,
@addie@feddit.uk avatar

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.

RedWeasel,

I have has zen2 and zen3 systems and haven’t run in to that either. So Zen2+ systems should be mostly fine.

If you get an M1 or M2 mac it should mostly work. If you need thunderbolt(WIP) or vulkan(WIP) then you will have to wait. Otherwise accelerated desktops work and audio is working now. Honestly if you compare performance to competing systems, they end up pretty similar in pricing.

png,

Get another AMD chip, you’ve just been unlucky. I’ve had AMD running Linux for 5 years with no issues.

catloaf,

Buy Intel used so that you’re not directly contributing?

Other than that or AMD, your only other option is ARM.

headroom,

Can you go and buy an ARM CPU and build a desktop system with it?

Deckweiss,

ltt made a video recently-ish showcasing a multi threaded arm cpu desktop. Not sure how availabe that is to the market though.

Grappling7155,

Check out the Ampere Altra Developer Platform

TCB13,
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

The OP is concerned about stability and you’re suggesting an experimental CPU that is plagued by UEFI bugs and is overly expensive? From what I’ve been even a cheap Chinese SBC with a Rockchip CPU is more stable and reliable than that thing.

catloaf,

Yes.

Not many, but they exist. I think most of them come soldered to the board like laptops.

HumanPerson,

As I understand, early ryzen processors are generally more buggy. I run 5800x on my desktop and a 5600(x?) in my server. You could try a newer ryzen and see if it works. I would recommend shopping around for a decent warranty.

communism,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

That’s good to hear that you’re not having problems on newer Ryzen. Although not sure if I want to risk buying a new Ryzen CPU if there’s a chance I could have the same problem

mesamunefire,

Risc v maybe? Rock 64?

merthyr1831,

A few more years until RISC-V is at 1st-gen ryzen levels (though it looks like RISC-V is accelerating every day)

d3Xt3r,

I have a Zen 2, Zen 3+ and a Zen 4 system and they all work well very with various Linux distros (Arch, Fedora) and recent kernels.

It’s very likely that your bug is specific to early Ryzen CPUs/chipsets. A couple of folks on those reports mentioned their issues went away after a motherboard/BIOS upgrade. So I think you’ll be fine if you went for a more recent AMD CPU+mobo.

bzLem0n,

I have a system with a Ryzen 1700 with the same issue and have found the only reliable way to run it is by installing and enabling the disable-c6-systemd package from the AUR. The other fixes provided in the wiki article you linked are correct but aren’t sufficient on my system, the CPU keeps reenabling the C6 state on its own and the disable-c6-systemd package works to counter that. The reason it works on Windows is they’ve disabled the C6 state by default for the CPU.

Buffalox,

This is amazing to find out now after 7 years:) I actually adjusted voltage manually on my Ryzen R5 1600, and it became 100% reliable, apparently the fix you mention prevent voltage below 1v at idle. I wondered why my CPU wasn’t reliable unless I made manual OC with some voltage tweaks?

I never looked it up, because my OC solved the issue, but I always thought it was a bit weird.

communism,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

Ah, thanks. I’m using runit not systemd (although this was happening on systemd when I was on systemd too) but I saw amd-disable-c6 in the AUR so I’ve installed that now, fingers crossed it works (the fixes in the Arch Wiki article haven’t fixed it for me, it just happened again rip)

Edit: nvm, looks like that package is a systemd service

bzLem0n,

The package is just a systemd unit to run the command python zenstates --c6-disable so if you install the zenstates-git package and get runit to run that command at startup it would be equivalent.

communism, (edited )
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

Thank you!!

Edit: Tried running that, I’m getting the error that /dev/cpu/0/msr doesn’t exist. dev/cpu doesn’t seem to exist at all on my machine. Hm

Edit 2: You need to run sudo modprobe msr. All good now :)

nkat2112,
@nkat2112@sh.itjust.works avatar

I appreciate you raising this question, thank you.

kugmo,
@kugmo@sh.itjust.works avatar

Based question but I hope your username is ironic.

VeganCheesecake,
@VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I mean, communist doesn’t have to mean tankie.

Buffalox, (edited )

I had a similar problem with a Ryzen 5 1600, at first it worked flawlessly when I did a manual OC, then when I made a reset, I didn’t care to OC again, and it began to occasionally freeze, usually when idle. When I made my manual OC again including upping voltages a bit for CPU and RAM it worked flawlessly again???

Weird since motherboard defaults aught to be stable IMO, but apparently they aren’t always.

I’ve been using this CPU for 7 years now, and it still runs like a champ, as long as I don’t use the motherboard defaults. I can’t remember last time it crashed or froze.

EDIT:

I just found out the package “disable-c6-systemd” mentioned in your link, is exactly to prevent voltage drop below 1v at idle, which sounds exactly like the bug I had. which is funny to learn 7 years later. ;)

sentient_loom,
@sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works avatar

I’ve heard that newer Ryzens play nicer with Linux.

UmbraTemporis, (edited )

Yeah, my 5800X3D works perfectly; absolutely zero issues. I’m guessing it’s making use of the 3DvCache too since I don’t notice any performance degredations compared to Windows.

Stanley_Pain,
@Stanley_Pain@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Yeah First Gen Ryzens definitely had a Linux lock up bug. My x1700 had it all the time and could never fix it.

communism,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

Do you know if it’s limited to first gen Ryzens? I’m looking into getting a Ryzen 5 5600X and I want to be sure I’m not gonna have the same issue

Stanley_Pain,
@Stanley_Pain@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Yes, AMD was replacing Ryzens that had that bug. I’m not sure if they are anymore though. But it’s 100% a confirmed thing. I have not heard anything Zen 2 and newer having this problem and have no experienced any Linux issues with my 3000, 5000 and 7000 series CPUs.

communism,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

Ah rip. I didn’t know they were replacing Ryzens. I’ll reach out to them but the warranty on my CPU is almost definitely voided after so long.

piexil,

extremetech.com/…/254750-amd-replaces-ryzen-cpus-…

They probably won’t replace it past warranty but it’s always worth a shot

woelkchen,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

Never experienced or even heard of Steam Deck having that bug and that’s a somewhat recent Ryzen.

ProgrammingSocks,

My Ryzen 9 5900X has none of these issues.

hallettj,
@hallettj@leminal.space avatar

I have a Ryzen 7 5800X and I’ve had no problems

Sentau,

I have a 5600h system(laptop) and I have not run into the issue you mention. In fact in the past six months after the fTPM bullshit was fixed, I haven’t run into any issues.

communism,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

the fTPM bullshit

Wait, what’s that?

Sentau,

In zen 2 and above firmware TPM was being used for a random number generator. This led to stutters during RN generation. Eventually this was fixed in 6.3.x series(or 6.4.x I can’t remember) and then the fix was backported to all lts kernels

PureTryOut,
@PureTryOut@lemmy.kde.social avatar

I experienced that issue, AMD replaced it for free for me. Still rocking that R7 1700 to this day, still going to strong!

VeganCheesecake,
@VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I have a 3600X and haven’t had any problems under Linux.

SimplyTadpole,
@SimplyTadpole@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Can confirm (but mine is the regular trim rather than the X version).

VeganCheesecake,
@VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

It’s better value anyway. Only got the X because it had a rebate while the standard didn’t.

Yearly1845,

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.

Stanley_Pain,
@Stanley_Pain@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I never managed to fix this bug with my first gen Ryzens. Worth upgrading to something newer for sure.

communism,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

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

KaRunChiy,
@KaRunChiy@kbin.run avatar

Newer ryzens are better, especially because they get frequent updates to their microcode that fixes a lot of the issues you're experiencing.

PaX,
@PaX@hexbear.net avatar

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?

communism,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

This is my mobo

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

PaX,
@PaX@hexbear.net avatar

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 :(

communism,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

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.

Pantherina,

I think if you start with political positions of bigtech companies…

Just buy used

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