Re: XWindows locks solid - Gnome?

["Kevin D. Knerr, Sr." <kknerrsr ptdprolog net>]

On  1 Jul, Andrew Williams wrote:
> Hello folks,
> 
>   I'm being driven to despair - after using XWindows for a while
> it just locks up completely and I think it might be Gnome. I'm
> posting this here in case anyone has encountered anything similar
> and can help...
>   I'm happily Gnoming away when suddenly the mouse refuses to focus
> windows - then I can't change virtual displays - then I can't type in
> Eterm - then the keyboard seems to lock completely so that
> Ctrl-Alt-Backspace does nothing - then even the caps lock key refuses
> to work - and finally even the mouse locks up and stops moving. It's
> like watching it crash in slow motion. What's wierd is that GKrellM
> keeps on ticking away, showing no CPU usage, and if I'm downloading
> something it will keep on downloading happily. I thought it might be
> Enlightenment so I switched to Sawfish with zero effect.

Yes, I'm having similar issues--however, mine isn't a slow-motion deal.

I can be moving the mouse or typing text and suddenly everything locks--
including GKrellM and BubbleMon (if they don't, it's probably pan trying
to kill a bunch of articles ;-).

Although it may be XFree86-4.0, I'm not completely sure because it did
happen occaisionally under XF86-3.3.5 as well.

I'm leaning more toward some wierd interaction between GNOME (or a GNOME
app) & X because of the following X errors that I've seen:

Internal X error: Trying to rotate odd-sized pixmap
  (I saw that one even in XF86-3.3.x)

Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_widget_size_allocate(): attempt to allocate widget
 with width 10 and height 65527
  (I wish I knew which app was trying to get a 64K (less a few bits)
  high widget . . .)

I haven't reported anything because:
  a) I can't trace it to a specific app/combination
  b) It could be a PS/2 port problem
  c) It could be some other motherboard flakiness (I discovered when trying
       to add RAM that I only have 2 usable SIMM slots: 2 SIMMs and the DIMMs
       are worthless.
  d) It could be related to power issues in our current residence. (Reader's
       Digest version: the outlets I intended to use aren't wired, the
       outlets I can are on the same circuit as practically everything
       else; I use a UPS to keep from crashing when someone turns on a
       light bulb . . .)
  e) I do use some bleeding edge stuff--that may be a contributing factor
  f) Somtimes my whole system simply reboots without warning--try to find
       a log entry for *that* situation . . .

There is one ray of sunshine:

If you compiled your kernel with SysReq key support, try the following:
  [ALT][SysReq]k (supposed to kill the virtual terminal's apps, but
    usually has no effect for me in this situation)
  [ALT][SysReq]s (if you don't see a console message--and you won't if
    the first step had no effect, watch for drive activity--this syncs
    your disks)
  I usually repeat [ALT][SysReq]s a second time . . .  
  [ALT][SysReq]u (again watch for drive activity if you can't get a console
    message--this remounts your system read-only)
  [ALT][SysReq]b (reboot)

Sometimes, this won't do anything and you're still forced to reset
manually, but if it does you won't be fscking forever and a day . . .

HTH

Barthel
-- 
   ld_barthel@yahoo.com | http://geocities.com/Area51/Shire/4063
       Organization: The Pennswald Group -- Linux powered!!
gpg fingerprint: 8D3F 4BFF D36B BFCC FEE5  86A0 2AAF D3DA C395 641E

I almost went crazy--but it would have been a real short trip.