[ltp] re: XFree86 locking and crashing on T40 with RedHat 9.0

[Joel Ebel]

I'd definitely recommend running through memtest several times to make 
sure it's really ok.  I assume you've properly patched memtest to work 
with the 855 chipset.

Joel

Mark Litwack wrote:

> Has anyone found the cause of this problem?
> 
> I'm also seeing these X lockups on my T40 with RH9, upgraded
> to kernel 2.4.21.  I see about a crash or two a day.
> 
> Memtest86 is coming up clean.  I've also noticed that I will
> occasionally get a segmentation fault when trying to run an
> everyday program (perl, ls, etc...).  Once the program gets
> a segmentation fault it will forever give a segmentation
> fault until a reboot.
> 
> My theory is that memory is getting corrupted by either a
> misbehaving routine somewhere or a very intermittent
> hardware problem.  Sometimes the memory for the disk cache
> for an executable gets nailed and I get segmentation faults.
> 
> If this is right, I'm cringing just thinking about what bits
> are getting flipped in random files when dirty cache pages
> get written back to disk.
> 
> Any hints on how to begin tracking this down?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> -mark
> 
> 
> 
> On 16 Jul 2003 19:22:24 -0400, Neil Weisenfeld wrote:
> 
>>Several people (myself included) have had random X crashes attributed to
>>bad memory shipped with their T40's.  I'd suggest running memtest86 from
>>www.memtest86.com just to be sure.  I was going crazy with kernel
>>compile crashes, X crashes, the clock applet crashing, etc., etc.  A
>>replacement memory module from IBM did the trick.
>>
>>This was not a transient problem in that I never had Memtest86 make it
>>through a pass without a lot of errors cropping up somewhere in the mix
>>and related to the second 512MB module.  If memtest comes up clean, then
>>you should look elsewhere.  Certainly make sure that you have the latest
>>errata kernel from RedHat.  What shipped originally w/ 9.0 was not
>>ideal.
>>
>>
>>
>>Regards,
>>Neil  
>>
>>
>>On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 19:39, otisg wrote:
>>
>>>Hello,
>>>
>>>I have a T40 (one of those Centrino TPs) with RedHat 9.0 on it
>>>(not sure what the exact kernel version is, I am not on that
>>>machine now, but it's one of the 2.4 kernels, maybe 2.4-18 or
>>>-19 or some such).
>>>
>>>I have 2 big problems with Linux on this machine.
>>>
>>>1. X sometimes locks up.  I can't even ALT-Backspace out of
>>>XFree86.  I have to reboot the whole machine.  This seems to
>>>happen randomly.
>>>I have noticed that the little CAPS LOCK status light at the
>>>bottom of the LCD starts blinking every time X locks up like
>>>this.
>>>
>>>2. X sometimes just crashes randomly.  This sucks, but at least
>>>that doesn't require a reboot.  I can't check which version of
>>>XFree86 this is, but it s whichever version ships with RH 9.0.
>>>
>>>Has anyone seen this on their T40s or similar ThinkPads?
>>>Has anyone been able to solve these problems?
>>>
>>>I use this TP for work, and this is decreasing my productivity,
>>>and is very annoying, as you can imagine. :(
>>>
>>>Thank you,
>>>Otis
>>>
>>>
>>>________________________________________________
>>>Get your own "800" number
>>>Voicemail, fax, email, and a lot more
>>>http://www.ureach.com/reg/tag
> 
> 
> hat you have the latest
> 
>>errata kernel from RedHat.  What shipped originally w/ 9.0 was not
>>ideal.
>>
>>
>>
>>Regards,
>>Neil  
>>
>>
>>On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 19:39, otisg wrote:
>>
>>>Hello,
>>>
>>>I have a T40 (one of those Centrino TPs) with RedHat 9.0 on it
>>>(not sure what the exact kernel version is, I am not on that
>>>machine now, but it's one of the 2.4 kernels, maybe 2.4-18 or
>>>-19 or some such).
>>>
>>>I have 2 big problems with Linux on this machine.
>>>
>>>1. X sometimes locks up.  I can't even ALT-Backspace out of
>>>XFree86.  I have to reboot the whole machine.  This seems to
>>>happen randomly.
>>>I have noticed that the little CAPS LOCK status light at the
>>>bottom of the LCD starts blinking every time X locks up like
>>>this.
>>>
>>>2. X sometimes just crashes randomly.  This sucks, but at least
>>>that doesn't require a reboot.  I can't check which version of
>>>XFree86 this is, but it s whichever version ships with RH 9.0.
>>>
>>>Has anyone seen this on their T40s or similar ThinkPads?
>>>Has anyone been able to solve these problems?
>>>
>>>I use this TP for work, and this is decreasing my productivity,
>>>and is very annoying, as you can imagine. :(
>>>
>>>Thank you,
>>>Otis
>>>
>>>
>>>________________________________________________
>>>Get your own "800" number
>>>Voicemail, fax, email, and a lot more
>>>http://www.ureach.com/reg/tag
> 
>