Re: X11-svga crashes (Matrox)

[Kristoffer.Rose@ENS-Lyon.FR]

Marcus Maskos wrote:

> The hardware is a PC164LX and a Matrox Millennium II (8 MB). Is there
> anybody here with a similar configuration who has troubles with the
> stability of the X-server ?
> 
> I get a
> 
> Fatal server error:
> Caught signal 11.  Server aborting
> 
> in 8 and 16 bit mode when I open several (>8) images or use the
> zoom function in xdvi (all mouse bottons) while moving the mouse.

I replied:

> Yes, this is well-known, and happens to me, too.  The (usual) answer is
> that the Matrox Millenium II code in the SVGA server is Alpha code
> (version-wise, not only architecture-wise), followed by suggestions for
> either fixing it or buying a different graphics card ...

fortunately this is now OBSOLETE since Andreas U. Trottmann wrote:

> This problem most definitely is in the alpha version of XF86_SVGA.
> 
> Matti Aarnio <matti.aarnio@sonera.fi> has done a great work lately in
> improving this servers. You can get his patches and precompiled binaries
> from ftp://mea.tmt.tele.fi/pub/XFree86/. The patches should eventually be
> merged back in the XFree86 code base.
> 
> Using a quite new XF86_SVGA binary over my debian/hamm&slink installation, I
> didn't have a single "unaligned trap" nor any crashes. But it's still not
> complete, i.e. you now just can't open more than 32 windows (the prcess
> trying to open the 33st window just hangs -- but that's still better than
> crashing :)).  

I downloaded

	$ wget ftp://mea.tmt.tele.fi/pub/XFree86/XF86_SVGA.alpha.bin.gz

and installed it (as root, from a vt :) with

	# /etc/init.d/xdm stop
	# gunzip XF86_SVGA.alpha.bin.gz
	# mv -b -S.debian XF86_SVGA.alpha.bin /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_SVGA
	# chmod 755 /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_SVGA
	# /etc/init.d/xdm start

and now

* Xdvi works as usual, even the magnifier glass :)

* I can start more than 100 clients: running xclock until I get messages like

	Xlib: connection to "rabaud:0.0" refused by server
	Xlib: Maximum number of clients reached
	Error: Can't open display: rabaud:0.0

  fills up the screen with xclocks such that

	xlsclients | wc -l

  returns `114'.

FYI, I use the server in `-bpp 16' mode with my 4MB Matrox Millenium II and
a screen capable of 1600x1200 @ 75MHz, and it always worked great, and now
it is even stable!  I have put a copy of my /etc/X11/XF86Config in

<URL: ftp://ftp.ens-lyon.fr/pub/users/LIP/krisrose/Debian/Alpha/MatroxMilleniumII/XF86Config>

Thanks thanks, and thanks again: now I can recommend a PWS500a with Debian
GNU/Linux 2.0-beta without any reservations to my peers :)

Cheers,
	Kristoffer

-- 
Kristoffer Høgsbro Rose, Ph.D., prof.associé  <Kristoffer.Rose@ENS-Lyon.FR>
Laboratoire de l'Informatique du Parallélisme  équipe PLUME, bureau LR5-026
Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon; 46, Allée d'Italie; F-69364 Lyon 07 cedex
phone: +33(0)4 7272 8642; fax:...8080    <http://www.ens-lyon.fr/~krisrose>


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