XFree86 locking-up the machine
 

Hi all,

The computer I try to setup freezes from time to time, only way out is a hard reboot. This doesn't seem to be a hardware related issue since I have 10 identical computers at hand with the same problem.

I installed RH 9.0 (kernel 2.4.20-8). Unfortunately I have no other options since i need some drivers that were specifically compiled for this OS.

I use XFree86-4.3.0-2.90.55, which is the latest version available from Red Hat Network.

The board has a CLE266 on-board integrated graphics, so I used the latest driver from via for this chipset.

When I switch back to X from a text console, the title bar of the open windows tends to get gibberish for a couple of seconds then it recovers. Sometimes it does not, though, and then it's a total lock-up.

No entry in the logs when it occurs. No remote pings, nada.

Any idea on what I could check to find the source of this problem?

Thank you,

cyberblak

XFree86 4.3.0 is really old. How long has this been happening?

One thing you can try is ugrade to XFree86 4.5.0 from source (it's really straight forward) to see if that solves your problem. XFree86 4.6.0 should be out shortly. One thing you can try is make a backup of /usr/X11R6 (the entire directory) and your /etc/X11/XF86Config file. Install XFree86 4.5.0 (or wait for 4.6.0) and see if that solves your problem. If it does not, you can restore your backed up /usr/X11R6 directory and be back to where you are now.

Make sure the video drive you're using is compatibile with XFree86 4.3.0. Also, see if your video adapter is supported by XFree86 directly. Maybe using the driver that comes with XFree86 would work better in that you would not have this problem.

Lastly, check /var/log/XFree86.0.log for any errors.

What is your default runlevel? Do you boot into GUI mode or into text mode and run X manually?

Peace...

Hi Tomdkat,

In fact, I tried to upgrade to XFree86 4.5 a few days ago. I didn't test long enough to see if it worked out because an issue with the True Type fonts arosed. I need to use a few TT fonts in the system, but once installed, it seems that those fonts wouldn't scale properly.

Anyway, the CLE266 chipset is effectively supported by the latest XFree. Is it supposed to be better than the Via driver?

As for the logs, nothing really interesting... No startup errors and nothing before the freeze.

The system boots in runlevel 3 and I start X manually using startx and a .xinitrc file.

Thanks,

cyberblak

What fonts are these? Are they freely available? I'm running a 4.6.0rc3 X server right now and I can load those fonts and see how they behave.

Can you see if your terminal switching problem occurs with 4.5? If it does not, the font issue could be dealt with, I'm sure. :)

I don't know but if the crash is related to a driver problem, you can see about getting an updated driver from Via or find out what your other options are.

Ok.

Peace...

Ok, here is where I am now:

I installed the XFree86-4.5 with the built-in via driver. I got the fonts to work, but the colors are all screwed up. I mean, inverted or something (you should see the colors selector!).

As if the value for R, G and B would have been mixed up.

The monitor is a flat panel.

Any idea on which config. could do that?

Thanks,

cyberblak

Not off the top of my head. Can you post a link to a screenshot?

Peace...

Unfortunately I can't... When I take a screenshot, the resulting picture has the correct colors. The problem seems to be between the actual data (which is ok) and the screen.

As soon as I replace the built-in driver with the one from Via, the problem disapears. But if the crashes are related to the Via driver, this won't help me!

Thanks,

cyberblak

Ok. Can you tell me the steps you followed to install your special font?

So, X 4.5.0 doesn't have the terminal switch problem but has the font problem. Sounds like the other driver was causing the X crash. Once I know how you installed the font, we can see what can be done.

Is the font a true-type font?

Peace...

Hi,

Using XFree86 4.3 (standard with RH 9.0), I used the following procedure:

http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/

The fonts then scaled very well.

When I upgraded to XFree86 4.5, I only added the fonts directory that was created with the procedure (/usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts in my case) to the catalogue entry of the xfs config file (in /etc/X11/fs).

The fonts are now scaling very badly...

Thanks,

cyberblak

Ok, read this. XFree86 uses freetype for TTF font support and fontconfig to manage the fonts. The RedHat releases mentioned in the link you posted are ancient. Try the procedure described in the XFree86 doc above.

I installed some Windows fonts a few days ago using that method (mkfontdir, mkfontscale, fc-cache) and they are readily available.

Let me know how it goes.

Peace...

The bad news are - the machine just locked TIGHT a few minutes ago... Hard reboot and all.

Could it be some kernel issue? I need a machine that never locks, it will be situated in a remote location!

I will appreciate any idea...

Thanks!

cyberblak

Hmmm.. strange. Did it crash with X 4.5.0 and the XFree driver or the Via driver? Did you try installing the font per the XFree instructions and revert back to the XFree driver instead of the Via driver?

Peace...

It crashed with XFree86 4.5.0 using the built-in driver (which, by the way, still has this color problem and is almost unusable). I did not have the time to fiddle with the fonts, it crashed before.

Same type of freeze than before. Simple, plain freeze.

Thanks,

cyberblak

Great, so now we've got X crashes with both the built-in driver as well as the Via supplied driver. At least with the Via supplied driver, the font looks correct.

At this point, I'm stumped. I guess you would want to either revert back to X 4.3 w/ the Via driver since you're no better off with 4.5. Or stick with 4.5 and re-install the Via driver. You mention above this machine will be at a remote location. Will the user at that location be switching from a text console to X, as you're doing?

Maybe posting your question to the XFree86 user mailing list would be another avenue, since the XFree86 developers monitor the list. 4.6.0 is on the verge of coming out so they might tell you to upgrade to that but you never know.

Peace...