Re: X is broke... freeing multiple contexts (2)

I figured I'd follow up with what I found.

Enrique Perez-Terron <enrio@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Trying to sum up the info with some comments:

> Distro FC4
> HW: Laptop, IBM Thinkpad
> Ram 640 MBytes (so much? 512 + 128 ?)

> Some problems with DSL, attributed to the ISP, replaced
> splitter.

It turns out the DSL modem was hosed somehow

> Comment:
> no details about failure modes. OK, assume laptop
> disconnected in practice, i.e. failure outside laptop.

Correct

> Sound card works for programs running as user, but game
> "blinkem" run as root claims unable to open sound card.
> Comment:
> Assume for now sound card is basically OK, kernel
> drivers OK, hotplug/udev stuff OK.

Correct, boot-up reports that the hardware has been initialized.

> Could not log out as root, after playing "blinkem".
> Comment:
> Was this a graphical X session? a console bash session? Is
> "blinkem" an X application? A framebuffer application?
> No account of how "log out". Exit command in a console?
> Control-D? Logout gui button in X session manager?

blinkem is in the "edutainment" section of the application
menu. It resembles and acts like the "Simon" game from the
80's.

> message GDB not able to start/exit - uncertain memory about details.
> Comment:
> Did the message appear in a console? In a terminal window? In a popup?
> GDB? Sounds like a a desktop or session manager application, with a
> watchdog function of sorts that tries to start a debugger when a session
> process dies unexpectedly. GDB installed? Probably not. Unexpected
> process death, could be effect of logout attempt, or "forced a quit" in
> "blinkem" What is "forced quit"?

GDB should be GDM!

> > When I try to boot, I get an error message about:
> > audit(:0): major=252 name_count=0; freeing multiple contexts (1)
> Comment:
> This message appears to be harmless, but related to a kernel bug fixed in
> later kernel releases. Probably unrelated to the other problems.

> > The last line on trying to restart the X server is:
> > Window manager error: Unable to open X display :17.0
> Comment:
> Display :17.0 ???? Compputers usually have a "display.screen" of ":0.0".
> Some are dual-head, with additional :0.1 or run independent "displays"
> showing as :1.0 etc. When running ssh with X forwarding, the display is
> typically set to "10.0". Where could this numbe 17 come from?
> The window manager is a process separate from X. I don't know how
> to trace how the display manager (the program that starts X) determines
> what other programs to run for a user that has just logged in. The
> windows manager would be one of them, directly or indirectly.

The basic problem was found to be that the font server config file
had been replaced! /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fs/ now had 2 files in that
directory. config & config.bak. They have the same date time
stamp, but they are different sizes. Trying to do a diff on them
results in an error message from diff saying that diff can't
process binary files. Renaming config.bak to config and rebooting
results in success.

BTW, running blinkem again results in the config being replaced
again! Like the doctor says "Don't do that!".

--
Take care | This clown speaks for himself, his job doesn't
Wayne D. | pay for this, etc. (directly anyway)
.