xscreensaver/nvidia crashes whole computer [SOLVED!]

don quixada · l33t Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 790

I'm having trouble with 3D xscreensavers crashing my whole computer.

Ok, here are the facts:

-I have an nvidia chipset and I use XOrg.

-Xscreensaver only crashes on GL screensavers. The 2d ones are no problem.

-For the sake of completeness-- I tried sshing into my box after a freeze and confirmed that it wasn't just X that was crashing but the whole computer.

-This problem has persisted over different versions of both Xfree86 and XOrg. I'm compiling a new XOrg right now, but I don't think X is the problem.

-I checked the X log file after a crash and it looks the same as other non-crashed logs.

-My video card is *not* overheating. I closely monitored the heat of the card during a crash and the temp was constant. (I did this by feel so I don't know if it's a viable method)

-I cannot predict when a crash will happen. It could be an hour, it could be minutes...

-I tried the opengl-update thing to no avail...

-My processor is an Athlon-XP 2400+.

-I have the latest stable nvidia drivers installed and have, in fact, upgraded them and the problem still remains.

-Most of the software that I have installed from portage is stable-- and I can say with confidence that any graphics-hardware related software is stable.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Is there another log that I should be checking out? What can I do in order to have these awesome 3d screen savers?

Thanks.

dq

enigma_0Z · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 2:20 am Post subject:

Does this also happen in gl based games?

PS: don't try tuxracer, I think that it locks up on any computer
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Latch · n00b Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 3

I have the same setup as you. I have a crappy NVidia Geforce 4 MX, using nvidia drivers... on XOrg or XFree86. OpenGL Screensavers (and sometimes videos using Xv for output) completely lock up my box. I also get 2-3 seconds of static in my speakers RIGHT before it locks up completely.

Unfortunately, I have no solution for it. No messages get left in the error logs.. it just locks up. Just wanted to say that I'm experiencing the same thing.

Iced-Tux · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 8:11 am Post subject:

I have something similiar on an Intel 855GM.
When i try to access GL Screensaver my X Server is restartet

Seems to be a new "feature"

of Xorg cause it happens for the first time after i updated to 6.8.0 *i think*

don quixada · l33t Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 790

I don't play GL games much. But I did try tuxracer as a test and it didn't freeze; however, I might not have played it long enough.

dq

gen2doggy · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 31 Jul 2004 Posts: 75

i have the same problem

i thought it was X11 so changed to xorg but it still happened

it started with the last release of the nvidia display drivers, but i cant remember the old version number to downgrade

sometimes it does it just after i quit unreal tournament 2004

it used to do it randomly.

since i turned off xscreensaver altogether though, it has stopped (apart from the occassional crash when i quit ut2k4)

synapscape · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 2:43 pm Post subject:

Hi!

I'm experiencing the same problems:
- OpenGL xscreensavers may lock up my machine (kernel oops with flashing keyboard lights)
- Playing Doomsday (GL-game) is possible but my system crashes when i quit the game (also flashing keyboard lights)

My system is an P3@500 (Intel BX), 512MB Ram, Geforce2 GTS. Nothing is overclocked and never was. For the software, i'm using:

kernel 2.4.26-lck1
nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx 1.0.6111
XFree 4.3.0.1
gcc 3.3.4
glibc 2.3.3

I haven't done too much research on this problem though since i own the Geforce for 2 weeks now. I upgraded from an old Voodoo3500, which had her own problems... :roll:

The cards install was rather flawless. First i installed above kernel, then both nvidia packages and edited XF86Config to match the card. No problems with that. The problems arose later when i first tried to use OpenGL.

I have some points to check if they are the source for my problem:

1) Check /dev/nvidia0 and /dev/nvidiactl to be owned by root:video and read/writeable for both. Right now, both devices are owned by me and group root.
2) Find more info about that nvAGP thingie and see if it could help. Somewhere i have read that it's better to have nvidia to use the kernels AGPgart instead of nvidias, because the latter only works with nforce boards, but i may be wrong here.
3) Check if there are some kernel settings that are the fault. Maybe something with low-latency?

Just sharing my ideas. Any comments?

bye,
synapscape
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MadOtis · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:20 pm Post subject:

I'm having the "X restart" problem when using anything opengl as well. I don't get a full machine lockup, just X crashes and re-starts.

I never had this problem until last weekend when I tried to emerge -U mozilla-firefox, and it subsequently installed a new GCC, new Xorg, and several other updated packages.

Would posting version/build numbers of the packages that were updated help any?

Cheers,
Randy

crocodille · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:54 pm Post subject:

I'am encountering the same problem....

I am having this problem since I switched to Xorg-X11 6.8.0. I noticed this because my system locked up when the GL-Matrix screensaver turned on.

I already thought about filing a bug but since I do not know when it happens or even why I was not able to do this.

My kernel does not lock up since I can still use the "magic keys". But I still was not able to figure out what caused this.

But so far from this thread it looks like an Xorg + Nvidia bug since we all have this in common, right?

My setup:
Xorg-X11 6.8.0-r1
Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti 4200 (nv25)
Amd AthlonXP 1600+
512MB Ram

nesl247 · Veteran Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 1614 Location: Florida

Well i have the nvidia gl on ah something liike opengl-nvidia on or something like that anyways i start up gnome and immediately i cannot do anything with my keyboard i have to hit the restart button on my comp.. I think im running the latest xorg with gnome 2.6..

don quixada · l33t Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 790

Well, tuxracer isn't working (something about libsdl), but I tried quake III and the game worked fine until I quit *then* it froze. Maybe the freezing happens when something changes (i.e. something gets overloaded). Maybe that's what happens in xscreensaver-- when it switches to a new screensaver it freezes... I don't know, just speculating.

It seems like a lot of people are having this problem, you'd *think* there would be a solution or at least a bug report. Has anyone seen one?

dq

synapscape · Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 2:20 am Post subject:

Hmm, well...

I think the things we have in common are:

1) It does not matter if one uses XFree or Xorg. I'm still with XFree and haven't tried Xorg yet, but i doubt upgrading to Xorg would help.
2) The common bug seems to occur when an OpenGL app is terminating, either an xscreensaver or some OGL app. Before writing this post, i tried both tuxracer and doomsday (aka jdoom). Both ran very well, and both exited normally (no freeze). So i guess the error is a bit random, yet still seems to occur on exit.

I am still digging on the subject, will try to solve the permission "problem" now, so that /dev/nv* belongs to root:video instead of my own user and group root. Maybe this helps... ?!
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don quixada · l33t Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 790

I forgot to mention that I have the 2.4.20-gentoo-r9 kernel. What kernels are people running in this thread?

dq

don quixada · l33t Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 790

Have you figured anything out??

dq

synapscape · Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2004 3:22 am Post subject:

No news

I did several things:
1) unmerge old x11-drm (i thought i had already unmerged that one!)
2) re-emerge nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx
3) disable use of local APIC in kernel
4) fix ""spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7" messages. (had nothing to do with nvidia-problem though)
5) try to fix ownership of /dev/nv*

But still no luck. xsreensaver bombed on me. The system was quite idle at this time.

Hmm, something changes the ownership on /dev/nv* from root:video to <myuser>:video, after i log in with <myuser> in kdm. i already have edited devfsd.conf and console.perms to take care of permissions and ownership. Yet still... ?!

I am still running kernel 2.4.26-lck1

Next step is to test AGP. Will disable it in XF86Config to see if it helps...

Greets,
Markus
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don quixada · l33t Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 790

Wow, you fixed "spurious interrupt: IRQ 7"?

I was told a long time ago that it was just noise and to ignore it. I just assumed that it couldn't be fixed...

How did you fix it? (I hate useless error messages.)

Please enlighten...

Thanks!

dq

Regor · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2004 1:59 am Post subject:

I have no real help to offer, but I thought I'd provide some additional anecdotal evidence.

Every time that this has happened to me it was the version of the nvidia driver that was the issue. Changing it always cured the problem for me.

Having said that I haven't had problems like this since before 4496.

My current stats:
Card: GeForce4 MX 420
Driver: 6111
Kernel: 2.6.9-rc2-love3
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synapscape

Squeaker · n00b Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 9 Location: New Zealand

Hi

I was having the same problem with my Geforce2MX (dont laugh) but reverting to the 1.0.4496 drivers (from 5336) seems to have gotten rid of the problem.

don quixada · l33t Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 790

Wow! Thanks for pointing that out! Your very first post is a most useful one-- you should be proud!

Yes! Finally I can use xscreensaver again. After reverting to 4496 I ran it overnight without any problems.

It's not a perfect solution but it's a dang good workaround. Here's what I did:

First I logged out of my GUI (in my case Gnome).

Then I killed GDM:

synapscape · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 12:06 pm Post subject:

Damn, i already suspected it has got something to do with preemtiveness/low-latency

I was just going to to some testing...

Well, instead of going back to an older driverset, which i like to keep as a last resort, i'm going to switch to kernel 2.6 and see if it gets any better, one bug report hints that the crashes only occur on 2.4. Anyway, it's about time to switch, right? :wink:

bye,
Markus
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grooveman · Veteran Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 1217

I am having the same problems. I would love to hear your results markus.

G
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grooveman · Veteran Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 1217

Okay, I am still using the 2.4 kernel and I recompiled without the preemtive kernel option and it seems to be working fine now!

hal-lay-looya.

Fortunately for me, I don't really need it on this machine.... althought I suppose it is time to start looking at kernel 2.6 :0)

G
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grooveman · Veteran Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 1217

Grr...

Spoke too soon. Just took longer to lock up, but still did.

I guess I will have to try the 2.6 compile as well....

G
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don quixada · l33t Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 790