X keeps randomly locking (not nvidia)

[TinheadNed]

I used to think this problem was linked to KDE but I've tested this with gnome and it still occurs. At random times, the mouse and keyboard will completely lock, and the only way to to fix the problem is to ssh in and kill kde/gnome/X. Unlike other threads I do not have nvidia hardware on my laptop, hence a new thread. I don't think it's my hardware as Redhat 8.0 worked perfectly fine with no problems on this SiS-based unbranded laptop.

I've tried compiling X and kde without optimisations and problem continues to occur. I've also tried using different mouse drivers (standard and synaptics) for the touchpad, and the problem continues to occur, except more frequently with the synaptics driver.

Trying the other tricks mentioned such as disabling dri, glx, antialiasing, and using mem=nopentium did not work. The cpu is pentium anyway, a Celeron 1.3GHz.

If anybody has any ideas I'd really appreciate it as gentoo is unusable under X and installing redhat again would be a shame. I don't know whether to use the sisfb module or not as occasionally it can blank a terminal and not come out of it unless I blindly log out (^D).

I don't understand these hardware problems as they were not present in redhat. I've emerged -eu world several times to see if this helps. The CFLAGS I started off using are -march=pentium3 -mmmx -msse -O3 but i've tried with just -mcpu=pentium3 -O2 and had no improvement.

PS Congrats to puggy for becoming moderator

[Onion Avenger]

Can't help you, but I've noticed this too on my machine.

I AM, however, using the nvidia drivers.

But it seems to me that X totally locks up (I'm not on a network, so I can't ssh in, so I couldn't figure out what seems to be the trouble, but it does sound like we have the same problem) whenever I'm copying lots of files (whether in an xterm or konqueror) or have been playing a movie for about an hour and a half, or doing other things (it seems to happen randomly but I haven't really gone through and tested yet).

Because sometimes X locks up when I'm NOT using KDE things (I use fluxbox for my wm), I suspect the problem is X, not KDE.

I haven't yet gotten to the point where I recompile X and KDE, yet though.
Good luck,
--Richie, the Onion Avenger