Intel video testing: It worked for a bit...

[Robert Arendt]

Leon Stringer wrote:
> Bob Arendt wrote:
>> Leon Stringer wrote:
>>> Robert Arendt wrote:
>> To get more diagnostics, again try booting with "nomodeset 3"
>> (to start at runlevel 3, without X).  Log into a VT and type:
>>   startx /usr/bin/xterm -- -logverbose 255
>>
>> This should start an Xserver and xterm (yum install /usr/bin/xterm)
>> on vt7.  This is sort of a failsafe mode - not even a window manager.
>> It takes gdm and the rest of the gnome session out of the equation.
>> When you exit the xterm, the Xserver will terminate.  The logverbose
>> puts maximum debug into the /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
>>
>> If you got an xterm, you can start a window manager wiht "metacity &".
>> Now you have borders and can drag the xterm.  Maybe try simple tests
>> like "x11perf -putimage100" (2D)  or "glxgears" (3D).  This will
>> give you some simple numeric benchmarks to compare to other systems.
>>
>> I feel your pain, I've been testing this hardware since F10 alpha (last
>> Halloween):
>> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=469292
>>
> 
> When I say "locks up" I find Num Lock/Caps Lock lights toggle initially
> but stop after a few seconds. I can't switch to a virtual terminal
> either. (This is a desktop machine so I don't get any backlight issues).
> 
> However, the basic startx xterm... test worked and I can load Metacity
> and glxgears runs.
> 
> So I'm a bit baffled, if I can get a minimal X running, what's missing
> that prevents GNOME running?
> 
> And thanks for your help so far Bob, at least I feel I'm getting
> somewhere (albeit slowly!).
> 
Great!  Looks like the Xserver is mostly working.  It could be that
gdm is having problems starting up, or pulseaudio might be hitting your
system and causing it to lock up.

If you look in /var/log/messages just prior to the start of the current
boot, do you see anything that could indicate a problem?  Also gdm
(the login manager) is spitting out *lots* of diagnostics into the log.
If it freezes, it's probably somewhere during gdm startup, since it
starts X (maybe does sound and animations) before presenting a login box.

Instead of this fail-safe login, try starting gnome-session or kde
instead of xterm.  As before, boot to runlevel 3, log in, and:
   startx /usr/bin/gnome-session -- -logverbose 255
or
   startx /usr/bin/startkde -- -logverbose 255
(I think startkde is the session startup script, not sure ...)

You should be able to log in as a non-root user and start a session
this way.  If there are problems, you might consider starting from
a new user's directory;  Some configuration changes seem to have made
some gnome settings incompatible with previous versions.  Also new-users
have "Desktop Effects" turned off by default (the "effects" cause a
lock-up just as you describe).

If these work, then it's certainly something associated with gdm (gnome
display manager).  It's the one that starts X, puts up a login screen,
and possibly gets fancy with some sound and animation in F11 .. which
might be killing you.  Although glxgears works, trying to enable
"Desktop effects" froze me completely (no capslocks or network).
If gdm is trying to do compositing, that may be the killer.

If the gnome-session login doesn't work, maybe it's not X at all ..
maybe it's trying to play a sound and it locks up.  To test this,
boot to runlevel 3, log in as root, and start pulseaudio manually:
    pulseaudio --kill
    pulseaudio --start
then
    paplay /usr/share/sounds/startup*.wav

There should be a number of files in that directory.  F10 has startup3.wav.
If this works, pulseaudio probably isn't the killer.

Good luck Leon!
-Bob