XOrg freeze that affects a lot of people

[Marek Wawrzyczny]

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 12:27, Daniel Stone wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 21, 2005 at 12:14:59AM +0000, Charles Goodwin wrote:
> > Again the issue I raise is being misconstrued / confused / diverted.
> > The issue is not a specific bug with a specific driver.  The issue is
> > that XOrg locks up when something unexpected occurs with the driver.  If
> > it's locked up, it's still running.  If it's still running, it hasn't
> > crashed.  If it's still running, it could surely be recovered.  Right?
> >
> > Or am I way off base?  (Not implausible.)
>
> Yes, you're way off base.
>
> Xorg will call into the driver, and the driver will attempt to do stuff.
>
> But the GPU's wedged, and not responding, so the driver will never
> return (and there's really not much you can do to prevent this, except
> a watchdog, ish).  So Xorg's just waiting on a function call to return.
>
> But that function call will never return.
>
> > If I'm not, then please don't misunderstand me.  I'm not condoning buggy
> > graphics drivers.  Any such bugs should obviously be fixed.  However, to
> > use a bad car metaphor, just because the engine dies doesn't mean the
> > wheels should fall off.
>
> Well, no, but you lose the ability to accelerate.  Your brakes, lights,
> and other auxiliary systems will probably stop working too.

True, but while critical it's not a deadly situation :)
If a watchdog was to be implemented, isn't the solution to restart the 
X-server using a "safe", cut down configuration? Or even a multistep 
process... first turn off acceleration, and if problem persist, use a generic 
"works on 99% of systems, dog's breakfast, 640x480 only" kind of driver? 

-- 
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Marek Wawrzyczny

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"Terrorism is the war of the poor, 
and, war is terrorism of the rich."

- Peter Ustinov
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