Dell Inspiron 9100 X server crashes

[slobberchops]

I am sorry for having to post this, I've been trying to fix this for ages, and have routed all through this forum.

I have a Dell Inspiron 9100 with the radeon 9700. I am having a problem getting X to work properly. The X server works ok, and I am running Gnome, but certain parts of certain applications cause the X server to crash.

I first noticed it with screensavers. I have my computer now set to a single screen saver and that one doesn't crash. However, even running the gnome screen saver set up program causes X to crash.

I first thought it was a GL problem, but then other more important programs (I know, what's more important than screen savers) such as LinCVS, Eclipse, Gimp and a certain control panel on Kate cause this same crash. I need some of those!

When I am running GDM, the GDM server restarts the X server, but if I log in again, it can cause the whole computer to freeze up (I have not tried to see if I can remotely log in when this kind of crash occurs, but I can't interact with the computer itself).

The crash happens with Gnome and KDE both.

I get the most stability when I use the "ati" driver in my xorg.conf, however I get the same problem using "radeon". Most people can't get the glrx driver working on a 9100 from what I understand, and neither can I, so I am not worried about that yet.

I have not had a lot of luck trying to debug the problem via the logs, so if anyone has any good advice about that, so I can at least see if the thing generates a message before dying, that would be helpful.

Here is what I am running with:

xorg-x11 6.7.0-r2 (I am unable to upgrade because ATI says they won't work with 6.8)
gentoo-dev-2.6.8-r4
ati-drivers 3.12
ati-drivers-extra 3.12

The machine, which is a "portable" has this kind of stuff in it:

ATI 9700
P4 3.2 Ghz HT
WUXGA display (works fine)
Audio - confused, but it works (Intel i8x0 drivers)
crashes without audio too


Any help at all, thanks.

[dkaplowitz]

Hi,

I can't really help you with the problem you're having off the top of my head. I have a 9100 too and I find X to be very stable, though I am a fluxbox user, so there's a lot less overhead. I've not had problems with screensavers though and I'm using the full on XScreensaver cycling randomly. I think a few of these cause core dumps, but never enough to bring down my X session.

Try diffing my xorg.conf: http://www.dkap.info/i9100/index.html

And shinzui's guide/forum ( http://shinzui.org/space/Dell+Inspiron+9100+on+Linux ) is another good place to talk about the i9100 with Linux.

Good luck,

Dave
_________________
http://dkap.info

[slobberchops]

Thank you very much for your response. I might consider trying genkernal, but with a little sadness.

I know this much. The crashes were being caused by the glx module in my xorg.conf. Remove that and no more of these confounded crashes. Unfortunately, it also means no more of these GL screen savers. Or GL anything. It's a work computer, and I am sad to say GL is not an essential part of what I do (or any part really), so it's not essential, but I still would like to be able to dazzle Windows users with my screen saver.

But it's DEFINITELY the glx drivers. And your input will help, I am sure. I'll get back to you after a few months when I next have a chance to try to fix things.

[dkaplowitz]