Playing videos crashes Xfree!

MaGNuS_Z · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 10:55 pm Post subject: Playing videos crashes Xfree!

Hi,

I have a problem with Xfree that's been bugging me for a while. I searched about this but none of the solutions were related or worked. My problem is that sometimes when i try to play a video (normally with totem, mplayer or aviplay) xfree crashes and bring me back to the gdm login screen (closing all my other programs). It happens at random and generally in the first few times after a reboot. After a crash i log back in and i can play video for a while without any problem.

I'm using nvidia's 31xx drivers (i have a Geforce 440MX) because the new 4xxx series have horible 2d performances. I'm using the last stable Xfree version in portage and using the last stable version of the previously mentionned video players. I've had this bug since Gentoo 1.2...

Anyone can help me? Or in the case of RTFM could point me to the right info?

thanks

sgaap · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2003 1:15 am Post subject:

I had this with some versions of xfree and the nvidia drivers, disabling DGA fixed it for me

MaGNuS_Z · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2003 3:21 am Post subject:

Thanks for the tip but i don't think it's enabled, i never touched that option but i have this in my XF86Config file:

evilcoder · n00b Joined: 20 Nov 2002 Posts: 32

i have the same prob with mplayer and the nvidia chip. i tried all releases of X, but nothing seems to work.
sometimes after a reboot my X starts on console 8. after launching mplayer X crashes and restarts itself on console 7. after that everything works fine.
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MaGNuS_Z · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2003 4:21 pm Post subject: Re: X on console 8 after reboot

MaGNuS_Z · Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2003 7:21 pm Post subject:

*Bump*

Can somebody help? Are there any other people that have this problem?

AkiAki007 · Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2003 8:42 pm Post subject:

have you also made sure that you have removed dri and GLcore in the "Module" section?
here is mine (I think I had to add glx), the rest were defaults.

MaGNuS_Z · Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2003 9:09 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the answers, here is mine, i'll try yours when i get home:

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576

I have this problem too. Tried almost everything and it happens with gentoo 1.4 and 1.2 likewise. Only sporadically (2 times a day..) Do not open video's when you have unsaved info open..

When it does work, it works relaay great!

Do you by any chance have an athlon running on a VIA chipset?

MaGNuS_Z · Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2003 7:27 pm Post subject:

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576

MaGNuS_Z · Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2003 4:09 am Post subject:

I'm using the Nvidia one because i read it was more stable than agpgart...

kareivis · n00b Joined: 28 Oct 2002 Posts: 6 Location: Lithuania

I have this problem as well. I have Nvidia's TNT2 an Via Apollo PRO133 chipset. And i asume that is a hardware problem, because i had when i was using SuSE 7.1, what was about 1 year ago.
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Phreakazoid_ · Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2003 8:48 am Post subject:

I think this problem is caused by the way the kernel manages memory. When there isn't enough memory to allocate, it kills the process using the most memory, namely X. This problem is fixed by the rmap patch to the linux kernel (included in ck-sources, latest gentoo-sources).

Anyway, this problem used to always happen to me, and after using ck-sources, its never happened.

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576

my memory is hardly filled to the limit however...
But I'll try those ck-sources, yes.

MaGNuS_Z · Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2003 5:02 pm Post subject:

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576

MaGNuS_Z · Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2003 11:41 pm Post subject:

By jumpy mouse i meant eratic behavior. Sometimes my mouse jumps anywhere in the screen and clicks randomly. I can go for hours without experiencing the problem but then it happens like 4-5 times in 1 minute... very annoying. I tried to plug my mouse in USB (by removing the adaptor) but for some reason the mouse's light goes off and the mouse don't respond... and it continues to work after a couple of seconds. My mouse is an Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer...

As far as i remember i didn't have any problem with Mandrake but Suse did the same thing.

Twist · Guru Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 414 Location: San Diego

As far as the original problem, I had occasional crashes of mplayer when using SDL as my video output. Using -vo xv fixed that, or in ~/.mplayer/config, add

vo=xv

-Twist

MaGNuS_Z · Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2003 5:21 am Post subject:

Twist · Guru Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 414 Location: San Diego

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576

Ok, the problem had dissapeard for a while, but now I 've built a completely new gentoo rc4 installation, it has returned... with the same XF86Config file

This makes me a bit sad. Is this really a problem that bugs so few people that it isn't being fixed? Maybe it IS my TNT II card that causes the problem, but that card is just fine and will run painlessly on other os-es. I ruled out my chipset , becuase I now have a mobo with a sis chip.

I wish I could fix it myself, but my resources are too limited for that

MaGNuS_Z · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2003 7:36 pm Post subject:

The problem hasn't showed up in a while on my machine... Since then i upgraded KDE, Gnome, Xfree, all my videos players, etc... so i don't really know what fixed it (or if it's really fixed). Sorry i can't help you with this one.

I still have my weird fonts size problem, where xfree would start with tiny fonts until i kill it. Another very strange problem. :roll:

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576

Shite ... the problem is worsenening again. I sometimes think I found the fix by changing a setting, but it comes back nevertheless.
Today was a BAD day. It happens for every user that logs in every time you first start a video application (xv is opened) fot the first time. After that X restarts on another console (Alt-F

and movies never crash again for that session. A ssoon as the next user logs in ... boom!
One "user" on the machine has more luck. And for that "one" it also does happen but very rarely. I also saw it happen with another nvidia card I put in my PC for testing.

SO I guess I'll start a summary:

I had the problem with:
-All nvidia driver up til the very latest "unstable" one
-Xfree 4.2.0, 4.2.1, 4.3.0
-I had fam running (othewise I can't unmount CDroms

)
-My kernels always contained preempt (differnt kernels: gentoo ck lolo)
-It happened with nv agp and kernel agp
-It happened with emu10k1 and pci128 sound
-It happened with oc-ed and non-oc-ed duron CPU
-It happened with a sis chipset and VIA chipset
-I mainly use a tnt II pro card from elsa, but it happens too with an aopen gf2-400mx
-DGA on or off...it happens
-GCC 2.9x or 3.x , don't care

Basically specific hardware error is ruled out I suppose...except the CPU and or ram.
cflags: CFLAGS="-march=athlon-tbird -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -mmmx -m3dnow -falign-functions=4 -ffast-math"

I am lost here. This must be fixable somehow. You can imagine this is a showstopper.. I am not a coder, had to focus my time on other things.. so a "try debugging it yourself" option is not an option..