Linux on Toshiba Libretto 70CT

Linux on Toshiba Libretto 70CT

[John Weber]

The kernel locks up completely whenever I launch any particularly large 
application under X (xterm is fine, netscape locks up the box).
I've confirmed that this isn't just X locking up, as the machine is 
completely frozen (doesn't respond to pings, doesn't respond to three 
finger salute, etc).

Just to make sure that this isn't a VM/Memory problem:
I've run (and the machine passed) memtest86.
I've tried running X with swapoff (and the machine still locks up).

- Kernel 2.4.19
- GLIBC 2.2.90
- XFree86 4.2.0

I can reproduce this error every single time I run X.  However, I have 
not been able to see the problem on the shell.

Anyone ever see this problem?  Does anyone have pointers on how I can 
better troubleshoot the problem?

Re: Linux on Toshiba Libretto 70CT

[Alan Cox]

On Wed, 2002-09-04 at 02:36, John Weber wrote:
> The kernel locks up completely whenever I launch any particularly large 
> application under X (xterm is fine, netscape locks up the box).
> I've confirmed that this isn't just X locking up, as the machine is 
> completely frozen (doesn't respond to pings, doesn't respond to three 
> finger salute, etc).

Can you duplicate this with the vesa and/or vga16 drivers ?

Re: Linux on Toshiba Libretto 70CT

[John Weber]

Alan Cox wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-09-04 at 02:36, John Weber wrote:
> 
>>The kernel locks up completely whenever I launch any particularly large 
>>application under X (xterm is fine, netscape locks up the box).
>>I've confirmed that this isn't just X locking up, as the machine is 
>>completely frozen (doesn't respond to pings, doesn't respond to three 
>>finger salute, etc).
> 
> 
> Can you duplicate this with the vesa and/or vga16 drivers ?
> 

The kernel locks up regardless of what drivers I use (and I have tried 
the vga16 drivers already).

Disabling the accelerated functions also "fixes" the machine, for some 
definitions of "fix" :).

My question is really why this problem would lock up the kernel...
I can't really tell whether the problem is in the implementation of the 
XFree86 functions or the kernel functions it is calling, but the fact 
that the entire kernel locks up suggests that both are to blame.  Can 
you suggest where I should start reading code (if not the file atleast 
the directory :).

(o- j o h n  e  w e b e r
//\ aspiring computer scientist
v_/_ http://www-cs.ccny.cuny.edu/acm/weber/

Re: Linux on Toshiba Libretto 70CT

[Alan Cox]

> Disabling the accelerated functions also "fixes" the machine, for some 
> definitions of "fix" :).

That sounds like an X bug then

> My question is really why this problem would lock up the kernel...
> I can't really tell whether the problem is in the implementation of the 
> XFree86 functions or the kernel functions it is calling, but the fact 
> that the entire kernel locks up suggests that both are to blame.  Can 
> you suggest where I should start reading code (if not the file atleast 
> the directory :).

X maps the video hardware and drives it directly. In that sense X is the
device driver for video not the kernel.

Re: Linux on Toshiba Libretto 70CT

[Rogier Wolff]

On Thu, Sep 05, 2002 at 04:49:35PM +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
> > Disabling the accelerated functions also "fixes" the machine, for some 
> > definitions of "fix" :).
> 
> That sounds like an X bug then
> 
> > My question is really why this problem would lock up the kernel...
> > I can't really tell whether the problem is in the implementation of the 
> > XFree86 functions or the kernel functions it is calling, but the fact 
> > that the entire kernel locks up suggests that both are to blame.  Can 
> > you suggest where I should start reading code (if not the file atleast 
> > the directory :).
> 
> X maps the video hardware and drives it directly. In that sense X is the
> device driver for video not the kernel.

... And some chips have bugs like "will hang the PCI bus if you
disable this while the chip is doing that". The chip "errata" will
read "don't do that then", and the manufacturer will try to make the
windows driver "not do that". But the Xfree driver may be lagging and
still do this occasionally.

			Roger. 


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