• An AMD graphics bug is coming to unstable/testing repo

    From David@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jan 15 12:10:01 2023
    Hi list readers

    A FYI: I am far from expert in these things but I noticed that a kernel
    with a known bug affecting AMD graphics is about to enter the unstable distribution [1], and possibly the testing distribution as well.

    [1]:"""
    I would like to upload linux version 6.1.6-1 to unstable.
    [...]
    Notably though there is no fix for #1028451
    """

    So I quote below from that bug report [2][3] for readers here so that you
    can decide if you want to go read it.

    My words end here, the rest of this message is quotes from the footnotes
    given at the bottom.

    [2]: """
    Basically this issue breaks all usage of Displayport MST on amdgpu systems. Which roughly translates to breaking external monitors for everyone using
    an USB-C docks with multiple display outputs (which is pretty common these days) on AMD laptops. As well as those like myself who daisy-chain display port monitors with an amdgpu using graphics card.

    So I would expect this impacts a lot of people :/ Which is also why there
    is loads of activity and duplicates on the fd.o bug now that 6.1 is
    trickling into distributions.

    For what it's worth; The revert as currently suggested also reverts big
    chunks for Intel and nvidia based GPUs, which unsurprisingly the
    maintainers of those aren't too thrilled about. And really i'd be amazed if
    it doesn't cause regressions for those systems... Unless the AMD folks pull
    a small/targetted fix out their hats, this is likely going to take weeks if
    not months before it's resolved in a way that's acceptable for 6.1.y :/....
    """

    [3]: """
    The revert may cause much wider issues which upstream may or may not care (much) about. And it would be a divergence from upstream.

    Getting wider testing of the 6.1 kernel is something I find much more important. There could be other issues lurking which would not get exposure
    and therefor wouldn't get fixed until this bug would be fixed.

    Uploading 6.1.6 now would give (us/)upstream a couple of more days to
    figure out a potential *better* way to deal with it. One which should be acceptable for the upstream Stable Kernel maintainers.

    But I wouldn't let this bug cause further delays to Testing. Testing is
    meant to test things for the next Stable release and things can and will
    break from time to time. If people can't deal with that, they should not
    be running Testing.
    """

    [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2023/01/msg00169.html
    [2] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1028451#35
    [3] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1028451#40

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  • From Martin Petersen@21:1/5 to David on Sun Jan 15 14:40:01 2023
    Hi David, hi All :)

    thank You very much for this informative mail, David. It is very kind of
    You to think about all AMD Debian users. Much appreciated !

    I don't have to add much. The issue at Freedesktop.org is:

    https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/2171

    There is a fix but everybody is unsure when it will find it's way into mainline.

    Thank You again, David & have a nice day, Y'all,

    Martin

    On 2023-01-15 12:04, David wrote:
    Hi list readers

    A FYI: I am far from expert in these things but I noticed that a kernel
    with a known bug affecting AMD graphics is about to enter the unstable distribution [1], and possibly the testing distribution as well.

    [1]:"""
    I would like to upload linux version 6.1.6-1 to unstable.
    [...]
    Notably though there is no fix for #1028451
    """

    So I quote below from that bug report [2][3] for readers here so that you
    can decide if you want to go read it.

    My words end here, the rest of this message is quotes from the footnotes given at the bottom.

    [2]: """
    Basically this issue breaks all usage of Displayport MST on amdgpu systems. Which roughly translates to breaking external monitors for everyone using
    an USB-C docks with multiple display outputs (which is pretty common these days) on AMD laptops. As well as those like myself who daisy-chain display port monitors with an amdgpu using graphics card.

    So I would expect this impacts a lot of people :/ Which is also why there
    is loads of activity and duplicates on the fd.o bug now that 6.1 is
    trickling into distributions.

    For what it's worth; The revert as currently suggested also reverts big chunks for Intel and nvidia based GPUs, which unsurprisingly the
    maintainers of those aren't too thrilled about. And really i'd be amazed if it doesn't cause regressions for those systems... Unless the AMD folks pull
    a small/targetted fix out their hats, this is likely going to take weeks if not months before it's resolved in a way that's acceptable for 6.1.y :/.... """

    [3]: """
    The revert may cause much wider issues which upstream may or may not care (much) about. And it would be a divergence from upstream.

    Getting wider testing of the 6.1 kernel is something I find much more important. There could be other issues lurking which would not get exposure and therefor wouldn't get fixed until this bug would be fixed.

    Uploading 6.1.6 now would give (us/)upstream a couple of more days to
    figure out a potential *better* way to deal with it. One which should be acceptable for the upstream Stable Kernel maintainers.

    But I wouldn't let this bug cause further delays to Testing. Testing is meant to test things for the next Stable release and things can and will break from time to time. If people can't deal with that, they should not
    be running Testing.
    """

    [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2023/01/msg00169.html
    [2] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1028451#35
    [3] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1028451#40



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