Linux 5.11 Released With Intel Integer Scaling, AMD Performance Boost, RTX 30 KMS

[reba]

It was, in fact, an Ubuntu problem. (in addition to using kernel 5.10+)

Great to hear you got it working!

Cheers

[perpetually high]

Guys, apologies are in order! reba hotaru Cybmax

It was, in fact, an Ubuntu problem. (in addition to using kernel 5.10+)

I went into the log file and started digging around and came across this GitHub thread unrelated to VirtualBox.

Big thanks to this dude:



And sure enough, it worked on 5.10 and 5.11 after I did this

$ sudo su
$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/to...s/module.lds.S -O /usr/src/linux-headers-5.11.10-051110+custom-generic/scripts/module.lds
$ sed -i '$ d' /usr/src/linux-headers-5.11.10-051110+custom-generic/scripts/module.lds
$ /sbin/vboxconfig
$ exit

For those on Ubuntu, the above is what I used for my custom 5.11 build, if you're on Ubuntu and would like to use VirtualBox with kernel 5.10 or higher, use uname -a to find out your current kernel version and replace it with the above. This may be fixed in a future version of Ubuntu, but this is as of March 2021 using Ubuntu 20.04.2

EDIT: looks like as of April 7, the module.lds.S from torvalds/master now has the following conditional block that breaks it:

#ifdef CONFIG_LTO_CLANG
#endif

Removing the above two lines only lets the code in the conditional block execute, allowing VirtualBox to build again. I bet more people aren't running into this problem since most aren't running a custom kernel on 20.04, which comes with 5.4. But for those that are running 5.10+ higher, this is how you get VirtualBox to work. To minimize the effort involved, just keep a good copy of module.lds.S (without the two lines above) and automate it with a script to drop it in /usr/src/linux-headers-your-version/scripts/module.lds after you build your kernel. Lotta effort I know, but worth it because 20.04 LTS is solid for a daily driver. Hope this helps someone.

[Cybmax]

perpetually high
Could you perhaps take a look at https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/20055 and see if any of those patches are NOT included in your 6.1.18 version?

The kernel driver source is (for me on Ubuntu) located in

/usr/share/virtualbox/src/vboxhost/vboxdrv/r0drv/linux

other distro's might have different placements of the source tho.

I also patched the 6.1.18 vbox netdriver so for me it now works with linux-5.11 aswell - Ref. https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/20198

[perpetually high]

Cybmax

Hey, thanks for taking the time to share that. I just tried again from that apt repository (using both virtualbox and virtualbox-6.1 packages) and still no go.

I even tried the latest 5.10.17 from kernel.ubuntu.com to remove my custom kernel from the equation and still no go. Really not sure why it's working for some, but I appreciate again you sharing the info. Cheers to you, reba and hotaru for your input on the vbox situation. I'll just wait it out for now and stay with 5.4, and skip 5.10 altogether and wait for 5.11 support.

[Cybmax]

perpetually high

apt-cache policy virtualbox-6.1
virtualbox-6.1:
Installed: 6.1.18-142142~Ubuntu~eoan
Candidate: 6.1.18-142142~Ubuntu~eoan
Version table:
*** 6.1.18-142142~Ubuntu~eoan 500
500 https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian focal/contrib amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list
# Virtualbox
deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian focal contrib

This is what i currently use for Ubuntu 20.04 and linux-5.10.16 kernel.

Ubuntu 20.04 is currently at 6.1.16, from the changelog i think this has "ubuntu patches" so that it currently works with 5.10.x ref.

https://ubuntu.pkgs.org/20.04/ubuntu-updates-multiverse-amd64/virtualbox-source_6.1.16-dfsg-6~ubuntu1.20.04.1_amd64.deb.html

[B]2020-12-04[/B] - Gianfranco Costamagna <[email protected]> virtualbox (6.1.16-dfsg-6) unstable; urgency=medium * debian/patches/linux-5.10-r0drv-memobj-fix-r0.patch: - upstream-proposed patch to fix a build failure with linux 5.10 (LP: #1903741)

[reba]

how is that level of retrocomputing not the nerdier option? it's like using Windows 98 or a Commodore 64.

Well, you got me there

I prefer the look of Windows 9x (bare bones but very good readability and with a quick glimpse you "get" how the UI is working, how the elements are arranged and nested) over the look of XP (too childish and big) and massively over Windows 10 (no clear indication of buttons, labels, areas or even the extents of whole windows).
I also prefer true menus to hamburger menus or these terrible, terrible ribbon menus.

Yeah, I'm so oldschool I experienced Amiga's bootsector intros first-hand and my dad put a hardware switch on the backside to select either Kickstart 1.2 or Kickstart 1.3. I wonder if our '83 Commodore 1541 (rainbow logo and spring load) still works...

[hotaru]

As a Debian user I also get flak ("SJW", "Why not Gentoo, Arch or NixOS? They're so much nerdier" - yes they are, I'm just too dumb and too lazy) and as a vivid fan of KDE even more...

how is that level of retrocomputing not the nerdier option? it's like using Windows 98 or a Commodore 64.

[Cybmax]

reba, I'll eat the crow if I'm wrong but I'm telling you - it's a kernel issue. I didn't just start using VirtualBox yesterday.

I get a lot of shit on here for running Ubuntu like a noob, but I'm well versed and have been using Linux daily since 2014. I don't get bored anymore and distro hop or any of that, and if I ever want to I could spin one up in VirtualBox (insert joke here).

One of the reasons I didn't jump from 20.04 LTS (04/20 release, no affiliation to me) is because I'm happy with where the OS is with GNOME and everything else, and I now favor long term support over bleeding edge. To each their own.

So when 5.10 got released, I chalked it up to okay, it just came out. Give them some time.. well it's been a while now and I know they're smart enough to figure it out so it begs the question what's the hold up? 5.10 is LTS as well. No 5.11 support either, so who knows when that's coming.

Again, this is small potatoes and VirtualBox doesn't owe me anything. But the fact reminds I'm stuck to 5.4 (which is a fantastic kernel for what its worth) and I compile my own kernels so I add in all the patches and good stuff so I am in no rush. I'm chillin for now, but I felt it was worth bringing up when this thread was first posted.

I am running Ubuntu 20.04 with my custom compiled 5.10.16 kernel, and i know i had problems with Virtualbox when 5.10 was launched, but have no problems now. Not at home just now, but i use virtualbox.org .deb packages as explained here https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads

deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian focal contrib

(But i can doublecheck this if you want when i get home). It DOES work with Ubuntu 20.04 w/kernel 5.10.x, so that is the reason ppl are saying its "your fault".

[reba]

reba, I'll eat the crow if I'm wrong but I'm telling you - it's a kernel issue. I didn't just start using VirtualBox yesterday.

I get a lot of shit on here for running Ubuntu like a noob, but I'm well versed and have been using Linux daily since 2014. I don't get bored anymore and distro hop or any of that, and if I ever want to I could spin one up in VirtualBox (insert joke here).

One of the reasons I didn't jump from 20.04 LTS (04/20 release, no affiliation to me) is because I'm happy with where the OS is with GNOME and everything else, and I now favor long term support over bleeding edge. To each their own.

So when 5.10 got released, I chalked it up to okay, it just came out. Give them some time.. well it's been a while now and I know they're smart enough to figure it out so it begs the question what's the hold up? 5.10 is LTS as well. No 5.11 support either, so who knows when that's coming.

Again, this is small potatoes and VirtualBox doesn't owe me anything. But the fact reminds I'm stuck to 5.4 (which is a fantastic kernel for what its worth) and I compile my own kernels so I add in all the patches and good stuff so I am in no rush. I'm chillin for now, but I felt it was worth bringing up when this thread was first posted.

No crow eating necessary in my book.

As a Debian user I also get flak ("SJW", "Why not Gentoo, Arch or NixOS? They're so much nerdier" - yes they are, I'm just too dumb and too lazy) and as a vivid fan of KDE even more...

Debian (sid) is for me the sweet spot between "bloody edge enough" and "it just works". I don't want to play the sysadmin simulator.
Of course KDE 5.21 would be nice to have NOW, but it will come, eventually.
Meanwhile everything still works flawlessy and the installation really had to take some sucker punches from me.

I'm a desktop user. Therefore I expect things to work with minimal intervention. That's delivered.
Of course I can compile a kernel and tweak some options (however using frosted food and adding some salt is not cooking for me), yes, I can configure GRUB and have automated backups running with Borg - but I'm just a pleb user and enjoy using LibreOffice, Firefox and VirtualBox. No preparation needed.
Some years ago everything worked right away as I cleansed Windows 7 from this laptop and installed a Debian: Wifi, Bluetooth, volume, screen brightness, even keyboard brightness and the card ready - everything! Even the Intel iGPU and the AMD dGPU coexist peacefully. The dGPU actually completely powers down (not just idle) when not in use. I still can't believe that. What did I have to configure? Nada. Nothing. That just won me over. Two weeks later GRUB just selects the kernel, not the OS anymore.

I hope you get your VirtualBox issues fixed and please keep me informed how it turned out.
Cheers

[Linuxxx]

Hey Guys,

Just registered on phoronix just to post a feedback on kernel 5.11.

Have you guys tried to use 5.11 on Ryzen APUs? I am running 5.11 on a HP Ryzen 4700U laptop, and the thing boosts clockrates too aggressively, that I reach 103+C temperature within 10 seconds, and it is simply not safe. Also glmark2 dipped to 300-400, when it was 9000 on 5.10.15 kernel. GPU just got a 90% regression because CPU boosted too hard to reach 105C.

I don't think the frequency in-variance stuff is actually beneficial to AMD CPU users. I mean phoronix focused on the 5-6% performance boost.(at what power consumption boost cost?) That's only on EPYC and Ryzen CPU only. Not APUs. If you boost too aggressively on the CPU, the GPU on the APU is starved of power. The 4700U only got 15W to use(it averages 15W, and boosts to 25W). The laptop was running 95C full load on kernel 5.10.15, now it constantly boosts to 103-105C while the GPU takes a 90% hit.

Something is wrong here. I mean, Intel's got frequency variance since kernel 5.2 and is it why Intel CPUs now have 225W PL2 on a 95W TDP cpu? Seeking aggressive CPU boost for single threaded performance is a bad tradeoff in my mind. Especially letting a 15W U-class Ryzen running at 105C on a laptop, which is out of specs. Also people have noticed 6Ghz+ max "fake" clocks just so that freq_next = 1.25 * freq_max boosts harder.
This is simply irresponsible engineering. Too aggressive single threaded boost.

I am back to 5.10.15 for the time being. Since it is the last known good kernel that compiles zfs-dkms against zfs 2.0.3.

I assume you are actually utilising the schedutil governor and not the performance one, right?

If so, try to play around with the value of:

/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/schedutil/rate_limit_us

Since this is the only tunable that schedutil offers for easy configuration, this is pretty much the only option one has going forward when settling on the default CPU governor.