X failing to start - unresolved symbols [ resolved ... ;-) ]

guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

I'm at my wit's end. As a 'gentoo old-timer', I've seen and resolved my share of wild issues and seemingly unfixable problems. However, this one's got me stymied, and I really need some help. Maybe just a sanity check.

When I startx, loading glx, GLcore, and dri, I get a lot of "symbol XXX ... is unresolved" errors and X fails out (right after the NVidia logo shows). Removing GLcore and dri each give me incrementally fewer symbol isues, but I'm still failing. Removing them altogether gives me a silent failure. _glXActiveScreens, _glXMalloc, and _glXFree seem to be the usual suspects. I'm running ~x86 on gentoo-sources-2.4.22-r7 with everything up to date.

Here's the catch -- I've tried all the tricks. I've re-emerged XF86, nvidia-kernel, nvidia-glx, gentoo-sources, etc. I've unmerged them all and re-merged them. I've completely removed the /etc/X11R6 directory and re-emerge xfree and the nvidia stuff. I've re-compiled and gone over my kernel configuration with a fine-tooth comb. I've used an auto-generated XF86Config instead of my hand-built one. Heck, I've even survived an emerge -eD world over a modem link, but three weeks later, I'm still without X and still patient, but only so much. I'd be willing to post any part of the logs, configs, etc. that anyone needs to troubleshoot, but I'm at the end of my rope. I have no earthly idea how to proceed from here. Help?

<edit>
Links does me no good when posting new stuff -- it always puts that stupid "tips" crap in my subject line instead.... *sigh*. I really want to get off of the console.

froke · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2004 5:59 am Post subject:

Have you tried a knoppix CD or some other hardware diagnostics? There's a good chance when stuff suddenly breaks that the problem is hardware related.
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guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

I'm in the process of downloading it right now, but it's a 48-hour download over modem, and I can only use the 8 hours of night for uninterrupted downloads.

X isn't _broken_ broken, xf86cfg still comes up with it's nice little X thing, and the NVIDIA drivers come up with their splash, it's just that once it actually tries to load the modules, it goes *kaput*.

guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

*must... find... resolution...*

I'm considering making the plunge to 2.6; anyone think that may resolve my issue?

I'm really frustrated here -- someone please try poking holes in my approach!

tomaw · Guru Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 429 Location: UK

OK here's my 2p worth:

try a revdep-rebuild in case anything has become broken by a library update. Then opengl-update back to whatever gl implementation you use?

Cheers,
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Tom Wesley

guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

Would a revdep-rebuild do anything a complete 'emerge -eD world' wouldn't?

tomaw · Guru Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 429 Location: UK

Not as far as I know, it just rebuilds packages with broken symbols... Sorry, I missed where you'd said that. Although it might highlight exactly what packages contain the broken files.

Tom
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Tom Wesley

Heretic · Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2004 7:10 pm Post subject:

I am using 2.6.3-gentoo-r1 and I have a similar problem using the driver from www.minion.de and Gentoo's Xfree:

guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

Still here -- haven't had a chance to try revdep-rebuild. I'll let you guys know, but in the meantime... any other ideas? If nothing else, for posterity's sake, y'know.

guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

Still stuck...

I've done literally everything now, even making the plunge to the 2.6 kernel tree a little earlier than I intended. I have removed the "load glcore" from my XF86Config, but that never was a showstopping issue before. Still getting the 'libdri.a is unresolved' error. If I comment out loading the dri module, X just fails silently. Something's gotta give -- I've done an 'emerge -evD' twice now - once with 2.4.22-r7 and once with 2.6.4, both with the same results. This seems to be a rising issue; does no one know anything about this other than the afflicted and suffering? I'd be more than happy to post whatever configs or logs anyone would care to browse through, just let me know.

I've been administering linux systems for 5 years and this is the first problem I've ever had that I've been at a complete and utter loss on. I've tried every trick in the book, or so I seem to think.

tomaw · Guru Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 429 Location: UK

What happens if you try with the straight vesa driver and no dri?
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Tom Wesley

guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

Not entirely certain what you mean, but if I don't load the DRI module, X just fails silently

tomaw · Guru Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 429 Location: UK

In the XF86Config file, change the Driver line from the Device section from nvidia to vesa, and see what happens.
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guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

Gotcha. Did that, removed the NVIDIA-specific configs in XF86Config, did an opengl-update xfree, and...

Failed. ;-)

Sometimes it's just funny. I can't seem to copy/paste into and from links tonight, but it shows up a warning about failing to set up "write-combining range".

I _am_ getting an error message in dmesg every time XFree dies (every time, it gets up to the X cursor and dies, so I know X is initializing). Can't copy and paste, again, but it goes something like:

Plastic · l33t Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 649

There is definetly the possibility that this is a hardware problem, but humor me. Does X run using a generic config generated by XFree86 -configure?

froke · Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 2:20 am Post subject:

I get that atkbd.c error sometimes too. usually has no effect on me though. i have only seen it with kernel-2.6. maybe check your keyboard and mouse device sections of your kernel config and your XF86Config. Try some different protocols and what not, anything to try to get around it.
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guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

Okay, this is fookin' weird.

On a whim, I typed 'kdm', my default display manager. *bam*, I'm up, running, with GLX and everything. ????? I'm going to do a postmortem, but for some strange reason, calling KDM got lost in the X/KDE upgrades. Really, REALLY funky.

I'm just blown away - I've spent 2 months in console-land, fighting phantom bugs, just because one of 'the little things' got overlooked. Let this be a warning to future generations - when at first you don't succeed, immediately follow the chain of command and find out what's failing, even if you have to add your own debug statements into your init scripts. Wow. Embarrassment almost shadows my relief, but... wow. At least now I'm on the 2.6 tree and have a freshly recompiled system. If you want to try pain, try "emerge -evD world" a few times. Over a modem on a dirty line, no less. You'll have an insane appreciation for the little things, like buttons.

t_2199 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 20 Mar 2004 Posts: 146

Symbol __glXActiveScreens from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libdri.a is unresolved!
Symbol __glXActiveScreens from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libdri.a is unresolved!

I don't think that's your problem because I get this error, too but everything works here. I can even play UT2004