SLiM/startx (not sure) crashes and hangs

Hide · 2011-01-26 12:51:43

Today I added myself to a new group and tried to re-login for the changes to take place. However, I ran into a problem. Just to point out, I use SLiM and Openbox.

First, I tried to exit from my openbox session (using openbox --exit). All of a sudden, a bunch of white-grey noise appeared. I tried switching to tty1, but was unable to. After a few seconds, noise disappeared, screen went blank and my monitor light started blinking. Without a slightest idea what to do, I reboot my PC.
When the system booted, I logged in with SLiM, switched immediately to tty1 and did /etc/rc.d/slim restart. This too resulted in a crash (same white-gray noise) and immediate hang. Reboot again.
Next, I tried to set SLiM to run as a daemon instead from inittab. Rebooted, logged in and restarting it from tty1 caused the noise again.
So I decided to boot into runlevel3 and see what would happen. I logged in manually, typed startx and again, the same behavior with noise and hanging presented itself.
I tried adding ck-launch-session to .xinitrc, to no avail.

I'm guessing this is a bug, but I have no idea what it's related to, so I can't submit it to the right place.

So, the big question is, how to logout from openbox to slim?

Some relevant info:

openbox 3.4.11.2-2
slim 1.3.2-1
xf86-video-ati 6.13.2-2 (Radeon X600, btw)

.xinitrc:

exec xfce4-panel &
feh --bg-scale /usr/share/archlinux/wallpaper/archlinux-aqua-vines-43.jpg &
exec openbox

Any ideas?

Mr Green · 2011-01-26 13:33:48

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SLiM

Looks like your openbox line is incorrect

exec openbox-session

MrG

Hide · 2011-01-26 13:59:41

Tried that. Still nothing.

Thanks, though

Mr Green · 2011-01-26 14:33:55

Try booting into console log in make sure you can at least get to openbox

Also make sure slim config is set up correctly

ewaller · 2011-01-26 15:49:15

Hide wrote:

...All of a sudden, a bunch of white-grey noise appeared. ... After a few seconds, noise disappeared, screen went blank and my monitor light started blinking. ...

Noise. Is it white noise like an old fashioned analog television with no input signal, Or is it a horizontal tearing ?

I think X is getting the timing for your display wrong.

What is your display (LCD or CRT)? I assume (the blinking light) that it is external. Is the interface VGA, DVI, HDMI ?
What is your video card?

Is there anything interesting in /var/log/Xorg.0.log about monitor timing or DDC information?

Hide · 2011-01-26 17:43:55

@Mr Green
Will do.
Slim config should be fine. It used to work flawlessly, I don't know what changed.

@ewaller
Definitely horizontal tearing. I didn't know how to name it. I'll take a picture of it next time I crash it.
It's LCD (Samsung 710v).

Is the interface VGA, DVI, HDMI ?

This flew right over my head. How do I check this?

Video card is ATI Radeon X600Pro.

Here's the Xorg.0.log output:

[root hide]# cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep timing
[    14.387] (II) RADEON(0): First detailed timing is preferred mode
[    14.387] (II) RADEON(0): Supported established timings:
[    14.388] (II) RADEON(0): Supported standard timings:
[    14.388] (II) RADEON(0): Supported detailed timing:
[    14.394] (II) RADEON(0): First detailed timing is preferred mode
[    14.394] (II) RADEON(0): Supported established timings:
[    14.395] (II) RADEON(0): Supported standard timings:
[    14.395] (II) RADEON(0): Supported detailed timing:
[    14.457] (II) RADEON(0): First detailed timing is preferred mode
[    14.458] (II) RADEON(0): Supported established timings:
[    14.458] (II) RADEON(0): Supported standard timings:
[    14.458] (II) RADEON(0): Supported detailed timing:
[    14.459] (II) RADEON(0): First detailed timing is preferred mode
[    14.459] (II) RADEON(0): Supported established timings:
[    14.459] (II) RADEON(0): Supported standard timings:
[    14.459] (II) RADEON(0): Supported detailed timing:
[    14.503] Save TV timing tables
[    14.503] saveTimingTables: reading timing tables

and

[root hide]# cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i ddc
[    14.312] (II) Loading sub module "ddc"
[    14.312] (II) LoadModule: "ddc"
[    14.312] (II) Module "ddc" already built-in
[    14.329]   DDC reg: 0x60
[    14.329]   DDC reg: 0x64
[    14.329]   DDC reg: 0x0
[    14.329] (II) RADEON(0): I2C device "VGA-0:ddc2" registered at address 0xA0.
[    14.331] (II) RADEON(0): I2C device "VGA-0:DDC control interface" registered at address 0x6E.
[    14.394] (II) RADEON(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:
[    14.395] (II) RADEON(0): I2C device "DVI-0:ddc2" registered at address 0xA0.
[    14.458] (II) RADEON(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

I hope this makes sense to you.

Last edited by Hide (2011-01-26 17:44:52)

Inxsible · 2011-01-26 17:46:30

Hide wrote:

Is the interface VGA, DVI, HDMI ?
This flew right over my head. How do I check this?

xrandr

will tell you how you are connected to each monitor. Even simpler way is just to see what port your cables are connected to.

Hide · 2011-01-26 17:48:33

[hide ~]$ xrandr 
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1280 x 1280
VGA-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
   1280x1024      60.0*+   75.0  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1024x768       75.0     70.1     60.0  
   832x624        74.6  
   800x600        72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2  
   640x480        75.0     72.8     66.7     59.9  
   720x400        70.1  
DVI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
S-video disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

So I guess it's VGA

ewaller · 2011-01-27 22:43:10

Yeah, that is a 17" LCD with a VGA input. The native resolution is 1280x1024 -- Trying to use it at other resolutions will probably be unsatisfactory. It has a 60Hz frame rate. If you send data at 75Hz, it will just buffer it and run at 60 Hz anyway. So, the 1280x1024 @ 60Hz looks right

Check your Xorg logs and look search for DDC and see if there are any pearls of wisdom about problems obtaining timing information from the monitor.

In a VGA signal, The video signals are analog levels that vary as a function of time between the horizontal sync pulses. There is no clocking information as to when the values change from one pixel to the next. To use a VGA signal, an LCD monitor must take 1280 (in this case) samples across the active area of the display line. To do this, the monitor must synthesize its own clock by dividing the time between horizontal sync pulses into even spaces (the count is 1280 + about 10% for the over scan and refresh times). This is performed with a circuit called a Phased Locked Loop (PLL). When the PLL fails to lock, you will see horizontal tearing while it searches. When it gives up, the monitor shuts off the output and blinks its LED at you.

The tearing and the throwing in of the towel could be caused if the system tries to change to an unsupported frequency.

The Xorg logs should also note whenever monitor geometry and timing have changed. To lock this down, you can create an xorg.conf that identifies the allowed geometry and timing and directing it to disregard DDC timing data.

Setting the timing can be an art. There are many internet articles on the topic. The good news is that with an LCD, unlike a CRT, you cannot destroy your monitor if you get the timing wrong.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-01-26 12:51:43

SLiM/startx (not sure) crashes and hangs

#2 2011-01-26 13:33:48

Re: SLiM/startx (not sure) crashes and hangs

#3 2011-01-26 13:59:41

Re: SLiM/startx (not sure) crashes and hangs

#4 2011-01-26 14:33:55

Re: SLiM/startx (not sure) crashes and hangs

#5 2011-01-26 15:49:15

Re: SLiM/startx (not sure) crashes and hangs

#6 2011-01-26 17:43:55

Re: SLiM/startx (not sure) crashes and hangs

#7 2011-01-26 17:46:30

Re: SLiM/startx (not sure) crashes and hangs

#8 2011-01-26 17:48:33

Re: SLiM/startx (not sure) crashes and hangs

#9 2011-01-27 22:43:10

Re: SLiM/startx (not sure) crashes and hangs

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