Baslinux mailing list

[baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org]

On Sat, 21 Aug 2010, baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

> > 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).

Gigabyte GA-7M266, 1.33GHz AMD 2000+, given to me with XP.  After I traded 
someone my reliable 1GHz ASUS with BL on it (for a 3.2GHz XP laptop with 
working DVD burner and cracked power jack solder), I booted from HDD1 
(primary slave) with BL on it and was unable to use X.

S3 ProSavage DDR 86C420 chip does not work with SVGA server.  I did not 
look for a specific server for Savage.  The computer is newer than 
Slackware 8.1.  (As are most of my desktops).

Xvesa works but then the keyboard goes haywire - I get odd characters such 
as t instead of backspace, and cannot reboot (powered off).  zgv with 
svgalib displays nicely (which is unusual for an LCD monitor) but the 
keyboard also freezes.  (Did not test the mouse).

Kernel 2.4.31 (did not test kernel 2.2).  Did not switch desktops.  The 
Winbook XLi had a similar problem but the keyboard there did nothing at 
all.  Puppy with kernel 2.6.21.7 worked fine on the Winbook (apart from 
sound, which works with BL2 and sb emulation).

So I downloaded Puppy iso, mounted it loop, extracted the sfs file to 
the linux directory, vmlinuz and initrd.gz to the DOS directory,
rebooted to DOS, loadlin vmlinuz initrd=initrd.gz nosmp ro

Tried to test Xvesa and got an endless loop.  Rebooted.
Set up with Xorg and it worked perfectly with keyboard and mouse.

BL might work with a 2.6 kernel and/or XOrg instead of Xfree86 3.6.

I did not test DSL linux, which worked like BL in the Winbook, or another 
2.6 kernel in another linux.

Sindi