From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 2 15:39:49 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 689D0106566C for ; Tue, 2 Mar 2010 15:39:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david@vizion2000.net) Received: from dns1.vizion2000.net (dns1.vizion2000.net [62.49.197.50]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF7E78FC1A for ; Tue, 2 Mar 2010 15:39:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: by dns1.vizion2000.net (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 93CCA34D435; Tue, 2 Mar 2010 15:39:45 +0000 (GMT) From: David Southwell Organization: Voice & Vision To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 15:39:45 +0000 User-Agent: KMail/1.12.4 (FreeBSD/7.2-RELEASE-p3; KDE/4.3.5; amd64; ; ) References: <201003020938.33503.david@vizion2000.net> In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <201003021539.45537.david@vizion2000.net> Subject: Re: Hi - identifying cause of crash - a how to please X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:39:49 -0000 > David Southwell wrote: > > Hi > > > > I have a specific situation which causes a system crash on freebsd 7.2 p3 > > amd64 on intel quad core. Can someone teach me how to trace the cause? > > > > The crash is repeatable in the following circumstances: > > > > > > (a) User logs in > > (b) % startx > > (c) kde4 loads and works the session > > (d) user logs out x session terminates. > > (e) user attempts to start a new x session with: > > (f) % startx > > (g) system crashes immediately > > > > System requires rebooting to single user mode. Run fsck -y and then go > > multiuser. Whereupon the cycle can be repeated. > > > > > > This event did not occur until kde was upgraded to kde 4.3.5. > > > > The video card is a winfast PX7800GT providing openGL with dual DVI. The > > crash problem was not present before upgrading to 3.4.5 so whilst not > > ruling out the card I am not assuming it is the video card. > > > > It would be helpful if the procedure could be identified clearly. I will > > post the results available on the web so someone who knows how to > > interpret them could take a look. > > > > Finally should I be asking this question on another maillist? > > This is a good place to start, and if someone knows a better spot it will > probably be indicated. I can't give you an in depth response, but maybe > something to start with. The Kernel Debugging section of the Developer's > Handbook may serve as an introduction to a few basics: > > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/ > > You can also start right away by examining the .xsession-errors file you > will find in the users home directory. Also, in /var/log look for the > Xorg.0.log and Xorg.0.log.old. After restarting from a crash, if you startx > the first one will only contain info on that startup; the second one (.old) > may contain some info on what happened at the time of the previous crash, > if it is indeed the X server crashing. Sometimes any errors to stdout may > appear in /var/log/messages. > > Sometimes there may be informative error messages present which can be > Googled, and other times nothing useful. The same with the .xsession-errors > file - it usually contains information relevant to the applications which > were running on top of X. > > If you are running the nvidia driver and see some evidence that it may be > responsible for the crash, you could try substituting the nv driver as a > test. This might help isolate the problem to the nvidia driver. But where > to go from here is a good question. Sometimes if there is some problem wrt > the nvidia driver after some kind of upgrade doing a make, make deinstall, > and make reinstall of the nvidia driver port occasionally fixes something, > but this is a long shot. > > Nvidia also has a web forum you might hunt around in. Also, if you are > doing startx to start KDE with a .xinitrc file in the users home dir (with > startkde in here), try it without so the default TWM window manager comes > up instead of KDE. Then do the restart test and see if it crashes. This > is a good way to separate the problem from being X related and/or KDE > related. > > -Mike > Thanks mike Will give all that a go. Incidentally found no.xsession-errors in user's directory. Photographic Artist Permanent Installations & Design Creative Imagery and Advanced Digital Techniques High Dynamic Range Photography & Official Portraiture Combined darkroom & digital creations & Systems Adminstrator for the vizion2000.net network