(I apologize for the length of this message)
Versions: svgatextmode: 1.8-5.2 xserver-svga: 3.3.2.3a-1 svgalibg1 1.3.0.19980916 Matrox Millennium II 8mb PCI video card Awhile back, I loaded svgatextmode to try the 112x40 (very nice) text mode that it provides. After that, I began to see a system-stopping crash on occasion when running X. What is worse is the nature of the crash itself. I have a newer 19" monitor (1600x1200 capable) that fortunately has builtin protection circuitry against invalid timing signals. After having run svgatextmode during bootup, I then run 'startx &' after logging in. About 35% to 45% of the time, running X ends up with a window displayed on my monitor which says something like the following: Error: signal out of range +125khz, +175hz The window display comes from the monitor's own protection circuitry, it is not from Linux. In addition, the keyboard is locked up (even numlock doesn't toggle the numlock led), and Linux itself has crashed hard. I found out later that the same problem happens with SVGALib programs. At this point I have to use the hardware reset button to reboot the computer. The bootup is a lengthy process because e2fsck wants to check all the filesystems because they were not rebooted 'cleanly'. The worst of this though, is the 'signal out of range' error, because it implies I could have damaged my monitor, had I been using an old one without protection circuitry. Now to complicate matters further, I have learned from the README.Debian file in svgatextmode a workaround for this problem. The workaround in README.Debian refers to running the command 'cat /proc/pci &> /dev/null' before using svgatextmode to solve a problem with PCI based Matrox Millennium cards. In my case though, I can run svgatextmode without difficulty and without the need of the above workaround. However, if I bracket the invocation line for svgatextmode, svgalib programs, and x11 with the above line, e.g., cat /proc/pci &> /dev/null startx cat /proc/pci &> /dev/null I experience no more crashes. So, is it a svgatextmode problem (svgatextmode was derived from svgalib IIRC), or is it an X11 problem, or, could it be the kernel's PCI code? I'm not sure who I should be talking to about this problem. I have not seen this kind of problem mentioned in deb-user mailing list, or in comp.os.linux.x, or the bug listings for the above programs on debian.org, so for all I know I'm the only one seeing this behavior. So, is there anyone out there with a Matrox M2 PCI card and a recent monitor (with builtin protection) who is willing to try the above software combination and see if the crash occurs on more than my system? Please *don't do this* if you have an older monitor, I don't want to be sued for having damaged it. :-) Install svgatextmode and set it up for the 112x40 mode in TextConfig. Since you are using the same card is I am, you'll probably need the slightly modified 80x25 mode line below as the one in TextConfig doesn't work for us. "80x25" 28.663 640 680 776 808 400 412 414 449 -Hsync +Vsync font 9x16 # 31.532kHz/70.23Hz With svgatextmode installed, start running X repeatedly. If its going to crash, it will do so within the first ten or so executions. Not knowing what to do with this problem, I've put it up on the Detain User List, because of the seriousness of the bug; I feel compelled to bring this up with somebody. If there is a better place for this post, please let me know. -- Ed C.