From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 Description of problem: Pan 0.13 or higher crashes at random times under Gnome 2 and also under KDE 3, though less often. One can get a group listing from server, then pick a group, and see the articles. The lockup occurs when looking at the article listing or reading an individual article. It doesn't matter what group, or even if I scroll through the listings with keyboard or mouse. The fonts seem to melt into one another, like a "line and a half" of garbled text. Only thing that still moves is the mouse...and ctrl+alt+bkspc will not work. It happens EVERY time, but only in RH 8 using all default settings for fonts, etc. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. launch Pan 0.13 or higher, get group listing from server. 2. pick any group...binaries seem to lock up even faster, at least sometimes. 3. scroll through the article headers...it takes from 1-30 minutes to lock. Actual Results: Machine freezes totally except for tiny hard disk light flickers and the mouse still moves. Additional info: I think this is a GTK problem, to be honest. This is a VIA CPU from Microtel...but I have not had this problem in Mandrake 9.0 or Debian and Pan 0.13.
I use Pan exclusively (currently a self-rolled 0.13.2 package). I do not have this problem on either of the two machines I use Pan on (a dual P2-400 and a P4-2400 box). What video card are you using (since X appears to be the guy that's not liking something on your machine)?
It's an NVidia Geforce 2 MX 200, 32 meg DDR. Like I said, though I've never had this problem with anything except Redhat 8. Mandrake 9.0 and Pan 0.13.x work great together, as does Debian Woody or whatever and Pan 0.13.x. I would prefer to use Redhat, though...but Pan is important to me...enough so that I would switch from Redhat if I can't get this solved. It doesn't matter if I use "nv" or "nvidia" drivers, either. Same thing happens. Same thing happened WITHOUT the Nvidia card, too...same machine, just shared AGP Trident Cyberblade video.
Is your machine up2date (latest kernel)? You said that there is _some_ degree of responsiveness to your system. Can you ssh into your box after the freeze and check the logs to see what is going on (a quick perusing of dmesg might tell you something useful). Also check your /var/log/XFree86.0.log file to see if something is happening within X... Report any strange result(s)...
No, there is no OS response at all when I try to SSH or telnet into the box. XFree86's log shows nothing out of the ordinary...no errors, nothing that would lead me to suspect any problems. The kernel is 2.4.18-16 I think (I'm not at that machine right now), but it's whatever kernel comes "out of the box" with Redhat 8. I haven't changed a thing. As long as I don't use Pan 0.13.x I'm ok...I don't notice any other app causing problems, though Mozilla 1.0 locked up once. I have been told that this is a GTK2 problem and not Pan- or Redhat-specific, but I'm not yet sure. Seems to only happen within Redhat 8.
BTW I reported this to bugzilla some few weeks ago, but thought I would try the more Redhat-specific route now. Previous testing and observation are how I know about the nv vs. nvidia driver issue and the contents of XFree86 log files. Already been though that, unfortunately.
The latest version of the kernel is 2.4.18-17.8.0 - you may want to try that kernel to address any issues that might trickle down the line, so to speak. Since Debian, Mandrake, etc. do not incorporate the enhancement features that Red Hat includes with their kernel distribution - you may want to see if something is inadvertantly affecting your system. The reason I am so inquisitive is because I have RHL8 running on five different machines (different processor types/configurations) and have experienced no lockups or freezes, per se. The next viable solution would be to get an mainstream, www.kernel.org, vanilla kernel and see if your problems disappear.
I appreciate your help and advice. I remember the first time I installed RH8 I did upgrade the kernel via RHN to the latest available. I have since reinstalled and gone back to the out-of-the-box kernel. Just seems to me that if it were kernel-related it wouldn't just affect Pan. Pan is the only program I run which uses GTK/GTK2, if I'm not mistaken. I never had this problem with previous versions of Pan, either...just this one...which uses GTK2...and just on RH8. I tried removing the Pan RPM from RH8 and compiling source from superpimp.org, per instruction from someone associated with bugzilla a week or so ago...but no change...even with the default GTK look and fonts, i.e., no RH8 enhancements. If I could go back to RH7.3 I would...but I need 8. When I get back to my other machine I might try a new kernel from kernel.org.
I also doubt it is pan, but have you tried any other versions (0.12.1 or the newer 0.13.2 say)?
I think I've tried all versions of Pan, and as long as the version is 0.13 or higher, it locks up. Earlier versions didn't, even on Redhat 8. I need 0.13 mainly for the binary decoding features, though. So yes I've tried earlier and later versions.
If you tried 0.12.x that is interesting, because that also uses gtk2, but maybe it doesn't have the feature that is triggering the lockup for you?
I don't *think* I've tried Pan 0.12.x because I was told that yEnc support was added in 0.13.x and that's what I really need from Pan in the first place. Right now things seem to be a bit more stable (read: no crashes tonight) since I upgraded the kernel to the one mentioned in the RH errata. I think it was 2.4.18.18, perhaps? Again, I'm not on that machine at the moment.
Good the kernel errata seems to be making things more stable for you. If you're no longer experience lockups, I guess this can can re-assigned to the kernel component.
So far no lockups, but to be honest I think it's a combination of things. The new kernel definitely helped but I also realized one more thing I didn't do on this install (I have re-installed RH 8 a total of 4 times now): I didn't immediately download and install NVidia's driver for my Geforce 2. I am using the RH 8 internal driver "nv" right now with success. I know I said earlier I had tried that and had no success but I was mistaken...that was with Mandrake 8.2 and a problem right after I got the Geforce card. So as a test I will reinstall RH 8 tonight and do nothing except NOT use the NVidia driver...and try out Pan with the stock kernel and driver. If it locks up, I will upgrade the kernel and try. I want to use the NVidia driver because of h/w acceleration but if I can't I can't...I would rather have a stable OS.
As long as you know, using nvidia's driver is an unsupported system configuration. Closing for now.