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  • From: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] Winbook XLi freezes in X
  • Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 13:29:16 +0000 (UTC)


Xvesa works perfectly in Puppy Linux (X11R7, 2.6 kernel)
Tested for over 30 minutes.

Xvesa uclibc and glibc23, Xfbdev glibc, X SVGA with correct XF86Config
all freeze up in BL2. Sometimes immediately. DSL Xvesa also freezes eventually. Both kernel 2.4.31. glibc 2.3
Twice VT1 has also frozen up when I tried to backspace.


Attempting to use svgalib also crashes it (in addition to producing a badly scrambled screen). svgalib uses vesa for the trident.


I still don't know why ALSA cannot handle ES1869 and Puppy and DSL cannot detect the two PS/2-type onboard mice. BL2 had no such problems.


Web research:

Redhat 7 on a Winbook XL does not do sound (they did not mention if OSS or ALSA), and the trackpad (eraser-head mouse) conflicts with PCMCIA IRQ 12 so the user disabled it and plugged in a serial mouse instead. As did I.

X freeze bugs - involves the GPU (graphical processor) and is due to code which was not tested on all hardware, often apparently random, or triggered by certain events (such as starting SVGA X server or svgalib). Distinct from input bugs, which let the screen continue to update but you cannot access it - one time when I got as far as starting to download a website I could see the pink stuff go by in the little square at bottom right of icewm. The situation can be complicated by having two or more types of bugs. (Such as my problem of Backspace causing a VT to freeze but not the whole computer to freeze).

X freeze can often be triggered by switching VTs or desktops.
The code tries to access the wrong register for particular hardware.

Suggestion is to ssh to the computer to test if it is an input bug and see if you can kill X using the client's keyboard. (Via serial, parallel, or network cable - see BL archives about using BL as a serial terminal. Telnet also works).

The bug must have been fixed in Puppy, but if it were a bug in the X server itself, it should have been fixed in the latest Xvesa which I downloaded from xorg precompiled for glibc 2.3. I wonder how you find/fix an input bug triggered by loading X.

A reason to use newer software even on older hardware.
A BL based on recent glibc and kernel and X would be helpful here.

Sindi




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