Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 429455
Fedora 8 crashes on login (but not for all users)
Last modified: 2009-01-09 02:36:20 EST
Description of problem: Trying to login to Fedora 8 after 18th January 2008, but X crashes. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.3.0.0-37.fc8 xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.7.196-2.fc8 gdm-2.20.2-2.fc8 How reproducible: Every time, unless I login via a serial console first and delete the existing /tmp/gconfd-<username> directory. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Login as a standard user. Actual results: X crashes while drawing the icons on my gnome-panel. I am then returned to the login screen. Some processes may be left "dangling" in the process table. Expected results: Logging in would be nice. Additional info: There must be "something" about my desktop that is triggering this because other users are unaffected. Possibly it's my "double height" gnome-panel at the bottom of the desktop, with no gnome-panel at the top. X seems to crash while putting the icons on the gnome-panel. My screen resolution is 1680x1050, with a default depth of 24 bits. My video card is a Radeon 9550, and I have not enabled desktop effects.
Created attachment 292289 [details] gdm log showing back-trace from crashed X
Created attachment 292290 [details] Xorg config file
Thanks for the bug report. We have reviewed the information you have provided above, and there is some additional information we require that will be helpful in our diagnosis of this issue. Please attach your X server config file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) and X server log file (/var/log/Xorg.*.log) to the bug report as individual uncompressed file attachments using the bugzilla file attachment link below. Could you please also try to run without any /etc/X11/xorg.conf whatsoever and let X11 autodetect your display and video card? Attach to this bug /var/log/Xorg.0.log from this attempt as well, please. We will review this issue again once you've had a chance to attach this information. Thanks in advance.
Created attachment 292394 [details] Xorg log file from a crash
Created attachment 292395 [details] Xorg log file from built-in configuration
And I have already attached the xorg.conf file.
The "workaround" I was using, namely deleting the /tmp/gcondf-<user> directory over a serial console, is no longer working for me. It appears to be "just luck" whether the X server crashes or not. Note that the crash is still happening with xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.3.0.0-39.fc8, and that the gnome-panel is still implicated.
I am seeing the same problem on two computers. Both users have double height transparent gnome-panels. Users with other settings, like the root user don't have the problem. Both computers have AMD processors Athlon XP and Duron.
Now that you mention it, my gnome panel is also semi-transparent. I've made it 100% opaque now to see if it makes any difference. Disabling AIGLX or the Composite extension certainly didn't help.
Turning the gnome-panel opaque has enabled me to login without X crashing, for once. So the bug does seem to be related to transparency.
I reported a very similar bug in 2006 (FC5) btw. It vanished after a few months. The backtrace looks pretty much the same. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=189461
This message is a reminder that Fedora 8 is nearing its end of life. Approximately 30 (thirty) days from now Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora 8. It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora 'version' of '8'. Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 8's end of life. Bug Reporter: Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we may not be able to fix it before Fedora 8 is end of life. If you would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version of Fedora please change the 'version' of this bug to the applicable version. If you are unable to change the version, please add a comment here and someone will do it for you. Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes bugs or makes them obsolete. The process we are following is described here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping
Fedora 8 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2009-01-07. Fedora 8 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug. If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.