Re: A long, strange FC3 problem

From: Robert L Cochran (cochranb_at_speakeasy.net)
Date: 12/05/04

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    Date: Sat, 04 Dec 2004 22:16:45 -0500
To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list@redhat.com>

    Yep, the x86 Release Notes mention this too. I should be clearer about
    what I'm suggesting: I think you can edit grub.conf to use the 'nofb'
    option as a kernel parameter. That might help you fix the locking issue.
    For example

    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.681_FC3 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 nofb

    Bob

    Robert L Cochran wrote:

    > This advice is taken from the Release Notes for the x86_64 arch. I
    > don't know if it is also in the Release Notes for x86. But it looks to
    > me like your system qualifies here:
    >
    >
    > Installation-Related Issues
    >
    > *
    >
    > Certain hardware configurations (particularly those with LCD
    > displays) may experience problems while starting the Fedora Core
    > installation program. In these instances, restart the
    > installation, and add the "*nofb*" option to the boot command line.
    >
    > NOTE: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean graphical installations
    > started using the "*nofb*" option will start in English, and then
    > switch to the appropriate language once the graphical phase of the
    > installation process begins.
    >
    > *
    >
    > Serial mice are known to be inoperative during installation.
    > However, there are indications that serial mice work properly in X
    > after the installation has completed. Refer to bug 119474 for more
    > information:
    >
    > http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=119474
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > Summer Brooks wrote:
    >
    >> Bear with me... this is a long explanation of a strange problem
    >> with my home machine.
    >>
    >> I have an issue with FC3 with my monitor locking up. Actually,
    >> there are two separate issues, but while the first is one I can
    >> work around, the other one isn't.
    >>
    >> System: generic Intel P4 2.4GHz
    >> Monitor: Viewsonic VX900-2 19" LCD
    >> Graphics card: nVidia GeForce 440 MX
    >> using the SVGA interface on the monitor, since this card doesn't
    >> have DVI output
    >>
    >> First issue is my monitor locks up when switching from text
    >> mode to graphical mode during boot up. Locks up to the point
    >> where none of the buttons work, not even the power button...
    >> I have to unplug it to reset it. It happens once when switching
    >> from text to the graphical startup screen, then again when it
    >> switches from that screen to the login panel. Once it's plugged
    >> back in, the login panel is there, waiting for me, and I can login
    >> just like normal.
    >>
    >> This never happened during the year-plus it was running RH9...
    >> has anyone else seen behavior like this?
    >>
    >> The other problem is harder to pin down, but similar in symptoms.
    >> Initially, I'd just done an upgrade from RH9 to FC3, and afterwards,
    >> applied all the updates available at the time. Within about 30
    >> minutes of setting up my desktop, firing up a browser or 3 and
    >> my favorite email client, exmh, my desktop locked up.
    >>
    >> The mouse could still move across the screen, but I couldn't select
    >> a terminal window or application and work in it. At first, I thought
    >> it was a problem with Firefox, since I'd been playing on a WordPress
    >> data entry screen for a blog I help out with, so I switched back to
    >> Mozilla after a hard reboot.
    >>
    >> The problem didn't happen within that first half-hour, but I also
    >> hadn't fired up exmh that session. Nothing happened for a while,
    >> and I chalked it up to being a Firefox glitch.
    >>
    >> The next morning, when I turned the monitor on to continue working,
    >> it was locked up in the middle of a screensaver design, and I started
    >> the process all over again, with the lock-ups happening so frequently
    >> while actually working that I did a fresh install of FC3 and waited
    >> to see what would happen. I even changed xscreensaver to do a single
    >> non-3D, non-GL pattern, just to be on the safe side.
    >>
    >> To make a long debugging story short, for two days, the system didn't
    >> lock up while I used Firefox or Mozilla. I added a RH9 rpm of
    >> nmh-1.0.4-20 and used the terminal commands to do email for a day,
    >> and that was fine.
    >>
    >> Tuesday, I added exmh-2.7.0 from it's tarball, and used it in
    >> conjunction with Firefox, and had no problems over the course of a
    >> few hours, including repeating things I'd been doing in Firefox before
    >> when I'd experienced a lockup. I thought "problem solved"...
    >>
    >> On Wednesday, I added the RH9 rpms sharutils-4.2.1-14 and
    >> metamail-2.7-28
    >> (only after failing to get an FC3 rpm built from metamail-2.7-28.src.rpm
    >> or metamail-2.7-29.src.rpm), to get the full MIME related functionality
    >> in exmh. Within an hour of adding those rpms, I started to experience
    >> the desktop lockups again, even when not running exmh.
    >>
    >> What makes things worse is that I did the exact same procedure -- an
    >> upgrade from RH9 to FC3 -- on my system at work, and everything still
    >> worked fine, the exmh and everything. The system at work is a 2.8GHz
    >> Dell Precision, with 17" LCD, but it's using the DVI connector from
    >> whatever video card is in there (I think it's a newer nVidia, but I'm
    >> not 100% sure right now).
    >>
    >> So color me stumped. Right now, I've removed the metamail rpm from
    >> my home machine to see if that resolves the lockups, but if it does,
    >> that makes exmh crippled, which makes me an irked camper.
    >>
    >> I'm open to suggestions here. I'd be happy to get metamail built
    >> from source and see if it locks things up again even with a native
    >> build, but the source rpm build vomits, and I haven't been able to
    >> find sourcecode source for the current version.
    >>
    >>
    >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    >>
    >> Summer Brooks, WildHorse.com Staff I will choose a Path that's clear
    >> brooksj at wildhorse dot com I will choose Free Will
    >>
    >>
    >>
    > 

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