Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 18:03:01 +1100 From: David Dawes <dawes@rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au> To: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: netscape/swap_pager causing problems with syscons Message-ID: <19980215180301.36777@rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <199802150504.NAA00730@spinner.netplex.com.au>; from Peter Wemm on Sun, Feb 15, 1998 at 01:04:14PM %2B0800 References: <16424.886469286@gjp.erols.com> <199802150504.NAA00730@spinner.netplex.com.au>
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On Sun, Feb 15, 1998 at 01:04:14PM +0800, Peter Wemm wrote: >"Gary Palmer" wrote: >> Donn Miller wrote in message ID >> <Pine.NEB.3.96.980202132937.222A-100000@myname.my.domain>: >> > 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
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