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From: newton@communica.com.au (Mark Newton)
Message-Id: <9511150733.AA09529@communica.com.au>
Subject: Re: FreeBSD 2.0.5R hanging inexplicably...
To: darrylo@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com (Darryl Okahata)
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 18:03:49 +1030 (CST)
Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
In-Reply-To: <199511150652.AA002288372@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> from "Darryl Okahata" at Nov 14, 95 10:52:52 pm
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Darryl Okahata wrote:

 >      It would be interesting to see if the people who are having
 > problems with ET4000/W32p-based video cards are using syscons or pcvt.
 > There have been a few posts recently regarding the "better robustness"
 > of pcvt (vs syscons), and I just recently found a "bug" in syscons that
 > was causing all my syscons fonts to be corrupted (after using
 > X-Windows).
 
My little brain ran itself along similar suspicions about six months
ago, leading me to install pcvt on system instead of pccons.

The problems X had occasionally caused for me were not fixed with the
different console driver.

Basically, the X server seems to be buggy when it restores text mode.
I have no problems with it until I logout (when using xdm) or switch
to another virtual console with CTL-ALT-Fx.  

Curiously, it *does* sometimes manage to do it right.  A quick precis,
for those who are interested:

 Scenario 1:  xdm started at boot time with an empty Xservers file
              X server started at end of rc.local with:
           X -query cleese.apana.org.au >/dev/null 2>&1 </dev/null

 Result:      X leaves me with a black screen 'til the next reboot
              if I dare to logout.  If I switch to another virtual 
              console, I sometimes find that my colourmap is incredibly
              dim;  If I have the audacity to switch back to the X display,
              my console locks up (ie: black screen, no keyboard response
              unless I hit ALT-Fx, at which point the speaker goes "beep").

 Scenario 2:  X server started after a normal login via "startx".

 Result:      I can exit the server, and text mode will be restored. 
              If I switch VC's, I get the black screen again.

When I'm in black screen mode, if I attempt to re-start the X server
I can see the root_weave background *very faintly*, magnified about 7 
or 8 times larger than normal.  The mouse pointer looks positively 
enourmous!

If I start the server like that then quit it, I end up back at a 
black screen

Curious, eh?

    - mark

---
Mark Newton                               Email: newton@communica.com.au
Systems Engineer                          Phone: +61-8-373-2523
Communica Systems                         WWW:   http://www.communica.com.au