Re: Problem with XFree86/3d acceleration

On 10 Sep 2002, Tom Cross wrote:

>Date: 10 Sep 2002 15:18:45 -0500
>From: Tom Cross <[email protected]>
>To: [email protected]
>Content-Type: text/plain
>List-Id: Discussion of the Red Hat Linux 'Limbo' beta
>    <limbo-list.redhat.com>
>Subject: Re: Problem with XFree86/3d acceleration
>
>On Tue, 2002-09-10 at 11:29, Michael Knepher wrote:
>> I've been running null on an Athlon XP 1800+ system with a slowly fading
>> Voodoo3 card. Yesterday I picked up an ATI All-in-Wonder 7500 to replace
>> the V3. Kudzu detected the card, and when the system kicked into
>> runlevel 3, I ran redhat-config-xfree86 --reconfigure. I picked new
>> settings, and decided to turn on 3d hardware acceleration. I started X,
>> and decided to see how well the acceleration worked. The only things I
>> knew of that might use 3d were some of the GL screensavers, so I opened
>> the screensaver panel and clicked on the Atlantis module. The system
>> locked up hard, and I had to hit the reset button. 
>
>We have the same problem here with RH 7.2 & RH 7.3 and some of the GL
>screensavers.  The system locks up X.  I can telnet into people's
>workstations to reboot them, but it's too late.  People are mad.
>
>Anyway, turns out some GL screensavers are fatal to X with certain video
>cards.  I just end up disabling all GL screensavers.
>
>I haven't tested this with null yet to see if I still have the same
>problem.  :-(

A long standing bug in the generic code of the DRM (kernel module 
side of DRI) left a race condition in which a 3D client could 
potentially lock up the X server.  Games typically did/do not 
operate in a fashion that is likely to trigger this, however the 
screensavers do.

The current rawhide kernel contains a DRM locking bug fix which 
is believed to solve these types of problems on all DRI supported 
hardware.




-- 
Mike A. Harris		ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris
OS Systems Engineer
XFree86 maintainer
Red Hat Inc.