X freezes on exit.

[Dragon561]

I think this problem might have something to do with the video card. I am using a Geforce4 TI4200. I am using the nvidia kernel. I have no clue though. It also happened when I tried to exit using Gnome as well. ANy suggestion?

[taveren]

I get this same thing. I'm running a GeForce 3 with KEYWORD ~x86 set. My laptop, which is ATI Radeon Mobile, doesn't have this problem.

[Dragon561]

Anyone else have an idea?

[WarpFlyght]

I'm grappling with the same problem. I've been doing a lot of messing around with Gentoo over the past few weeks and have had two completely functional installations that ran X well, and then this latest one that did not (I rearranged hard disks and decided to start over from scratch just for fun instead of copying files and installing Grub on the new disk).

The older installs used the same kernel version as the new installation, gentoo-sources 2.4.20-r2. The older installs used nVidia closed-source drivers. I should have written down the version number but was stupid and neglected to. I was running XFree 4.2.x (4.2.1? Again, I was stupid and did not write down version numbers. I will NOT make that mistake again.).

The new installation has a fresh copy of XFree 4.3.0-r2 instead of 4.2.x. I was excited about the prospects of XFree 4.3, and happily installed it and emerged the latest nVidia drivers at the time (nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx, both version 1.0.4349).

I ran xf86config, enjoying the new options and running through it merrily. After saving the configuration, I opened up my XF86Config file and uncommented the glx line, as well as changing the driver to "nvidia." I was ready to go, and typed "startx," holding my breath.

No problems. I made it into TWM without a hitch. So, I hit ctrl+alt+backspace to drop out of X and go emerge a window manager. Upon ctrl+alt+backspacing, however, my screen went black. It looked like it was dropping back to the console, but it wasn't. The screen was just black, and the machine was hung hard. Couldn't blindly type commands, couldn't even get the numlock light to toggle on and off. Ctrl+alt+del was useless. The reset button was my only recourse.

Naturally the first thing I did was to check the kernel logs and the XFree logs. No sign of any errors. Whatever happened caught even the kernel logger off-guard. So the next thing I did was to try the "nv" driver and comment out the glx line. This time, my monitor went into power-saving mode (green light to yellow). I could blindly type commands, but toggling the monitor on and off didn't return the view of my console. The "reset" command did nothing to return text to my screen, either. I blindly unmounted a few manually-mounted partitions and rebooted with the shutdown -r now command.

I wandered here to the forums to see if anyone had experienced similar problems. It sounds like there are quite a few suffering weird display problems upon returning to the console after leaving XFree 4.3.0 when using an nVidia graphics card. I tried the new nVidia drivers (1.0.4363), but they had no effect. I recompiled my kernel, no effect. I re-emerged gentoo-sources, did a make mrproper and reconfigured everything in the kernel config. No luck. It still hangs.

I'm pretty much convinced at this point that there's something going on between XFree86 4.3.0 and nVidia graphics cards. Perhaps the problem is exacerbated on my machine since I am running an nForce2 chipset. I can't be sure yet. My next recourse is to try XFree86 4.2.1 and see if it works. If it does, I'll surely file a bug report. If not, I'm not sure where I'll go.

I'd post the contents of my XF86Config and the output of XFree's log, but I'm using a different box to post this. I can say without a doubt, though, that there are no unusual errors on the XFree log or the kernel log.

One lead that I am looking at is the IRQ situation, seeing as I have three devices sharing the video card's IRQ. I don't like that, and will try to rectify the situation as soon as possible. If that has any effect, I'll pass on word.

Some have reported that using a 2.5 series kernel cleared up this problem. I'm not looking to be on the bleeding edge with the box I'm trying to set up, so I'm comfortable with a 2.4 series kernel for now. I might try a 2.5 kernel if nothing else solves the problem.

Also, considering the framebuffer, which many have brought up in other posts: I am unable to make the framebuffer function properly, perhaps due to the relatively new nForce2 chipset on my board. Considering that the framebuffer support I compiled into an earlier kernel might be causing problems, I built a new kernel with no framebuffer support or any related options. I had the same problem with both configurations.

My hardware setup:
Athlon XP 2100+ (Palomino)
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard
Chaintech GT-21 GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB video card (video-in/out)
512MB PC2700 DDR (clocked at 266 in a dual channel config)

Software setup:
Gentoo Linux 1.4rc4
Kernel version (as described above): gentoo-sources 2.4.20-r2
XFree86 Version: 4.3.0-r2
nVidia drivers: 1.0.4349, 1.0.4363

[edit] Typo correction above. /me is a perfectionist. [/edit]
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[stimpy]

I think I have the same problem on my new workstation - its an HP XEON powered wx6000 with a Quadro4 XGL380 64Mb chip. I've been avoiding trying to "debug" the problem, and was interested to see similar problems.
It's off at the moment, but from memory:

- I have Xfree 4.3.0 - r2 I think
- I was using the 2.5.65 development kernel, because it "recognised" the chipsets used in the machine at the pci level.
- at the time, the "older" 4000-series nvidia kernel drivers were installed

At the time I wondered if the 14 step process mentioned in this thread would help - haven't tried yet.
I had hoped that trying the newer nvidia kernel drivers would help, or trying back with a 2.4.20 kernel would help. It looks like it may not...

[Dragon561]

Please keep us posted warped, and thanks for the excellent response!

[WarpFlyght]

[WarpFlyght]

I merged XFree 4.2.1-r2 and gave it a shot with the 1.0.4363 nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx drivers. It still hung. I am willing to bet that we're dealing with a problem with nVidia's drivers.

I merged the nVidia 1.0.4191-r2 ebuild a moment ago... They worked (with XFree 4.2.1-r2). I can comfortably say that my problem was caused by the 1.0.4349 and 1.0.4363 nVidia drivers. I suggest you take a try with the 1.0.4191 or even the 1.0.3123 drivers and see if your problem is solved.

Since these drivers are closed-source, it seems to me that it's best to give the bug report to nVidia instead of using Gentoo's bug reporting interface. I'll do that once I verify that the 1.0.4191 drivers work with XFree 4.3.0-r2.
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[WarpFlyght]

Well, I'm no longer comfortable blaming the nVidia drivers. In XFree 4.3.0-r2 with the 1.0.4191-r2 nVidia drivers, I'm still getting odd behavior. This time it's messing up my keyboard input in the console. For instance, one time I hit the "s" key on the keyboard and scroll lock ended up coming on. Eventually the keyboard is useless (even for ctrl+alt+delete) and the reset button is my only recourse. I'm not sure what exactly the problem is. I was able to circumvent it once by switching virtual terminals before doing anything else after I left X. I'll keep investigating and bring any findings I might have back here.

[edit] Redundancy, no more. [/edit]
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[Dragon561]

This may be a really noob type of question, but how do you emerge older versions?

[WarpFlyght]

Sorry this response took me so long to get sent.

To emerge an older version of software, first login as root (which I'm sure you knew already). Let's say you wanted to merge the nVidia 1.0.3123-r2 kernel driver. It is located in media-video/nvidia-kernel/, so you would change to the /usr/portage/media-video/nvidia-kernel/ directory. (Look in /usr/portage at the various directories to see what kinds of software you can get your hands on)

Next up, look in the directory for the version you want to merge. The ebuilds have the extension ".ebuild." So, in this case, you'd type, "emerge nvidia-kernel-1.0.3123-r2.ebuild." Omit the final period (I just added it to have proper punctuation -- damned illogical quoting rules). It would then merge and install the 3123 drivers.
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[zephyr1256]

I had this problem with my GeForce4 ti4200 back when I used Mandrake. I don't think Mandrake was explicitly the cause of *this* problem, though, because several things are different now.

I'm using the nvidia 1.0.3123 drivers(the latest ones from nvidia were not masked when I emerged them). Drivers don't necessarily always get better with new versions. Just because you have the latest ones doesn't mean you can rule them out as a problem. Just for reference, in Mandrake I WAS using the 1.0.4191 drivers, and I had problems.

Second, since then I've done a lot of tweaking of motherboard settings to determine how much I can push them and still remain stable, however, I don't think that cause crashes when shutting down X, it had more to do with crashes and lockups while running.

I probably have a different version of Xfree, but I don't remember what version it was in Mandrake anyway, as I basically wiped the whole installation. Just for reference, I currently am using 4.2.1. Again, just like with drivers, the latest version is not necessarily the best(most stable for you).

[WarpFlyght]

[Dragon561]

So does that mean that the older nVidia driver solved the problem?

[hassan_1321]

[Kenadin]

I have this same problem. I also tried using different nvidia drivers back to the 31XX series and the freezes persisted.

[WarpFlyght]

I am running the 4149 drivers and they're running stably. I actually found that when I started using a WM other than TWM (I tried Fluxbox and KDE both), the drivers weren't problematic on exit. I haven't tried the newer nVidia drivers again because I'm content with the function of the 4149's, especially since they are stable enough for my needs.
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[Dragon561]

OK, problem solved, I was searching through Buzilla and found out that it is a gtk flaw. I simply updated my version of gtk and it worked perfectly. Hope this helps...

[mal0]

hey out there - i've got the same problem!
once x is loaded it works perfectly - even with ut. but if i want to switch to a text console using ctrl + alt + f1 my system freezes completely. same thing happens if i want my machine to reboot.

i couldn't believe that, because everything worked as it should the day before. on one reboot my /etc/modprobe.conf was full of garbage that i hat to boot from the install cd. that i had no graphical boot but had to choose my resolution made me suspicious since for installation times i had graphical boot.
then i remembered that i plugged in my tv in the svhs out the day before. disconnected it, did a hard reboot and install cd had graphics. booted my kernel - by the way it's 2.6.0-test11 - started x, switched to text console and it works!!!

does anybody have any clue how to get this working with both the tv and the crt monitor connected to the graphics card?!

some specs:
epox 8rda+ rev. 1.1
2x256mb ram twinbanking
athlon xp 2200+
albatron medusa ti4680p turbo (ti4200 with agp 8x support)

latest xfree available in portage 4.3.0-r3
nvidia 4496

[dmy]

I had the same problems (vt change freeze and shutdown/reboot freeze with garbage on screen) with an NVidia card. You can try the following if you have these problems and if you use a kernel with FrameBuffer activated (CONFIG_FB=y)


1) Boot your kernel with a valid vga option like vga=0x317 for example if you're using vesafb
(see /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/vesafb.txt for others modes)

2) If you're using an NVidia GeForce card, don't use rivafb, only vesafb is working fine:
In your kernel config file, you must have the following:

CONFIG_FB=y
# CONFIG_FB_CYBER2000 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_IMSTT is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VGA16 is not set
CONFIG_FB_VESA=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y
# CONFIG_FB_HGA is not set
# CONFIG_FB_RIVA is not set
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX is not set
# CONFIG_FB_RADEON is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ATY128 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ATY is not set
# CONFIG_FB_SIS is not set
# CONFIG_FB_NEOMAGIC is not set
# CONFIG_FB_3DFX is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VOODOO1 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_TRIDENT is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VIRTUAL is not set

It worked for me with the latest NVidia drivers (nvidia-kernel-1.0.4496-r3)

[mal0]

for me the problem is that the gfx card obviously sets the tv as the primary monitor. i could try a twinview x-config - but don't know how?!

[dmy]

If you're using the "nvidia" binary driver, you can add the following option in your XF86Config file:

Section "Device"
Identifier "NVidia ..."
Driver "nvidia"
[...]
Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "TV"
[...]
EndSection

[mal0]

thanks! i'll give it a try!

[mal0]

yesterday i gave it a try. now i can switch from x server to text console, but bootsplash still refuses to work. if i boot with tv connected, i get prompted the >you passed an undefined video mode number...< line

[hotwok]

hi, i have the same problem with X hardlocking my system, fb modes above 800x600 (vga=315) don't work with tv connected to the svideo out. disconnecting the tv solves the hardlocking and i have vesa fb with modes above 800x600 again. yaay

Kernel: 2.6.1-love3
Mobo: MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR/nForce2 SPP
GFX: Geforce4 Ti4200