Hi Chris,To try to isolate the problem (I have no clue and others may have better suggestions), I would start just X, without running a desktop manager. Just type X at the command prompt -- that is to say, don't run gdm at boot, or kill it and log in without running X-windows, then type X. Open a new CLI (Ctrl+Alt+F2) and run top to see CPU usage. If you see the same behavior, you know the problem in in XFree86, not in any number of other apps that run when you run X-windows. I would in that case take the problem to the Debian X-strike force, and active and responsive bunch.
OTOH, the problem may well lie somewhere else, and running X alone works fine. In that case, you could start a terminal session inside X-windows with a command like
xterm -display <your machine name>:0 &(I've only tried this on remote systems running a vncserver), and then start one application at a time until you find the culprit. Sometimes moving the configuration files temporarily out of the way helps (for instance, ~/.kde). Or you could run icewm as your window manager and see if you get the same problems.
Dave Chris Wakefield wrote:
Hi all. Just a little update on my probbie.I've noticed I can't get access to any terminals outside of X <CNTL ALT F1, etc.>I have also just noticed that gdm is defaulting to F8 rather than the usual F7 Thanks for any input. Chris W.Greetings all. I've been having X freeze up, it seems, randomly. X goes over 90% cpu usage. I've re-installed X, changed kernels <kernel runs fine>. I can ssh in and restart gdm ... I also notice I'm losing my konsole display settings. I've looked over the X logs, and haven't found anything. The last time it froze, I was just running apt-get update in konsole, but it's crashed with other apps as well. Has anyone any suggestions? Running debian-pure64 on amd64-3200 & k8v. Thanks for any interest. Chris W.