Re: Help !! It's Baaack !

From: Rick Stevens <rstevens(at)internap.com>
Date: Fri Dec 21 2007 - 13:53:33 EST

On Thu, 2007-12-20 at 23:52 -0500, Micros50 wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-12-19 at 09:38 -0800, Rick Stevens wrote:
> > On Wed, 2007-12-19 at 06:01 -0500, mylar wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2007-12-17 at 10:31 -0800, Rick Stevens wrote:
> > > > On Sun, 2007-12-16 at 06:30 -0500, mylar wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, 2007-12-14 at 11:30 -0800, Rick Stevens wrote:
> > > > > > On Fri, 2007-12-14 at 06:11 -0500, mylar wrote:
> > > > > > > Hello.
> > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Any ideas. Where do I start debugging this thing ? Why would it work,
> > > > > > > then not work, intermittently like that. Its one of the strangest
> > > > > > > problems I've had in a looooong time.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > First off, what kind of video hardware is it? Which driver are you
> > > > > > running? This sounds like the driver is misinterpreting the DRI data
> > > > > > from the monitor on warm boots.
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Okay, the machine is 2.8 Ghz Dell 4600 running an Intel on board video
> > > > > adapter. The video card is an Intel 82865G Integrated Graphics
> > > > > Controller and the monitor is a Dell E172FP flap panel LCD display. The
> > > > > driver is the i810 driver which is the one I was told to use and, the
> > > > > only one which seems to work. I'm running at a screen resolution of
> > > > > 1280x1024 which I have been using on this machine for several years. I
> > > > > had no problem with Fedora 1, not with Fedora 7 while running the 2.6.18
> > > > > XEN kernel. As soon as I upgraded to 2.6.20 whammo, the problem began.
> > > > >
> > > > > To make things confusing (at least for me) it sometimes the display
> > > > > comes up fine. Other times it will flicker a few times then come up
> > > > > fine. other times it sits there like stone and does nothing till I hit
> > > > > the big switch.
> > > > >
> > > > > Oh, one other thing. It also happens on cold boots too. This morning I
> > > > > booted the machine cold and it happened. I had to reboot to the old
> > > > > kernel.
> > > > >
> > > > > Lastly, I can find nothing in the systems logs or anywhere else that
> > > > > might indicate where the glitch is occurring. It's strange.
> > > >
> > > > I've run into a similar thing myself. On occasion after the screen
> > > > saver blanks the screen (this is on an nVidia with a Viewsonic display),
> > > > the display wakes up but it's torn and unreadable. A quick
> > > > "CTRL-ALT-F1" followed by an "ALT-F7" (go to text console and back to
> > > > GUI) cures it. I've not found a permanent fix.
> > > >
> > > > It seems that the DRI/DRM stuff isn't sticking so the horizontal and
> > > > vertical refresh aren't sent properly when the screen wakes up and my
> > > > weird key sequence above causes a reset. This smells like something
> > > > that should be sent to bugzilla.
> > > >
> > >
> > > I may have found a temporary fix. I lowered the default screen
> > > resolution as root and thus far it has booted up with no problems two or
> > > three times in a row. However, when i log in and operate under X under
> > > my regular non-root account it seems to run fine under the higher
> > > 1280x1024 screen resolution that I normally like to use.
> > >
> > > I googled around a bit to see what I could find about this problem. it
> > > seems that I am not alone. Others have reported similar problems. seems
> > > something got broke between kernel updates with respect to the i810
> > > driver. I hate it when updates break stuff that has previously worked
> > > but that's the nature of the beast.
> >
> > I kinda suspected it was something like that.
> >
> > > I never submitted a bug report to bugzilla. Is that a relatively
> > > painless process ? It would be great if this problem could be patched
> > > soon.
> >
> > First, go to https://bugzilla.redhat.com and create an account (don't
> > worry, it's free) and log in. Select "New" in the grey menu bar below
> > the red one at the top. In the next screen, select a product and you'll
> > be taken to the appropriate screen. The items labeled in blue should be
> > filled in as best you can. When you're done, click on the "Commit"
> > button at the bottom of the page.
> >
> > Pretty simple.
>
> Thanks for the help. For the time being I seem to have found a temporary
> workaround as I described in a prior email. Thus far I've booted this
> machine several times into the new kernel and it hasn't hung with a
> blank screen. Meanwhile I'll file a bugzilla report. Hopefully this
> problem will be fixed in future kernel updates. This new kernel fixes a
> few other annoying problems I was having with the old kernel. Glad I can
> use it now.

It may be a gnome or kde setting that's freaking it out, since it seems to work with regular accounts but not root.

> Now I've got to check another (different) machine. Seems the kernel I
> updated on that one is causing strange system hangups.That's the way it
> goes I suppose. Fix one break another :)

Welcome to my world. I have about 5,000 machines I have to ride herd on--a mix of Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, Ubuntu and SuSE machines. Ye gods!

> In the event I don't write to the list till next year Happy Holidays

The same to you, John!

---

• Rick Stevens, Principal Engineer rstevens@internap.com -
• CDN Systems, Internap, Inc. http://www.internap.com -
• -
• We have enough youth, how about a fountain of SMART? -

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