Problem changing to vc/7 when X Window is closed (hard to explain)

Sabut · 2009-01-27 22:03:41

X Windows is usually opened in the virtual console vc/7 (control+alt+F7 to go there).

If I change to that virtual console before opening the X Windows it's OK, I get a black console.

If I change to that virtual console after opening the X Windows it's OK, there's the Xs.

The problem is, if I close X Windows and I change to vc/7 with control+alt+F7 I get stuck in vc/7, in a black screen. I can't change to another vc/number with control+alt+F1 or something and the keyboard isn't responding, even control+alt+supr fails to work. The only way to get out of there is rebooting the PC using the power button.

It's not a big deal, just try to avoid changing to vc/7, but it's really annoying when you test various Window Managers and get stuck there because you aren't careful enough.

Can anyone reproduce this problem or know what is the solution? I've never had this kind of problem in other distributions. It was some time ago with older kernels and older xorg versions so I don't know if it's an Arch Linux problem only or what.

Thanks!

ckristi · 2009-01-28 19:12:28

It's a problem occured to me on my laptop machine (with an ATI card). The problem was caused by the fact that X didn't die when I stopped kdm. Don't know why this happens. A "killall -15 X" followed by a more violent "killall -9 X" allowed me to switch to vc/7 again, after I manually stopped kdm.

Sabut · 2009-01-30 09:47:50

I have a ATI card too, using the free radeon drivers. I tried it but it seems X isn't running and I get stuck in vc/7 again. It's a bit annonying this days trying KDE 4.2 in a different X-Window instance and getting stuck when I am not carefull enough.

It's strange because usually control+alt+supr always works.

Is there any way to know if the system is hanged or if it's just the keyboard that don't respond? I could try to ssh but I don't have any other machine to do this, is there any way to test it locally? If not I could ask a friend to ssh.

Thanks!

ckristi · 2009-01-30 11:29:17

Check the kdmrc file and uncomment or add a line that says: "TerminateServer=true".
This solves a lot of annoyances. This, of course, if you're using kdm as a login manager.

Sabut · 2009-01-30 18:04:11

I start the X Windows from a console with startx so it's not kdm's fault. It's very strange because I have never got any similar problem and I haven't heard any similar thing either. Maybe it's some problem with the free radeom driver, but it haven't gave me never any problem before. The closed ATI driver was more problematic.

I start some times KDE and some times fluxbox with very few things. I do this with different users so it's not a specific desktop environment problem I think.

Procyon · 2009-01-30 18:20:07

You can get out with Sysrq: how to

I have the same with Nvidia. (haven't tried sysrq'ing myself though)

Sabut · 2009-01-31 13:55:45

Thanks, sysrq worked. Now I can get back my system when I get stuck in vc/7, just setting the keyboard to raw mode with alt gr+sysrq+R having sysrq active.

It seems it was only the keyboard not responding, but the system was ok.

ckristi · 2009-01-31 19:17:01

But when will learn ATI to create better drivers? I just can't wait the opensource drivers to become at least half-complete in features... at least to be able to run compositing WMs and games like OpenArena. Giving away their specs for creating OS drivers is the best thing they've done. Catalyst seems just infinitely bugfull. They repair old bugs only to create others. I hope they'll open their eyes, too.. not just the specs.

Last edited by ckristi (2009-01-31 19:17:42)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-01-27 22:03:41

Problem changing to vc/7 when X Window is closed (hard to explain)

#2 2009-01-28 19:12:28

Re: Problem changing to vc/7 when X Window is closed (hard to explain)

#3 2009-01-30 09:47:50

Re: Problem changing to vc/7 when X Window is closed (hard to explain)

#4 2009-01-30 11:29:17

Re: Problem changing to vc/7 when X Window is closed (hard to explain)

#5 2009-01-30 18:04:11

Re: Problem changing to vc/7 when X Window is closed (hard to explain)

#6 2009-01-30 18:20:07

Re: Problem changing to vc/7 when X Window is closed (hard to explain)

#7 2009-01-31 13:55:45

Re: Problem changing to vc/7 when X Window is closed (hard to explain)

#8 2009-01-31 19:17:01

Re: Problem changing to vc/7 when X Window is closed (hard to explain)

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