Bug 12472

Summary:	Kernel hangs with "Marking TSC unstable due to TSC halts in idle"
Product:	Platform Specific/Hardware	Reporter:	Chris Carr (rantingman)
Component:	i386	Assignee:	Chris Carr (rantingman)
Status:	CLOSED OBSOLETE
Severity:	low	CC:	alan, ben, ferrelas, lyxibatakawatoni, rasasi78
Priority:	P1
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Kernel Version:	2.6.28	Subsystem:
Regression:	Yes	Bisected commit-id:

Description Chris Carr 2009-01-17 14:17:51 UTC

Latest working kernel version: 2.6.10
Earliest failing kernel version: 2.6.26
Distribution: Debian Sid
Hardware Environment: Celeron-266 (Covington) in QDI Legend V motherboard, 640MB RAM
Software Environment: Debian Sid
Problem Description:
This machine has been running 2.6.10 since it was current. I recently installed the Debian distribution kernel of 2.6.26 and got this error: 

Marking TSC unstable due to TSC halts in idle

The kernel hangs at that point (just after enumerating the usb and ata controllers). To check that the problem is not Debian-specific I downloaded the 2.6.28 source and compiled it myself: the problem is identical. 

Neither the CPU nor the RAM is overclocked; FSB is 66MHz.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Install kernel version 2.6.26 or 2.6.28
2. Attempt to boot from either of the above kernel versions

Comment 1 Chris Carr 2009-01-19 03:26:43 UTC

This problem disappears when I re-set my BIOS settings with "Load Setup Defaults". I will report back when I have identified exactly which BIOS setting triggers this problem.

Comment 2 Chris Carr 2009-01-19 03:36:22 UTC

P.S. Could someone please explain what "regression" means, as it's not in the FAQ. I searched for the "Marking TSC unstable due to TSC halts in idle" message, but it was not found in any previous bug reports.

Comment 3 Daniel Lundberg 2009-04-08 19:37:26 UTC

Regression is step by step using earlier and earlier versions to find the latest one wich does not contain the bug, to find what caused it more easily.

I'm getting the same problem, but only if I boot with the acpi=on. This is with 2.6.27-r8 with gentoo patchset applied, on x86_64.

Comment 4 Ben Hutchings 2009-05-31 22:17:21 UTC

The message "Marking TSC unstable due to TSC halts in idle" does not in itself indicate a serious error. It may not have anything to do with the hang. Please also report the earlier kernel messages.

Comment 5 Ben Bloss 2009-10-01 08:08:58 UTC

I am getting the same error/s, After attempting to resume from hibernate(first time trying the feature)It didnt resume so i cold rebooted .
I just updated my kernel also not sure from what, 
It was autoupdate. Im running a dual boot Thinkpad t43
Partitions are #1 linux #2windows #3 swap

i really dont wanna reinstall, can anyone help?

this is the last 4 lines of the printout
"
`Adding 387668k swap on /dev/ramzswap0
`Marking TSC unstable due to TSC haults in idle
`usb 4-2 : new fullspeed usb device using uhci_hcd and address 2
`usb 4-2 : configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
"

Im using Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic

this is what my menu.lst for that kernel looks like
"]
uuid d002cff5-55aa-4c6c-ab60-19ebec7406a5
kernel /boot.vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic 
root=uuid=d002cff5-55aa-4c6c-ab60-19ebec7406a5 ro splash vga=792
initrd /boot/initrid.img-2.6.28-15-generic
quite
"

Comment 6 Ben Bloss 2009-10-01 08:21:14 UTC

also i tried booting from 2.6.28-14-generic and deleted the uuid lines and made root (hd0,1)

Comment 7 Raúl 2009-11-20 17:12:20 UTC

Could you please try "hpet=disable" in command line? I was succesful with this option, but I'm not sure it was the same issue.

Regards,