Bug#216933: Release notes: please include "cantfix" Crusoe/X bug 216933
Greetings and apologies for the delay,
First, in http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/i386/release-notes/ it
does not seem that there's a natural place for "known bugs", so that
will need to be created, perhaps at the end or under "Detailed changes
to the system".
So here is the sample text:
The X server shipping in Debian 3.1 contains optimized code which is not
properly executed by many Transmeta(TM) Crusoe(TM) processors. The
result of this is that at a certain time (when cached code "morphed"
from x86 to Crusoe VLIW instructions in the CPU is in a buggy state), X
client applications which connect with it fail with the following error
message:
X Error of failed request: BadLength (poly request too large or internal Xlib length error)
Major opcode of failed request: 18 (X_ChangeProperty)
Serial number of failed request: 15
Current serial number in output stream: 18
In practical terms, this means that after a few hours of operation,
applications will suddenly quit in rapid succession; if a display
manager is running, that too will repeatedly quit and attempt to restart
itself. The state will persist until the buggy VLIW Transmeta code is
flushed from the cache.
The workaround for this bug is to install an X server compiled without
optimization, such as the xserver-xfree86-dbg package. Since the bug is
in the proprietary Transmeta Code Morphing Software (CMS), and the
laptop BIOS checks the CMS for a vendor signature at boot time, only
cooperation between Transmeta and the laptop vendor can fix this. Thus
far, only HP is known to have done this for the Compaq TabletPC TC1000
family
(http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/compaqtabletpc/us/download/18120.html), and Transmeta has dropped support for their proprietary CMS, making further fixes unlikely.
For more details, see Debian bug #216933, freedesktop.org bugzilla id
455 (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=455) and detailed
technical analysis and a list of known platforms with the bug at
http://www.cs.auc.dk/~fleury/bug_cms/ .
On Fri, 2005-05-06 at 20:07 +0100, Rob Bradford wrote:
> Adam C Powell IV wrote:
> > I'd be happy to suggest wording for such a section, just let me know.
>
> Please do this and send it to me and CC debian-doc@lists.debian.org.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rob
-Adam
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