restarting a locked X server

[tyler <tyler.smith@mail.mcgill.ca>]

Hi,

My xserver crashed this morning, due apparently to some known bugs in
the intel video drivers. However, after the crash I couldn't restart X
from the command line, and had to reboot to get everything back working
again. There must be someway to clean up after X crashes without
rebooting? I've pasted the output of one of my failed attempts to invoke
startx without rebooting, any suggestions on how I can force a clean
start of X would be welcome!

Thanks,

Tyler


X.Org X Server 1.4.2
Release Date: 11 June 2008
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux Debian (xorg-server 2:1.4.2-10)
Current Operating System: Linux blackbart 2.6.26-1-686 #1 SMP Sat Jan 10 18:29:31 UTC 2009 i686
Build Date: 09 January 2009  02:57:16AM
 
	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Tue Mar  3 10:05:30 2009
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"

(WW) intel: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:0:2:1) found
(II) Module "ddc" already built-in
(II) Module "i2c" already built-in
(II) Module "ramdac" already built-in
Error in I830WaitLpRing(), timeout for 2 seconds
pgetbl_ctl: 0xbffc0001 getbl_err: 0x00000000
ipeir: 0x00000000 iphdr: 0x02000011
LP ring tail: 0x0001e930 head: 0x0001e93c len: 0x0001f001 start 0x00000000
eir: 0x0000 esr: 0x0000 emr: 0xffff
instdone: 0xfa41 instpm: 0x0000
memmode: 0x00000306 instps: 0x800f04c4
hwstam: 0xfffe ier: 0x0002 imr: 0x0000 iir: 0x00a0
Ring at virtual 0xa7890000 head 0x1e93c tail 0x1e930 count 32765
	0001e8bc: 00400100
	0001e8c0: 00800000
	0001e8c4: 00000000

[snipped]

	0001e938: 00000720
	0001e93c: 00000000
Ring end
space: 4 wanted 32

Fatal server error:
lockup


waiting for X server to begin accepting connections 
giving up.
xinit:  Connection reset by peer (errno 104):  unable to connect to X server
xinit:  No such process (errno 3):  Server error.


-- 
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to birds.                              --Richard Feynman