LinuxQuestions.org
Download your favorite Linux distribution at LQ ISO.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Software
User Name
Password
Linux - Software This forum is for Software issues.
Having a problem installing a new program? Want to know which application is best for the job? Post your question in this forum.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 04-21-2006, 07:48 AM   #1
cyberblak
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 12

Rep: Reputation: 0
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
 
Old 04-21-2006, 10:00 AM   #2
tomdkat
Member
 
Registered: May 2003
Location: S.F. Bay Area
Distribution: Ubuntu 9.04 AMD64
Posts: 595

Rep: Reputation: 30
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...
 
Old 04-21-2006, 09:10 PM   #3
cyberblak
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 12

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
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
 
Old 04-21-2006, 09:51 PM   #4
tomdkat
Member
 
Registered: May 2003
Location: S.F. Bay Area
Distribution: Ubuntu 9.04 AMD64
Posts: 595

Rep: Reputation: 30
Quote:
Originally Posted by cyberblak
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.
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.

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

Quote:
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.
Ok.

Peace...

Last edited by tomdkat; 04-24-2006 at 01:29 PM.
 
Old 04-24-2006, 02:40 PM   #5
cyberblak
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 12

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
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
 
Old 04-24-2006, 03:08 PM   #6
tomdkat
Member
 
Registered: May 2003
Location: S.F. Bay Area
Distribution: Ubuntu 9.04 AMD64
Posts: 595

Rep: Reputation: 30
Not off the top of my head. Can you post a link to a screenshot?

Peace...
 
Old 04-24-2006, 04:08 PM   #7
cyberblak
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 12

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
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
 
Old 04-24-2006, 04:41 PM   #8
tomdkat
Member
 
Registered: May 2003
Location: S.F. Bay Area
Distribution: Ubuntu 9.04 AMD64
Posts: 595

Rep: Reputation: 30
Quote:
Originally Posted by cyberblak
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.
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...
 
Old 04-24-2006, 05:01 PM   #9
cyberblak
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 12

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
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

Last edited by cyberblak; 04-24-2006 at 05:06 PM.
 
Old 04-24-2006, 05:05 PM   #10
tomdkat
Member
 
Registered: May 2003
Location: S.F. Bay Area
Distribution: Ubuntu 9.04 AMD64
Posts: 595

Rep: Reputation: 30
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...
 
Old 04-24-2006, 10:46 PM   #11
cyberblak
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 12

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
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
 
Old 04-24-2006, 10:47 PM   #12
tomdkat
Member
 
Registered: May 2003
Location: S.F. Bay Area
Distribution: Ubuntu 9.04 AMD64
Posts: 595

Rep: Reputation: 30
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...
 
Old 04-25-2006, 07:20 AM   #13
cyberblak
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 12

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
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
 
Old 04-25-2006, 09:54 AM   #14
tomdkat
Member
 
Registered: May 2003
Location: S.F. Bay Area
Distribution: Ubuntu 9.04 AMD64
Posts: 595

Rep: Reputation: 30
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...
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Screen saver/ machine locking up power management proiblem? lesleyb SUSE / openSUSE 0 03-24-2006 01:48 AM
xfree86 locking problem blinux1 Linux - Newbie 11 04-14-2004 10:59 PM
Xfree86 Locking up on Thinkpad R31, Mouse moves to top-right corner! Gnute Linux - Laptop and Netbook 1 01-05-2004 03:52 PM
Help configuring XFree86 on YDL 2.3 (black screen & failed XFree86 -configure) EnVoy Linux - General 1 11-24-2003 04:32 PM
Will ATI Radeon 8500 XFree86 4.2 driver work with Xfree86 4.3? Stevetgn Linux - Hardware 1 06-24-2003 06:16 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Software

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:37 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration