>> I analyzed Xfree's behaviour with strace. In addition to the two >>kinds
>> of mmap listed above (which are allowed), Xfree makes many r/w mmap
>> calls to the following two areas of memory (which are blocked by >>grsec
>> and make Xfree fail):
>> * r/w mmaps of the BIOS (0xf0000 / 0x10000): Why? Isn't this ROM >>address
>> space, which can't be written anyway???
>> * r/w mmaps of the first page (0x0 / 0x1000): Isn't that the system's
>> interrupt table? I really want to have that protected from anything >>in
>> userland, even if it is running with root priviledges! Nothing except
>> for the kernel should be able to mess with interrupt addresses!
>
>I wonder; do you have the 'int10' option enabled in your xfree86 config
>file? If so this tries to use the video card bios to initialise the
>card; it normally isn't necessary when you have a single card; try
>seeing if the problem disappears with this removed.
Thanks for this hint. I compared the strace with the source, and some (not all) of the offending mmap's really seem to come from int10-related code.
However, there is no such option, neither in my config file, nor in its manpage (this is Xfree 4.2.1).
I'm not sure for the radeon driver, but I remember that for my desktop (ATI r128 with DVI flat panel), the Xfree driver also accessed the BIOS as soon as it was told that the digital interface should be used: I analyzed the code, it assumed that it's a laptop and tried to find out the resolution and the timings of the builtin panel from the BIOS.
Most likely something similar happens for my radeon notebook. For example, if I've connected a low-res DDC-enabled external monitor during boot, Xfree fails to start the internal UXGA display at it's native resolution, no matter what I configure. It seems to be more curious than I want it to be...
Greetings
-- DI. Dr. Klaus Kusche Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW: http://members.inode.at/kusche Phone @ home: +43 7234 83894 Phone @ work: +43 732 673368 0 Private address: Buchenweg 15, A-4100 Ottensheim, Austria Office address: HTBLA Leonding, Limesstr. 12-14, 4060 Leonding, Austria or HTBLA Traun, Holzbauernstr. 20, 4050 Traun, Austria
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