Occasionally, I get a complete machine lock (can't change terminals, etc) in xscreensaver. This happens completely at random, but afterwards requires a reboot. If I disable the screensaver, the machine never hangs.
What graphics card and X server are you using?
I have a very similar problem. The screensaver crashes and completely locks the station, or returns to gdm. The X server randomly crashes too (I cannot change terminal but I can make a telnet from another station). I search the source of this problem, and I think that the problem come from the PCI bus gestion in the kernel (when X freezes and when I make 'init 3' by telnet, I turn my monitor off because the video card doesn't send anymore signal). I have an Elsa Gloria Synergy 8Mb on a Compaq XP900 [21264] (RH 6.2 and I have tried the kernels 2.2.13/14/15, XFree86-3DLabs 3.3.6) with 640 Mb of RAM and 1 Gb of swap. Regards, JKB
Have you tried any of the XFree86 *4* kits? Phil =--=
This is a bit old, don't ya think? :) I'm now running 7.0 and it had similar issues, but there's a separate ticket logged (and resolved) on that. Seems to be a driver issue and an update fixed it.