From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 13 18:29:41 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: current@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E7DE316A4FE for ; Thu, 13 Apr 2006 18:29:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david@catwhisker.org) Received: from bunrab.catwhisker.org (adsl-63-193-123-122.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net [63.193.123.122]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7D9FA43D48 for ; Thu, 13 Apr 2006 18:29:39 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from david@catwhisker.org) Received: from bunrab.catwhisker.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by bunrab.catwhisker.org (8.13.3/8.13.3) with ESMTP id k3DITc4C018424 for ; Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:29:38 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from david@bunrab.catwhisker.org) Received: (from david@localhost) by bunrab.catwhisker.org (8.13.3/8.13.1/Submit) id k3DITcPZ018423 for current@freebsd.org; Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:29:38 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from david) Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:29:38 -0700 From: David Wolfskill To: current@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20060413182938.GB692@bunrab.catwhisker.org> Mail-Followup-To: David Wolfskill , current@freebsd.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Cc: Subject: xdm & syscons failing to get along ... sometimes? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 18:29:42 -0000 I've been tracking RELENG_6 (on slice 1) and HEAD (on slice 4) of my laptop (currently a Dell Inspiron 8200) for a while now. And while I've been fairly pleased with the overall behavior for both, there's one issue that shows up a lot more often in CURRENT than 6.x, and it's getting to the point where I'm about to start poking around to try to figure out what's going on so I can fix it. But before I do, I thought it might make sense to describe what I'm seeing & ask if other folks are seeing it or if other folks are trying to fix it (so I can work with them, vs. at cross-purposes). Briefly: * I start xdm via a script in /usr/local/etc/rc.d. * In the past (since FreeBSD 2.2.x or so), this has worked without any problems at all. * More recently, sometimes after the machine boots, the virtual terminals provided by syscons(4) don't seem to work. Symptoms include: * Typing my login on the xdm login screen fails to echo, but the information does appear to be read by getty(8). * Indeed; I am actually able to login, though seeing that is almost impossible, because the various Ctl+Alt+Fx chords don't show any vtys, either. But after I enter my login & password, I can (blindly) type "sudo reboot" followed by my password, and the machine then reboots (if I typed everything correctly). Thus, it appears that there's a bit of a "disconnect" between what process is actually accepting keyboard input vs. what process is controlling the display. * I have tried tinkering with the rcorder(8) keywords, as well as creating an additional "startup script," the job of which is to insert a "sleep" before xdm starts up. Although I've been able to make the symptoms rarer, I have not been able to make them stop completely. I tweaked that extra script to add more delay for 7.x; that seems to help somewhat, but even adding 12 more seconds doesn't prevent the problem from recurring. * Usually a reboot does not exhibit the same symptoms. Sometimes, it does. * As noted above, it's more common in 7.x than in 6.x. I don't recall ever seeing the problem in 4.x or earlier. (I didn't spend enough time running 5.x to recall.) * I have not seen the problem on my desktop at work, where I also track RELENG_6 & HEAD, and also run xdm via a script in /usr/local/etc/rc.d. As noted, the laptop is a Dell Inspiron 8200; here's some salient info about the hardware, taken from dmesg: FreeBSD 7.0-CURRENT #47: Thu Apr 13 10:14:06 PDT 2006 root@localhost:/common/S4/obj/usr/src/sys/LAPTOP_30W ... Calibrating clock(s) ... i8254 clock: 1193216 Hz CLK_USE_I8254_CALIBRATION not specified - using default frequency Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 Calibrating TSC clock ... TSC clock: 1594832736 Hz CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Mobile CPU 1.60GHz (1594.83-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0xf24 Stepping = 4 Features=0x3febf9ff Instruction TLB: 4 KB, 2 MB or 4 MB pages, fully associative, 64 entries Data TLB: 4 KB or 4 MB pages, fully associative, 64 entries 1st-level data cache: 8 KB, 4-way set associative, sectored cache, 64 byte line size Trace cache: 12K-uops, 8-way set associative 2nd-level cache: 512 KB, 8-way set associative, sectored cache, 64 byte line size real memory = 268312576 (255 MB) ... /var/log/Xorg.0.log tells me the video card is a "nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 Go] rev 178;" I'm using the X.org "nv" driver. My current work desktop is a Dell Dimension 3000; its video card is shown as "Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller rev 2;" I'm using the X.org "i810" driver. Here's a corresponding exerpt from dmsg.run (running 6.x): FreeBSD 6.1-RC #41: Sun Apr 9 06:21:31 PDT 2006 root@localhost:/common/S2/obj/usr/src/sys/CATMINT ACPI APIC Table: Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz (2793.01-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0xf41 Stepping = 1 Features=0xbfebfbff Features2=0x441d> real memory = 535232512 (510 MB) avail memory = 514396160 (490 MB) Hints, pointers, suggestions, or fixes would be welcomoe. Peace, david -- David H. Wolfskill david@catwhisker.org Mail filters, like sewers, need to be most restrictive at the point of entry. See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key.