From owner-freebsd-bugs Sat Feb 14 21:04:33 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id VAA26558 for freebsd-bugs-outgoing; Sat, 14 Feb 1998 21:04:33 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from spinner.netplex.com.au (spinner.netplex.com.au [202.12.86.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id VAA26542; Sat, 14 Feb 1998 21:04:22 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from peter@netplex.com.au) Received: from spinner.netplex.com.au (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by spinner.netplex.com.au (8.8.8/8.8.8/Spinner) with ESMTP id NAA00730; Sun, 15 Feb 1998 13:04:14 +0800 (WST) (envelope-from peter@spinner.netplex.com.au) Message-Id: <199802150504.NAA00730@spinner.netplex.com.au> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: "Gary Palmer" cc: Donn Miller , current@FreeBSD.ORG, bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: netscape/swap_pager causing problems with syscons In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 02 Feb 1998 20:28:06 EST." <16424.886469286@gjp.erols.com> Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 13:04:14 +0800 From: Peter Wemm Sender: owner-freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org "Gary Palmer" wrote: > Donn Miller wrote in message ID > : > > Jordan hinted to this as a problem with syscons in one posting I saw. I > > would have to agree. In general, running out of swap space with netscape > > and X running wrecks havoc on syscons. I was wondering if anyone has > > experience with this problem and a possible solution as to how to get > > syscons responding again. I can't login by way of serial console so I > > guess the only choice is to just ctrl+alt+delete > > The problem is that the X server reprograms the chipset on the video > card to do what *it* wants. Syscons has no idea of the original > settings, and therefore can't restore them if X exits abnormally > (i.e. running out of swap and the kernel killing the server) > > The only possible solution is telling the console code how to reprogram > the video chipset, and making X indirect through the console code > for paramater changes. Perhaps it's not quite necessary to go that far, but it would be nice if syscons could be programmed (by the X server) with a sequence of instructions for resetting the video card back to sane settings. Then, when the xserver was killed, ot the machine paniced or whatever, then syscons could step through a list of instructions to reset the video card back to sanity. Presumably it'd have to be a mini instruction list.. ie: outb this value to this port, write to such-and-such a memory location, pause for a given amount, and so on.. kinda like BPF's programming. But then again, there's always the 'load the DDX component as a kernel module' option as Terry has pointed out. > Gary Cheers, -Peter -- Peter Wemm Netplex Consulting To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-bugs" in the body of the message