When hide/show MPlayer and gxine,KDE crash..

niels.horn · 10-20-2007, 05:04 AM

ok, just successfully upgraded to slackware-current (X 7.3, KDE 3.5.8, kernel 2.6.23.1) and this also resolved the crashes in xine.
Makes sense, since it includes the new xorg-server-1.4

Beware: upgrading to slackware-current is not for everyone... Things might (will?) stop working, you'll have a fun time getting everything aligned again.

The result seems to be very stable, no crashes until now!

H_TeXMeX_H · 10-20-2007, 05:18 AM

I got an answer back from Mr. Pat V.:

Quote:

To be honest, there have not been many reports here. In any case, I
don't apply every patch -- I'm not the X.Org repo (or I would simply
compile from that :-). But I have seen bugs (with patches ready) that
cause problems sit around for 4 or so months before a new tarball is
issued that contains the patch.

/patches is in general for security things (which I don't see how this
is). Other fixes go into the next release unless it's something really
major (but, for some people, perhaps this is major).

Now that -current is out, you might want to check to see if that fixes
the issue. I couldn't reproduce it here, but gather it mostly affects
VIA hardware.

Best regards,

Pat

So, if you say that -current fixes the error, then maybe I should e-mail him back and tell him this. Maybe it will be convincing enough to add this patch to the patches directory.

niels.horn · 10-20-2007, 05:31 AM

Yep, -current fixed the error for me!
But, like I said in my previous post, changing to -current is not for everyone...
For the general user it would be nice to have a simpler patch available.

Thanks for the help!

H_TeXMeX_H · 10-20-2007, 05:41 AM

I just e-mailed him back and told him that -current fixes the issue. Also, it seems that this problem only affects people using via graphics chipsets. We'll see what he says.

If he decides not to include it, we can do something else. Maybe we can make a package that fixes the problem. You said you successfully compiled a new xorg-server. Maybe compile it with the standard Slackware CFLAGS, make a package of it, and upload it somewhere for people to download and use. But, let's see what his decision is, first.

niels.horn · 10-20-2007, 06:25 AM

ok!
I'm not very knowledgeable about making packages, but I can try to find out.

I am just a bit worried that my system is a bit of a mess, since I like to play around testing things, compiling etc.
But if needed I do a clean install on another partition to recreate the problem and the solution.

H_TeXMeX_H · 10-26-2007, 03:57 AM

I haven't gotten any response back from Pat V. yet, so it may be safe to assume that the patch will not be added.

You're right in that building on a clean machine is preferred when making packages. Now, I'm just wondering if it's really worth making such a package. Is there a demand for it ? If anyone out there needs it, say so. If not, then I guess nobody really needs it.

digger95 · 10-26-2007, 06:06 AM

My multimedia playback in Slackware 12 has been pretty buggy.

Gxine will play videos for me fine, so long as I don't touch my mouse or keyboard while doing so. Just trying to advance to a different part of the video crashes everything and I have to hard boot. Same with playing mp3's in Noatun. Once it goes down to the taskbar and I try to do anything else, the whole works freezes up, kde and all, and it's reboot time.

This is a fresh install of Slackware 12 with Intel onboard graphics and AC'97 onboard sound, both of which I believe are well-supported.

Not sure if I have the know-how to upgrade to slackware-current as was suggested.

Dig

niels.horn · 10-26-2007, 07:05 AM

It seems to be a problem that only affect a limited group of persons - those with a via on-board graphics chip. Most reports I found on the internet talk about xine or mplayer crashing, but kaboodle / noatun normally work well.

It can be solved by applying a patch to xorg-server and compiling, or by upgrading to -current.
This second solution might be simpler for most users, although it can bring some other small glitches (see posts on this forum) - but nothing that cannot be fixed as well.

For the not-so-experienced user a package to solve the problem in -stable would be ideal. I am just not sure if I'll be capable of making one (never did it, neither bothered to study how to do it).

H_TeXMeX_H · 10-26-2007, 07:58 AM

Well, I guess if -current is indeed stable enough, upgrading to it should be the best option.

For those who want to upgrade to -current, it's not that hard. The entire process is documented in 'slackware-current/CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT' and 'slackware-current/UPGRADE.TXT' of your favorite local Slackware mirror. Read those and they should tell you how to do it.