Re: Random Sig'11 in XF864 with kernel > 2.2.x

[Jeffrey Ingber <jhingber@ix.netcom.com>]

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Thanks for your feedback!

Just to make some clarifications:

The random Sig 11's are observed in the stock XFree86 4.x drivers with
none of the 'extras' enabled, such as DRI on several sets of video cards
(Matrox and ATI).  I can run both UP and SMP kernels in the 2.2 series
and 2.4 UP kernels with unlimited uptimes.  However, switching to a 2.4
SMP kernel will cause random Sig 11's in X, seemingly irregardless of
video card/vendor. 

The systems are all stock hardware as well as the distros (excluding
errata).  It's difficult to ascertain information on this problem due to
the 'randomness' of the crashes.  I don't have to do anything unusual to
cause this crash:  Just install a recent distro on an SMP machine, stare
at the screen, and X will eventually crash.

I'm not totally convinced that this is a kernel problem, but it seems
that only a handful of people seem to be aware of this.  (This has been
going on for well over a year, around the time of the mid-2.3 kernels). 
The fact that a 2.4 kernel seems to be catalyst lends some creedence to
this theory.

Jeffrey H. Ingber (jhingber _at_ ix.netcom.com)


> 
> On Sat, 2001-09-15 at 06:24, Frank Schneider wrote:
> > Jeffrey Ingber schrieb:
> > > 
> > > Hello kernel developers:
> > > 
> > > I'm experiencing random Signal 11's on kernels in the 2.4 series with
> > > XFree86 4 and SMP configurations.  Here a some threads to the XFree86
> > > mailing lists which suggest that the Signal 11's are kernel related.
> > > Downgrading to a 2.2 series kernel solves these problems:
> > > 
> > > http://www.xfree86.org/pipermail/xpert/2001-September/011053.html
> > > http://www.xfree86.org/pipermail/xpert/2001-September/011229.html
> > > 
> > > Here's a snippet from my posting to the list:
> > > 
> > > ----
> > > > Dell PowerEdge 6300 (Quad Xeon 500) with ATI Rage 128
> > > > IBM Netfinity 5600 (Dual PIII 667) with Matrox MMS Quad Monitor
> > > > Tyan Tunderbolt S1873UANG-R (Dual PIII 600) with Matrox Marvel G400
> > > 
> > >    I'll bet it goes away if you don't use a 2.4 SMP kernel.
> > > That is, use a 2.4 UP kernel or a 2.2 UP/SMP kernel.
> > > ---
> > > 
> > > And this turned out to be the case.  Is there anything that I could do
> > > help fix this?  Is there anyone else on this list that has had similar
> > > problems and has overcome this?
> > > 
> > 
> > Hello..
> > 
> > I can only admit that i also know this problem.
> > 
> > I run a RH7.1 on a dual-PIII/850 with a Matrox G400/16MB, and i also had
> > several crashes of X, mostly when Netscape runs, but some without it.
> > 
> > What i did:
> > I changed the default colourdepth from 24 to 16 and i got the "original"
> > mga.o-modules from www.matrox.com.
> > 
> > But this did not help, i suffered a crash some days ago again, but this
> > time i had a logentry, it said:
> > 
> > ---------
> > Sep 12 13:14:27 falcon kernel: [drm] Process 850 dead (ctx 1, d_s =
> > 0x00)
> > ---------
> > 
> > I run XFree 4.0.3 and have enabled the Matrox-Options in the Kernel
> > under "Character devices - Support for Matrox g200/g400", but this did
> > not help either.
> > 
> > Another problem i got by using the modules from "matrox.com", i cannot
> > switch between consoles and X anymore, if i switch back to X several
> > times (one time usually is ok), the whole machine crashes, i have to
> > reboot via SysRq and even that does not work everytime. But this is
> > related to the "mga.o"-module from matrox, i hadnt this effect with the
> > mga.o from XFree86.
> > 
> > Solong..
> > Frank.
> > 
> > --
> > Frank Schneider, <SPATZ1@T-ONLINE.DE>.                           
> > Microsoft isn't the answer.
> > Microsoft is the question, and the answer is NO.
> > ... -.-
> > -
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> 


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