From owner-freebsd-current Sat Feb 14 23:03:57 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id XAA10565 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Sat, 14 Feb 1998 23:03:57 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au (rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au [129.78.129.109]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id XAA10545 for ; Sat, 14 Feb 1998 23:03:47 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dawes@rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au) Received: (from dawes@localhost) by rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au (8.8.5/8.8.2) id SAA00658; Sun, 15 Feb 1998 18:03:02 +1100 (EST) Message-ID: <19980215180301.36777@rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au> Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 18:03:01 +1100 From: David Dawes To: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: netscape/swap_pager causing problems with syscons References: <16424.886469286@gjp.erols.com> <199802150504.NAA00730@spinner.netplex.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.69 In-Reply-To: <199802150504.NAA00730@spinner.netplex.com.au>; from Peter Wemm on Sun, Feb 15, 1998 at 01:04:14PM +0800 Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sun, Feb 15, 1998 at 01:04:14PM +0800, Peter Wemm wrote: >"Gary Palmer" wrote: >> Donn Miller wrote in message ID >> : >> > Jordan hinted to this as a problem with syscons in one posting I saw. I >> > would have to agree. In general, running out of swap space with netscape >> > and X running wrecks havoc on syscons. I was wondering if anyone has >> > experience with this problem and a possible solution as to how to get >> > syscons responding again. I can't login by way of serial console so I >> > guess the only choice is to just ctrl+alt+delete >> >> The problem is that the X server reprograms the chipset on the video >> card to do what *it* wants. Syscons has no idea of the original >> settings, and therefore can't restore them if X exits abnormally >> (i.e. running out of swap and the kernel killing the server) >> >> The only possible solution is telling the console code how to reprogram >> the video chipset, and making X indirect through the console code >> for paramater changes. > >Perhaps it's not quite necessary to go that far, but it would be nice if >syscons could be programmed (by the X server) with a sequence of >instructions for resetting the video card back to sane settings. Then, >when the xserver was killed, ot the machine paniced or whatever, then >syscons could step through a list of instructions to reset the video card >back to sanity. Presumably it'd have to be a mini instruction list.. ie: >outb this value to this port, write to such-and-such a memory location, >pause for a given amount, and so on.. kinda like BPF's programming. That sounds a bit like VESA's SVPMI standard (or a subset thereof). The standard is dated 1991, and it seems to me that it never caught on. [SVPMI = Super VGA Protected Mode Interface. An example of an implementation of this can be found in the xc/programs/Xserver/hw/svga directory of X11R6.0 (it was dropped in R6.1), and in any XFree86 3.x source. It was contributed to the then X Consortium by a predecessor of Xi Graphics.] David To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message