[BUG] Illegal instruction error when reading images on AMD A6-3420M processor

Resolved 💬 12 comments Opened Aug 20, 2025 by thiagocf84 Closed Jan 7, 2026

Environment

  • Platform (select one):
  • [x] Anthropic API
  • [ ] AWS Bedrock
  • [ ] Google Vertex AI
  • [ ] Other:
  • Claude CLI version: 1.0.84
  • Operating System: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20250818, Kernel 6.16.1-1-default (64-bit)
  • Terminal: KDE Konsole

## Bug Description

Claude Code crashes with "Instrução ilegal (imagem do núcleo gravada)" / "Illegal instruction (core dumped)" when attempting to read image files using the Read tool. The crash occurs
specifically when processing images, while text files work normally.

## Steps to Reproduce

  1. Start Claude Code in terminal
  2. Execute: claude read "/path/to/any/image.png"
  3. Application immediately crashes with illegal instruction error

## Expected Behavior

Image should be read and analyzed by Claude Code, similar to how text files are processed.

## Actual Behavior

Instrução ilegal (imagem do núcleo gravada) claude
The application terminates immediately with a core dump.

## Additional Context

Hardware: AMD A6-3420M APU with Radeon HD Graphics (4 cores, from 2011)Memory: 6 GiB RAM (5.3 GiB usable)Desktop: KDE Plasma 6.4.4

Troubleshooting attempted:

  • Updated AMD microcode to revision 0x03000027
  • Reinstalled glibc and Mesa drivers
  • Tested compatibility environment variables:
  • PGI_FASTMATH_CPU=sandybridge
  • GLIBC_TUNABLES=glibc.cpu.hwcaps=-AVX2,-AVX512F
  • OPENBLAS_CORETYPE=SANDYBRIDGE

Working alternatives:

  • Text files: claude read /tmp/text_file.txt works normally
  • ImageMagick: identify -verbose image.png processes same images without issues

Suspected cause: AMD A6-3420M (2011) may lack modern CPU instructions required by Claude Code's image processing libraries.

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