A long, strange FC3 problem

Sun Dec 5 06:28:04 UTC 2004

Thanks for the hints, Bob, but that doesn't seem to have done
the trick.   I'd already removed the "rhgb" and saw no change
in the locking that happens during the boot sequence, and
adding "nofb" doesn't seem to have changed that behavior.  I'm
just waiting for the desktop to lock up again now.

Is the problem the combination of certain LCD monitors and
certain video cards, or is it specifically with the monitors?
Or do the developers have it narrowed down that far yet?  If
I can stay with FC3 just by getting a different video card,
and using the DVI interface (like the one at work that works
just fine), then that's something I'm willing to try... but
only if it will work; if I have the same problem with a new
card, I'll be a touch miffed.

If not, looks like I'll be installing FC2 tomorrow while
watching football...

Summer

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004, Robert L Cochran wrote:

> Yep, the x86 Release Notes mention this too. I should be clearer about
> what I'm suggesting: I think you can edit grub.conf to use the 'nofb'
> option as a kernel parameter. That might help you fix the locking issue.
> For example
>
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.681_FC3 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 nofb
>
>
> Bob
>
> Robert L Cochran wrote:
>
> > This advice is taken from the Release Notes for the x86_64 arch. I
> > don't know if it is also in the Release Notes for x86. But it looks to
> > me like your system qualifies here:
> >
> >
> > Installation-Related Issues
> >
> > *
> >
> > Certain hardware configurations (particularly those with LCD
> > displays) may experience problems while starting the Fedora Core
> > installation program. In these instances, restart the
> > installation, and add the "*nofb*" option to the boot command line.
> >
> > NOTE: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean graphical installations
> > started using the "*nofb*" option will start in English, and then
> > switch to the appropriate language once the graphical phase of the
> > installation process begins.
> >
> > *
> >
> > Serial mice are known to be inoperative during installation.
> > However, there are indications that serial mice work properly in X
> > after the installation has completed. Refer to bug 119474 for more
> > information:
> >
> > http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=119474
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Summer Brooks wrote:
> >
> >> Bear with me... this is a long explanation of a strange problem
> >> with my home machine.
> >>
> >> I have an issue with FC3 with my monitor locking up. Actually,
> >> there are two separate issues, but while the first is one I can
> >> work around, the other one isn't.
> >>
> >> System: generic Intel P4 2.4GHz
> >> Monitor: Viewsonic VX900-2 19" LCD
> >> Graphics card: nVidia GeForce 440 MX
> >> using the SVGA interface on the monitor, since this card doesn't
> >> have DVI output
> >>
> >> First issue is my monitor locks up when switching from text
> >> mode to graphical mode during boot up. Locks up to the point
> >> where none of the buttons work, not even the power button...
> >> I have to unplug it to reset it. It happens once when switching
> >> from text to the graphical startup screen, then again when it
> >> switches from that screen to the login panel. Once it's plugged
> >> back in, the login panel is there, waiting for me, and I can login
> >> just like normal.
> >>
> >> This never happened during the year-plus it was running RH9...
> >> has anyone else seen behavior like this?
> >>
> >> The other problem is harder to pin down, but similar in symptoms.
> >> Initially, I'd just done an upgrade from RH9 to FC3, and afterwards,
> >> applied all the updates available at the time. Within about 30
> >> minutes of setting up my desktop, firing up a browser or 3 and
> >> my favorite email client, exmh, my desktop locked up.
> >>
> >> The mouse could still move across the screen, but I couldn't select
> >> a terminal window or application and work in it. At first, I thought
> >> it was a problem with Firefox, since I'd been playing on a WordPress
> >> data entry screen for a blog I help out with, so I switched back to
> >> Mozilla after a hard reboot.
> >>
> >> The problem didn't happen within that first half-hour, but I also
> >> hadn't fired up exmh that session. Nothing happened for a while,
> >> and I chalked it up to being a Firefox glitch.
> >>
> >> The next morning, when I turned the monitor on to continue working,
> >> it was locked up in the middle of a screensaver design, and I started
> >> the process all over again, with the lock-ups happening so frequently
> >> while actually working that I did a fresh install of FC3 and waited
> >> to see what would happen. I even changed xscreensaver to do a single
> >> non-3D, non-GL pattern, just to be on the safe side.
> >>
> >> To make a long debugging story short, for two days, the system didn't
> >> lock up while I used Firefox or Mozilla. I added a RH9 rpm of
> >> nmh-1.0.4-20 and used the terminal commands to do email for a day,
> >> and that was fine.
> >>
> >> Tuesday, I added exmh-2.7.0 from it's tarball, and used it in
> >> conjunction with Firefox, and had no problems over the course of a
> >> few hours, including repeating things I'd been doing in Firefox before
> >> when I'd experienced a lockup. I thought "problem solved"...
> >>
> >> On Wednesday, I added the RH9 rpms sharutils-4.2.1-14 and
> >> metamail-2.7-28
> >> (only after failing to get an FC3 rpm built from metamail-2.7-28.src.rpm
> >> or metamail-2.7-29.src.rpm), to get the full MIME related functionality
> >> in exmh. Within an hour of adding those rpms, I started to experience
> >> the desktop lockups again, even when not running exmh.
> >>
> >> What makes things worse is that I did the exact same procedure -- an
> >> upgrade from RH9 to FC3 -- on my system at work, and everything still
> >> worked fine, the exmh and everything. The system at work is a 2.8GHz
> >> Dell Precision, with 17" LCD, but it's using the DVI connector from
> >> whatever video card is in there (I think it's a newer nVidia, but I'm
> >> not 100% sure right now).
> >>
> >> So color me stumped. Right now, I've removed the metamail rpm from
> >> my home machine to see if that resolves the lockups, but if it does,
> >> that makes exmh crippled, which makes me an irked camper.
> >>
> >> I'm open to suggestions here. I'd be happy to get metamail built
> >> from source and see if it locks things up again even with a native
> >> build, but the source rpm build vomits, and I haven't been able to
> >> find sourcecode source for the current version.
> >>
> >>
> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Summer Brooks, WildHorse.com Staff I will choose a Path that's clear
> >> brooksj at wildhorse dot com I will choose Free Will
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
>
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