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freezing afer switching from graphical to console

DISCUSSION Michael Gruner 4 participants 7 messages Jul 9, 2002

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#0 lore raw

Hi,

since 2.4.17 I have got a problem: trying to switch from graphical screen to console or to stop my X-session my box freezes. The screen gets black and nothing more happens. Pressing any keys or trying to switch to another console the box does not do anything. Only o cold restart brings the box up again.

Hardware is a MSI6126 with a 440bx chipset. The processor is a 400 MHZ Celeron on a MS6905 ppga 370 to slot 1 cpu converter. In former times there were 256MB RAM in there but I got a lot of segfaults during compiling the kernel. So i removed 128MB and now compiling runs fine. So I don't think it might be a hardware failure?!

Problems had be seen very often with kernel 2.4.18, now with 2.4.19-rc1 not as often as before. That means: it happens maybe 1 or 2 times a week. The box is shutted down every day.

Are there any hints for solving this problem?

best regards,
Michael

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#1 lore raw
Quoted 4 lines · Michael Gruner

since 2.4.17 I have got a problem: trying to switch from graphical screen to console or to stop my X-session my box freezes. The screen gets black and nothing more happens. Pressing any keys or trying to switch to another console the box does not do anything.

I don't have this problem on 2.4.18, but I did on 2.5 kernels. On my box, it had something to do with the display manager (kdmh). When I boot to runlevel 3 and run startx manually (without kdm) I have no virtual console problems. That's my workaround for now.

I don't know what causes the problem. If anyone else has an idea to share, that'd be great.

viel glueck,

eric

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#2 lore raw
Quoted 1 line · Eric Altendorf

my box, it had something to do with the display manager (kdmh).

                                                           ^^^^

Sorry, yes, that was a typo. I meant kdm.

eric

#3 lore raw
In reply to Michael Gruner

Hi,

we have seen it, too. Seems to be graphics card dependend (ati ones are not effected, but nvidia cards are ) and what powersaving mode is enabled in the BIOS (Suspend for the Monitor causes a lock up when switching from X to the console, but when using VSync/empty screen (or something like this) all works fine).

Bernd

Quoted 22 lines · Michael Gruner

Hi,

since 2.4.17 I have got a problem: trying to switch from graphical screen to console or to stop my X-session my box freezes. The screen gets black and nothing more happens. Pressing any keys or trying to switch to another console the box does not do anything. Only o cold restart brings the box up again.

Hardware is a MSI6126 with a 440bx chipset. The processor is a 400 MHZ Celeron on a MS6905 ppga 370 to slot 1 cpu converter. In former times there were 256MB RAM in there but I got a lot of segfaults during compiling the kernel. So i removed 128MB and now compiling runs fine. So I don't think it might be a hardware failure?!

Problems had be seen very often with kernel 2.4.18, now with 2.4.19-rc1 not as often as before. That means: it happens maybe 1 or 2 times a week. The box is shutted down every day.

Are there any hints for solving this problem?

best regards,
Michael

#4 lore raw

Hi,

ok, did it as you say: in the BIOS I switched to Vsync/blank screen. Let's see what happens.

BTW: My graphics card isn't a nvidia as many of you suggested but an ATI Rage pro (what did you wrote Bernd? ;-) ).

Another interesting thing I got back in mind today was: one day my XMMS played a mp3 song and I switched to console (oooops...you know what happend) but the song kept on playing in a loop that was some milliseconds until I powered the box off. I don't know what to think about that.

best regards,
michael

Am Die, 2002-07-09 um 12.27 schrieb Bernd Schubert:

Quoted 10 lines

Hi,

we have seen it, too. Seems to be graphics card dependend (ati ones are not effected, but nvidia cards are ) and what powersaving mode is enabled in the BIOS (Suspend for the Monitor causes a lock up when switching from X to the console, but when using VSync/empty screen (or something like this) all works fine).

Bernd

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#5 lore raw
Quoted 11 lines

From Michael Gruner on Tuesday, 09 July, 2002:
Hi,
ok, did it as you say: in the BIOS I switched to Vsync/blank screen. Let's see what happens.
BTW: My graphics card isn't a nvidia as many of you suggested but an ATI Rage pro (what did you wrote Bernd? ;-) ).
Another interesting thing I got back in mind today was: one day my XMMS played a mp3 song and I switched to console (oooops...you know what happend) but the song kept on playing in a loop that was some milliseconds until I powered the box off. I don't know what to think about that.

I've seen the same thing on my ATI XPert@Play (Rage Pro chipset). At
2.4.17, it was a risky proposition to switch between X and a text VC. It's better in 2.4.18, although not much (I believe. I may be wrong). I have happend upon a situation a number of times where, when switching from X to a text VC, the machine "locks up", but CTRL-F7 (the X VC) will get me back to a working X login screen (KDM), at least for a while. If I keep trying to switch to a text VC (which never works), it eventually fully locks up, to the point where I have to pull the plug, since the on switch is non-responsive. If I tell it to shut down, it gets *most* of the way through before carping out and locking up fully.
I don't *believe* I've seen this in 2.5.x, although I may be wrong.

-Joseph

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#6 lore raw

how to debug it?

Quoted 10 lines
Quoted 9 lines

ok, did it as you say: in the BIOS I switched to Vsync/blank screen. Let's see what happens.
BTW: My graphics card isn't a nvidia as many of you suggested but an ATI Rage pro (what did you wrote Bernd? ;-) ).
Another interesting thing I got back in mind today was: one day my XMMS played a mp3 song and I switched to console (oooops...you know what happend) but the song kept on playing in a loop that was some milliseconds until I powered the box off. I don't know what to think about that.

Quoted 12 lines

I've seen the same thing on my ATI XPert@Play (Rage Pro chipset). At
2.4.17, it was a risky proposition to switch between X and a text VC. It's better in 2.4.18, although not much (I believe. I may be wrong). I have happend upon a situation a number of times where, when switching from X to a text VC, the machine "locks up", but CTRL-F7 (the X VC) will get me back to a working X login screen (KDM), at least for a while. If I keep trying to switch to a text VC (which never works), it eventually fully locks up, to the point where I have to pull the plug, since the on switch is non-responsive. If I tell it to shut down, it gets *most* of the way through before carping out and locking up fully.
I don't *believe* I've seen this in 2.5.x, although I may be wrong.

Do you think it would be a good idea to get it out of the stable tree? Or is it better to try to live with it and wait for getting 2.5 the stable tree?

Is there a howto to get this debugged? Looking into /var/log/messages there are no messages that could point out that bad thing.

michael

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