X starts crashing after an upgrade
Hello list,
After an upgrade of the originally installed Debian Sarge
(xdm4.3.0.dfsg.1-14sarge1 and xfce 4.0.5-1) the X started to crash
from time to time. When it crashes the panel and all open
applications vanish leaving only the desktop background on the screen.
The right click with the mouse doesn't bring the pop-up menu. In two
occasions (in one of which I was connected to the Internet) the pppd
has (re)started by itself, using, I guess, the default CHAP/PAP
script, as in my customized one the modem sound is OFF. (Now I am
wondering could it be a virus?) It might be also relevant to mention
that a month ago I installed a new kernel image (2.6.8-2-k7 as my CPU
is AMD Duron) to replace the originally installed 2.6.8-1-i386, and it
worked fine until now. For all upgrades I use aptitude as a front end
of apt.
Every time xdm starts, it logs the following error messages into the
/var/log/xdm.log :
-------
(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/psaux
No such device.
(EE) Configured Mouse: cannot open input device
(EE) PreInit failed for input device "Configured Mouse"
(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/mice
No such device.
(EE) Generic Mouse: cannot open input device
(EE) PreInit failed for input device "Generic Mouse"
No core pointer
Fatal server error:
failed to initialize core devices
--------
In fact, my PS/2 mouse is there and is fully functional.
pluto:/home/ivan# ls -l /dev/psaux
crw------- 1 root root 10, 1 Sep 18 2004 /dev/psaux
pluto:/home/ivan# ls -l /dev/input
total 0
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 64 Sep 18 2004 event0
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 65 Sep 18 2004 event1
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 66 Sep 18 2004 event2
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 67 Sep 18 2004 event3
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 0 Sep 18 2004 js0
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 1 Sep 18 2004 js1
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 2 Sep 18 2004 js2
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 3 Sep 18 2004 js3
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 63 Sep 18 2004 mice
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 32 Sep 18 2004 mouse0
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 33 Sep 18 2004 mouse1
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 34 Sep 18 2004 mouse2
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 35 Sep 18 2004 mouse3
lsmod shows:
Module Size Used by
...
tsdev 7360 0
mousedev 10444 2
psmouse 20232 0
...
evdev 9600 0
As root, 'cat /dev/psaux' and 'cat /dev/input/mice' generate
characters in the standard output.
Just before crash, /var/log/syslog contains the line:
Feb 4 06:43:58 localhost : PAM unable to dispatch function
After the crash, I can kill the X by Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, login into a
console and restart the X. Booting with the old kernel 2.6.8-1-i386
gives the same error messages, so I assume it also will crash sooner
or later. I have tried 'dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86'. It did not
fixed the problem.
I don't have much experience with Linux. Could somebody help me,
please? The sessions in /var/log/syslog differs before and after the
upgrade. Shall I provide the fragment of the file?
Thanks in advance.
Ivan
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