Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:54:14 -0600 From: Gary Aitken <ah@dreamchaser.org> To: freebsd@dreamchaser.org Cc: Matthew Seaman <matthew@freebsd.org>, Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 9.0 release hang in quiescent X [Solved] Message-ID: <5033AF26.8030201@dreamchaser.org> In-Reply-To: <50314BB0.2010501@dreamchaser.org> References: <20120818120030.D526210657A8@hub.freebsd.org> <20120820005007.T33776@sola.nimnet.asn.au> <50314BB0.2010501@dreamchaser.org>
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Having run for a couple of days now without problems, I'm guardedly optimistic I've solved this problem. It appears the problem had nothing to do with screen blanking. The solution was to disable memory mapping in BIOS, whose purpose is to recover the memory addresses reserved for hardware in old PC architectures. It means some memory will never be used, but that's better than a hang. http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20110131214116581&board_id=1&model=M4A89TD+PRO%2fUSB3&page=1&SLanguage=en-us Gary On 08/19/12 14:25, Gary Aitken wrote: > On 08/19/12 10:11, Ian Smith wrote: >> In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 428, Issue 7, Message: 4 >> On Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:51:07 -0600 Gary Aitken <freebsd@dreamchaser.org> wrote: >> > On 08/16/12 00:04, Matthew Seaman wrote: >> > > On 16/08/2012 05:45, Gary Aitken wrote: >> > ... >> > >> Running 9.0 release on an amd 64 box, standard kernel, 16GB, SSD (/, >> > >> /usr, /var, /tmp) + HDDs, visiontek 900331 graphics card (ati radeon >> > >> hd5550). >> > >> >> > >> As long as I am using the system, things seem to be fine. However, >> > >> when I leave the system idle for an extended period of time (e.g. >> > >> overnight, out for the day, etc.), it often refuses to return from >> > >> whatever state it is in. The screen is blank and in standby for >> > >> power saving, and <ctl><alt> Fn won't get me a console prompt. The >> > >> only way I know to recover is to power off and reboot. >> > ... >> > >> Can someone suggest a good way to proceed to figure out what's going >> > >> on? >> > > >> > > Can you get network access to the machine when it gets into this state? >> > >> > I enabled remote logins and when the system hangs, I can neither log >> > in nor ping it. I can do both of those prior to a hang. >> >> Hi Gary. Please wrap text less than 80 columns on freebsd lists; I was >> going to reply to a later message but it had got too messy. Turned out >> this one is more useful anyway, so I've taken the liberty .. > > will do. Wasn't sure what was considered the right thing to do, > as I regularly get messages which when quoted run out as single lines. > >> > > As to working out what the underlying cause of the problem is: that's >> > > harder. I'd try experimenting with the power saving settings for your >> > > graphics display. If you can turn them off as a test, and the machine >> > > then survives for an extended period of idleness, you'll have gone a >> > > long way towards isolating the problem. >> >> Have you yet tried turning off any and all power saving settings, until >> your monitor quits blanking/suspending, and the machine keeps running? > > Doing that test now. > >> The monitor isn't blanking by itself, BIOS suspend & power off settings >> for screen, disk etc shouldn't affect a running FreeBSD system (but turn >> them off anyway!) - so we're left with something you've set yourself, >> presumably via your (which?) window manager, which then has Xorg, using >> your hardware's particular driver, do the dirty work on the hardware. > > I'm currently using xfce4. > >> Just that it's not clear you've yet isolated the main suspect. There's >> buggy hardware, buggy ACPI/BIOS implementations, buggy video drivers; it >> makes sense to rule out another hardware problem by leaving video on. > ... >> Something you set is doing it :) If running say KDE, suspects would >> include screen'savers' (as many have mentioned), window manager power >> settings (setting/peripherals/display/powercontrol on kde3), and lastly >> as Warren mentioned, settings for Xorg itself, in xorg.conf (if any). > > It appears the screen blanking is a result of xorg's default 10 min BlankTime default, which I've turned off. > > I found this reference to possible issues with memory hole remapping, > which I will also check into: > > http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20110131214116581&board_id=1&model=M4A89TD+PRO%2fUSB3&page=1&SLanguage=en-us > > That actually seems more likely to be the problem > > Many thanks for your explanations > > Gary > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > >
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