overheating likely due to nvme

[JLT032]

Please identify some basic details to help process the report

A. Provide Hardware Details

1. What board are you using (see list of boards here)?

2. Does your computer have a dGPU or is it iGPU-only?

• dGPU
• iGPU-only

3. Who installed Heads on this computer?

• Insurgo
• Nitrokey
• Purism
• Other provider
• Self-installed

4. What PGP key is being used?

• Librem Key
• Nitrokey Pro 2
• Nitrokey Storage
• Yubikey
• Other

5. Are you using the PGP key to provide HOTP verification?

• Yes
• No
• I don't know

B. Identify how the board was flashed

1. Is this problem related to updating heads or flashing it for the first time?

• First-time flash
• Updating heads

2. If the problem is related to an update, how did you attempt to apply the update?

• Using the Heads GUI
• Flashrom via the Recovery Shell
• External flashing

3. How was Heads initially flashed

• External flashing
• Internal-only / 1vyrain
• Don't know

4. Was the board flashed with a maximized or non-maximized/legacy rom?

• Maximized
• Non-maximized / legacy
• I don't know

5. If Heads was externally flashed, was IFD unlocked?

• Yes
• No
• Don't know

C. Identify the rom related to this bug report

1. Did you download or build the rom at issue in this bug report?

• I downloaded it
• I built it

2. If you downloaded your rom, where did you get it from?

• Heads CircleCi
• Purism
• Nitrokey
• Somewhere else (please identify)

Please provide the release number or otherwise identify the rom downloaded

3. If you built your rom, which repository:branch did you use?

• Heads:Master
• Other (please identify)

4. What version of coreboot did you use in building?

• 4.8.1 (current default in heads:master)
• 4.13
• 4.14
• 4.15
• Other (please specify)
• I don't know

5. In building the rom where did you get the blobs?

• No blobs required
• Provided by the company that installed Heads on the device
• Extracted from a backup rom taken from this device
• Extracted from another backup rom taken from another device (please identify the board model)
• Extracted from the online bios using the automated tools provided in Heads
• I don't know

Please describe the problem

Describe the bug

This is notable for any version of the NV50 firmware (came installed with v2.2)

On multiple occassions the CPU temperature soars significantly (+30° C). On observation this seems highly likely to be related to the nvme storage which seems to suffer on repeat, infrequent disk writes(?) other specific patterns.

Multiple reproducible software were found such as but not limited to: suricata, mailspring (daemon)

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior: (suricata)

1. start the suricata service
2. observe as temperature soars fast with even low volume disk access (fan kicks in very quickly)
3. stop the suricata service
4. observe as temperature and CPU load drop notably

Expected behavior
much less impact on the CPU when using the nvme storage

Screenshots
possible but not provided at this time

Additional context
the particular nvme shows impairment to specific workloads
it is likley the firmware is not optimally configured to work with this nvme
recommendation is to switch to nvme which do not depend on CPU or correct configuration issue(s)

[tlaurion]

linuxboot#1551 (comment)

[tlaurion]

@commandline-be As said, nitrokey tested those changes at linuxboot#1522 (comment) where linuxboot@e0fabb1 was added to have same removal of KERNEL_ADD paramameter (do not interfere with final OS grub configuration since unneeded) that nv41 was tested for at linuxboot#1522 (comment)

Basically what i'm saying is that now merged linuxboot#1522 might fix your issue. Again, not telling you to flash Heads master's now CircleCI produced rom under https://app.circleci.com/pipelines/github/linuxboot/heads/711/workflows/f16bc1d7-7246-4ffd-9a4c-2b54499eb4ae but this will land under NK 2.4 eventually with Nitrokey customizations on top of it after they thoroughly test it and decide its stable enough for themselves and their customers.

[JLT032]

Looking forward to NK 2.4 I hope this also fixes #29 as that is really annoying.

[tlaurion]

As said earlier, base for 2.4 on heads is now considered tested and stable.

I would advise opening an issue so that nitrokey tracks coreboot changes as well and update both heads upstream and their fork to point to it and report upstream in coreboot fork any issue that won't be fixed here downstream unless reported and fixed upstream in coreboot fork.

That's how things work. :)

[tlaurion]

@jans23 I'm open to receive a donated nv41 and proper sporadic donations /monthly donations to help you with heads and coordinate needed work under coreboot fork.

But as of now, Heads upstream supports nitrokey boards as they are supported downstream. Issues flow upstream because unfixed downstream which is becoming a burden upstream.

You can contact me whenever you are ready to talk business.

[JLT032]

As said earlier, base for 2.4 on heads is now considered tested and stable.

I would advise opening an issue so that nitrokey tracks coreboot changes as well and update both heads upstream and their fork to point to it and report upstream in coreboot fork any issue that won't be fixed here downstream unless reported and fixed upstream in coreboot fork.

That's how things work. :)

not going to push on this but i bought a laptop from NK and strictly speaking it doesn't perform as advertised
i hope NK can concert future efforts better, this should be a much lower effort due to their approach and control over the HW

[JLT032]

as expected, the overheating is not resolved by v2.4 since this is entirely due to heat generation and dissipation
cooling down does go somewhat faster due to GPU taking some of the load now

[tlaurion]

@commandline-be some comparative quantitative measurements?

[JLT032]

like this ? linuxboot#1551 (comment)

[tlaurion]

like this ? linuxboot#1551 (comment)

@commandline-be if compared with results after 2.4 it might help @daringer figure out, if any, kernel add parameters needed to be passed to OS per board config kexec call into final os, yes, summarizing here the before and after metrics.

[JLT032]

fwiw, any heat issue are less noticeable with v2.4, I'm pretty sure the main reason is the nVME drive leading to the heat issues

[JLT032]

in follow up, looking at the performance using btop it is show the fan speedup is most often due to GPU load
somehow graphical applications running in javascript consume a LOT of CPU/GPU

maybe i should consider a separate request for having a user friendly tool to manage the fans on the Nitropad
it is ridiculous to hear the fan spin up loudly to blow each time i load a terminal session in the browser

[JLT032]

the overheating is almost gone after removing and re-applying heat paste on the CPU for the ns50pu
it seems plausible some sensors is also not working as expected