What to blame for ATI lockups after upgrade ?

[Frédéric L. W. Meunier]

On Mon, 7 Jan 2008, Jimmy Jazz wrote:

> Xavier Bestel a écrit :
>> On Sun, 2008-01-06 at 23:46 -0200, Frédéric L. W. Meunier wrote:
>> 
>>> On Mon, 31 Dec 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:
>>>
>>> 
>>>> On Dec 28, 2007 5:31 PM, Frédéric L. W. Meunier wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> On Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Dec 28, 2007 5:00 PM, Frédéric L. W. Meunier wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I used XOrg 1.4 with ATI driver 6.7.196 without any problems
>>>>>>> for a month. I upgraded to XOrg 1.4.0.90 on december 13 and to
>>>>>>> ATI 6.7.197 on the 21.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On the 22, suddenly, while moving the mouse cursor, nothing
>>>>>>> worked anymore. I could move the mouse, but it was like an "I"
>>>>>>> and didn't do anything. The screen was apparently locked, as
>>>>>>> the clock didn't get updated.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Try disabling the DRI or changing the AGPMode.  the newer ati driver
>>>>>> switched back to AGP 1x mode by default, previous versions defaulted
>>>>>> to whatever mode the bios set.  Both seem to have stability problems
>>>>>> on different cards.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Option "AGPMode" "4"
>>>>>> 
>>>>> I always had that option set in my xorg.conf (the card supports
>>>>> 8x, but the motherboard only 4x), so the solution would be to
>>>>> disable DRI and, if I need DRI (I don't for now), return to
>>>>> 6.7.196 ?
>>>>> 
>>>> Well, it should act the same as previous versions with that option.
>>>> If it doesn't then you'll probably want to file a bug and attach your
>>>> xorg log and config along with any other relevant info.
>>>> 
>>> You're right. I tried without DRI and got the same after 6
>>> days. Then, I went back to 6.7.196, but the same happened
>>> today, after 3 days. So, it isn't the ATI driver.
>>> 
>>
>> FWIW I see lockups regularly too (it happens more often with compiz, but
>> I remember it happened with metacity (non-composited)).
>> As I've changed the whole PC, maybe it's the card failing.
>> How could I test for that ?
>>
>> 
>>> The strange thing is that it always happens while I move the 
>>> mouse. And in the four until now, while the system was idle and 
>>> I moved the mouse inside a window running screen.
>
> Are you using avant-window-navigator 0.2.1 as dock for gnome 2.20
> with/without compiz fusion, python 2.5 and kernel 2.6.24 ?
> I get the same symptom as you described until I definitely stopped using
> awn. Sad sad sad :(
> Xorg just freezes except the mouse. I still be able to run ssh but
> restarting gdm slowdown hard the computer
> It is like agony. Also, none of the processes are eating the cpu. If i'm
> lucky init 6 will reboot the computer ... 1 hour later.
>
> I'm not able to know which of the program is really buggy. It is not
> necessarily awn, it just points out the issue.
> Anyway without it, everything is working well.

I'm using IceWM. But reading 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=100031&aid=1834961&group_id=31 
and https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13688 , I 
guess it's something in XOrg 1.4.0.90. A patch was posted, but 
someone reported a new problem with the fix. I'm back to 1.4.0 
to see if it happens.