Re: X lockups

[Shaul Karl <shaulka@bezeqint.net>]

> This past weekend, I noticed my system locked up in an X windows session.
> This system has an nvidia card, GEForce2 MX, and I have been using
> nvidia drivers.
> 
> To regain control of the console, I logged in remotely using ssh
> and killed X.  But that left the screen in an odd state (I guess the
> nvidia start-up routine that's executed when X comes up has to be 
> somehow turned off (how?))  So I had to reboot.  This has now become
> an every-time-I-bring-up-X experience.
> 


Some more option to reboot:

Two issues: screen and keyboard

For restoring the screen, first kill X, and then run a program that
restores the textmode. Svgalib comes with three such programs - 

restoretextmode - uses svgalib to set the mode, and requires that you
        saved the text mode (using savetextmode), before.
mode3 - uses real mode vga bios of the card to set mode 3.
vga_reset - uses real mode card init routine from card bios.

The order is in increasing chance of the program working, but also in
increasing chance of crashing the computer.
It is also possible that the card is in such a state that only a
hardware reset will get it out of.
(Someone wrote an improved version of vga_reset, you might find it on
freshmeat, or google).

keyboard: it is possible that the console is left in raw mode. To
restore to cooked mode, either use Alt-SysRQ-R (if enabled), or run
kbd_mode using telnet/ssh.

(the above is taken from http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Linux/maillis
ts/02/05/msg00281.html)

Can't help with the real problem.


> I have tried all of the following fixes, and the situation seems only
> to be deteriorating (i.e., the X window locks up immediately or almost
> immediately now):
> -- Upgraded packages, using unstable.  
> -- Install gnome2, including, eventually, gnome-session2 when I found 
>    out where it was.
> -- Try using fvwm2 instead of gnome.
> -- Remove all gnome, fvwm, xserver related packages, and reinstall
>    gnome2 and fvwm
> -- Try gnome again
> -- Try fvwm again
> 
> I haven't seen anything in any log or .xsession-errors file that would
> indicate the nature of the problem.  
> 
> Does anyone know what change might have occurred in the last week or so
> that could cause such a failure?
> 
> TIA,
> Susan
> 
> 
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-- 

    Shaul Karl, shaulka@bezeqint.n e t



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