Bug#375553: xserver-xorg: Server freezes switching to console and back

[Nicola Girardi <nicola@gnu-pascal.org>]

> About a year ago, you reported a bug to the Debian BTS regarding a
> freeze of the X server when switch back/to console on a Sis board. Did
> you reproduce this problem recently? With Xorg/Etch? If not, I will
> close this bug in the next weeks.

The problem persists.

Example: I log into tty1 and then I start X in the background:

$ startx >& /dev/null &

At some point I go back to tty1 and open, say, mutt:

$ mutt

Then I read mails and go back to X.  Suppose I go back to tty1 and find new
mail.  After reading I go back to X once again, and I find that the only
window I can do something on is the one that was active before going back to
tty1 the last time.  After closing it, everything is frozen.

This is just an example.  From my experience, I conjecture that if something
happens in the console from which I start X, while I'm on X, then switching
to the console and then to X freezes X.  In fact, I work this problem around
like this:

Log into some far away console, /dev/tty10, start X in the foreground:

$ startx

and never come back to it do do any operation.  (Switching to tty10 to see
what's going on there, error messages and so on, is fine.)

Hope this helps, if you need more information, just let me know.