Re: unpredictable crashes, lock up, freezes, whatever
Olaf Meeuwissen <olaf@epkowa.co.jp> writes:
> Heather <star@betelgeuse.starshine.org> writes:
>
> > Olaf Meeuwissen <olaf@epkowa.co.jp> writes:
> >
> > > This morning, after three lock ups in ten minutes, I compiled
> > > frame buffer support in, fiddled my XF86Config-4 to use it and
> > > I've been up for 5(!) hours. I think I'll lock my session with
> > > xscreensaver (to guarantee some Xserver activity (eh, at least
> > > until APM kicks in and blanks the screen)) before I go home and if
> > > my machine hasn't crashed by tomorrow morning I'm ready to believe
> > > my problem is fixed. I might even get bold and start using that
> > > broken DIMM again ;-)
>
> APM didn't kick in last night it seems. The screensaver was running
> happily when I came in this morning. Removed the lock and my session
> was still very much alive (left stripchart running). As a matter of
> fact I'm typing this mail from a 21 hour old session. I'd say that
> even if my problem may not be fixed, I've got myself an acceptable
> work around. Using the framebuffer is only a bit slower.
I had my session going for close to 48 hours (20 hours of XFree86 CPU
time) without a hitch until I made the mistake of firing up Konqueror
(kdeinit gobbled up all memory ;-). Anyway, I stuck that broken DIMM
back in an haven't seen any hiccups yet.
> > > Problem then is where to put the blame: graphics card or X driver?
> > > I'm using xserver-xfree86 4.0.3-4.
> >
> > Try tuning up SVGAlib to see if that also freaks out the system. If
> > it works at all it will be under "VESA" or "Standard VGA". If it
> > breaks too then two things remain.
>
> Not quite sure whether I get what you're saying, but I'll keep this in
> mind for when I get oodles of free time (or my boss' blessing :-) to
> get to the bottom of this.
>
> > 1. the modeline. SVGAlib uses XF86 style modelines too. Monitor being
> > pushed just barely out of spec could be doing something unknown and
> > invisible. To test that, reduce the freq range for your monitor
> > values in X's config then try again, so you get new modelines.
> >
> > 2. yeah, your card could be bad...
I was going to blame it on the graphics card until I had a look at
http://www.xfree86.org/pipermail/neomagic/. There are some reports
that show very similar behaviour as to what I saw but all those folks
could still telnet to their machine. Mine didn't even return pings.
So, I'm still not sure where to put the blame ;-(
At least the frame buffer solutions works and with the extra memory
back I hardly notice the performance difference. FWIW, I'll include
the frame buffer settings:
I compiled the kernel (2.2.19) with
CONFIG_FB=y
# CONFIG_FB_PM2 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ATY is not set
CONFIG_FB_VESA=y
CONFIG_FB_VGA16=y
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ATY128 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VIRTUAL is not set
# CONFIG_FBCON_ADVANCED is not set
CONFIG_FBCON_CFB8=y
CONFIG_FBCON_CFB16=y
CONFIG_FBCON_CFB24=y
CONFIG_FBCON_CFB32=y
CONFIG_FBCON_VGA_PLANES=y
# CONFIG_FBCON_FONTWIDTH8_ONLY is not set
# CONFIG_FBCON_FONTS is not set
To /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 I added
Section "Device"
Identifier "Linux Frame Buffer"
Driver "fbdev"
EndSection
changed the Device setting in the Screen section to match this and
commented the DefaultDepth out. I also added
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768-76"
EndSubSection
In /etc/lilo.conf I set vga=ask and whenever I boot I enter 318 (have
not bothered hard wiring this yet). I really like the huge console
that gives me!
--
Olaf Meeuwissen Epson Kowa Corporation, Research and Development
Free Software: `No walls, no windows! No fences, no gates!'
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