Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 14:25:20 -0600 From: Gary Aitken <freebsd@dreamchaser.org> To: Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au> Cc: Matthew Seaman <matthew@freebsd.org>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 9.0 release hang in quiescent X Message-ID: <50314BB0.2010501@dreamchaser.org> In-Reply-To: <20120820005007.T33776@sola.nimnet.asn.au> References: <20120818120030.D526210657A8@hub.freebsd.org> <20120820005007.T33776@sola.nimnet.asn.au>
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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
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