Bug 77093

Summary:	screen corruption and crashes with multiple X servers
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	Joel Uckelman <uckelman>
Component:	XFree86	Assignee:	Mike A. Harris <mharris>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX	QA Contact:	David Lawrence <dkl>
Severity:	high	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	8.0
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	athlon
OS:	Linux
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Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
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Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2002-11-01 02:45:29 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Embargoed:

Description Joel Uckelman 2002-11-01 02:40:47 UTC

From Bugzilla Helper:
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Description of problem:
Since I started running two X servers, it seems as though at least one of the
following will happen once every other day:

1) X will start drawing window contents (text especially) somewhat offset from
the windows in which they are supposed to appear. This happens only when I am
actively using X.

2) X will blank the screen and lock out my keyboard and mouse. This happens only
when X has been sitting idle for a while.

Though restarting the offending X server will generally fix the symptoms in 1,
they tend to recur within the next hour or so if someone is logged in to the
other X server (usually my gf on a different vt). Whenever 2 happens, I can
always ssh in, but I have yet to discover anything short of a reboot that will
restore keyboard and mouse response.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
4.2.0-72

How reproducible:
Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
Using my system for a while causes 1 to happen, though I can't tell what in
particular I'm doing (if anything) in each instance. 2 always happens when no
one is around to see it, unfortunately.

Additional info:

I'm using a Voodoo 4 w/ 32MB video ram. Probably nothing else is relevant,
hardware-wise. There's nothing I've noticed in my logs that corresponds to
the X corruption or crashes. I wish I could give more info, but there
doesn't seem to be more.

Comment 1 Joel Uckelman 2002-11-01 02:45:23 UTC

I should also mention that I'm using Sawfish as my WM, and my gf is using
WindowMaker, which I was also using until recently. Strangely, the screen
corruption has *never* happened to her, but happens for me under both WMs.
Furthermore, it doesn't seem to matter which vt I'm using (7 or 8), this
happens on both (I can't imagine why that would make a difference, but it
might be worth mentioning.)

Comment 2 Mike A. Harris 2002-11-01 03:00:53 UTC

Using multiple X servers simultaneously does not work on all video
hardware properly, nor with all video drivers properly.  In some cases
it is a hardware limitation, in other cases it is a driver limitation,
and in other cases it is a driver bug.

Few people use multiple X servers on a single box at all, so I can't
consider it any sort of priority to try to troubleshoot or debug this
specific problem instance you are encountering.  We do not really
support running multiple X servers simultaneously, it is more of a
"if it works, great" type of thing than something officially supported.

This type of problem should be reported directly upstream to XFree86.org
for resolution/troubleshooting/help, etc.   You may wish to post the
problem on xpert where the core developers can see it and
perhaps comment.

Comment 3 Joel Uckelman 2002-11-01 03:45:34 UTC

I didn't know multiple X servers wasn't supported. Thanks for pointing me in the
right direction, though.