Acer Swift 3 SF305-41 doesn't boot after installing Kernel 4.15 or above

I installed Linux Mint 18.2 on my Swift and then installed kernel 4.15 as the older kernels aren't compatible with Ryzen 5 2500u and Vega 8.
After that my computer doesn't boot up.
It displays message saying

[   0.027431] [Firmware Bug]: AMD-Vi: IOAPIC[4] not in IVRS table
[   0.027435] [Firmware Bug]: AMD-Vi: IOAPIC[5] not in IVRS table
[   0.027437] AMD-Vi: No southbridge IOAPIC found
[   0.027438] AMD-Vi: Disabled interrupt remapping
[   4.339154] AMD-Vi: Unable to write to IOMMU pref counter.

I tried installed manjaro 17.1.7 but i get the same problem again.
I tried updating the kernel to 4.16 but no luck.

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Gawain

if you're not fussy about what ver of linux you use, Opensuse Tumbleweed seems to have folks who have a ryz 5 and vega 8 that's running okay (it uses 4.16.01 at the mo and kde by default). It is a cracker of a linux os too but does require a full install (no live boot version) - might be worth taking a look (can always change back to mint etc if you don't like it too!)

ferares

I know this is an old question but the first answer of this SO question solved that issue for me (although my computer started fine despite the errors it would freeze after a while if I was running a VM)

https://superuser.com/questions/1052023/ioapic0-not-in-ivrs-table

Hope it helps you or anyone else with this issue.

darksurf

ACER is aware of this issue. They appear to be going to do something about it.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/amd/+bug/1776563
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=200087

you can boot up and run stable adding a few flags to grub
added GRUB flags after "quiet": (adding missing SMBUS and IOMMU IVRS table items manually )
ivrs_ioapic[4]=00:14.0 ivrs_ioapic[5]=00:00.2

From what I've seen, there is more going on than just IVRS table missing items, but this does make the laptop usable (USING AN515-42 Acer Nitro 5)
I commend Acer Support team for keeping in touch with me throughout this process. After reporting the issue, they've been very cordial and diligent in attempting to find a solution and forwarding the info the the appropriate teams.

Herman_Sol

@nel99 Manjaro 18.0 is out, I am on a Nitro 5 AN515-42 with a Ryzen 2500U and Vega, I had the same problems with Manjaro 17.1.7 (Kernel 4.15) but Manjaro 18.0 (Kernel 4.19.3) needed no special config .

darksurf

Herman_Sol said:

@nel99 Manjaro 18.0 is out, I am on a Nitro 5 AN515-42 with a Ryzen 2500U and Vega, I had the same problems with Manjaro 17.1.7 (Kernel 4.15) but Manjaro 18.0 (Kernel 4.19.3) needed no special config .

4.15 kernel doesn't support Raven Ridge. You need 4.18 or higher for proper Raven Ridge support. 4.19 contains the most support, but its still not all there. Beyond that, the real issue is ACPI and IVRS tables missing components. Manjaro "works", but you should check dmesg after a fresh boot and look for "firmware bugs" and complaints about ACPI tables or IVRS. You may notice that booting into Linux draws more power than it would in windows, even if the machine is idle.