Hi,

Although this might not be Slackware specific question (I apologize if it
isn't), I don't know where else to ask.

As the subject says, my X freezes everytime I try to rip DVD with mencoder
(using acidrip). It's not that it'd freeze immediately when I start to
rip, but it'd freeze randomly after 30 mins to an hour. My mouse cursor
could still be moved around, but without being able to do anything else. I
can't even get back to the console mode by pressing CTRL-ALT-F*. The only
way I can overcome this problem is to start the ripping, and then go back
to console mode while it's running until it finishes. However, still, when
I try to go back to X (ALT-F7), it freezes immediately. I'd be forced to
reboot in either way.

I've googled for this matter, and this is what I found:

<Copy n Paste>
X servers can lock up a system for an amazing variety of reasons and
with a wide range of symptoms.

Symptom: Mouse moves the pointer, but nothing else happens

Probably a graphics engine lock up caused by either a graphics chip
error that has not had a workround implemented in the X server or is
caused by the X server misprogramming something. Possibly the graphics
chip is waiting for some other register to be set or for some value to
change. However, the cursor is a hardware cursor and is being
controlled by the DAC. Since writes to the DAC aren't blocked by the
graphics engine, the pointer moves.
</Copy n Paste>

However, I don't know how to solve the problem. Is there anything I can do
about it? I'm lost up to this point. I hope someone may point me to the
right solution for this.

Thanks in advance.


Lightyear

I had the same problem from time to time in slackware 9.0, i wonder what
could
cause such a freeze. I was using slack as normal, and suddenly x freezed,
only the mouse cursos was moving, had to push reset on the computer.


Miika


"Lightyear" <fake@email.com> kirjoitti viestissä
newsan.2003.10.29.17.10.41.563807@email.com...
> Hi,
>
> Although this might not be Slackware specific question (I apologize if it
> isn't), I don't know where else to ask.
>
> As the subject says, my X freezes everytime I try to rip DVD with mencoder
> (using acidrip). It's not that it'd freeze immediately when I start to
> rip, but it'd freeze randomly after 30 mins to an hour. My mouse cursor
> could still be moved around, but without being able to do anything else. I
> can't even get back to the console mode by pressing CTRL-ALT-F*. The only
> way I can overcome this problem is to start the ripping, and then go back
> to console mode while it's running until it finishes. However, still, when
> I try to go back to X (ALT-F7), it freezes immediately. I'd be forced to
> reboot in either way.
>
> I've googled for this matter, and this is what I found:
>
> <Copy n Paste>
> X servers can lock up a system for an amazing variety of reasons and
> with a wide range of symptoms.
>
> Symptom: Mouse moves the pointer, but nothing else happens
>
> Probably a graphics engine lock up caused by either a graphics chip
> error that has not had a workround implemented in the X server or is
> caused by the X server misprogramming something. Possibly the graphics
> chip is waiting for some other register to be set or for some value to
> change. However, the cursor is a hardware cursor and is being
> controlled by the DAC. Since writes to the DAC aren't blocked by the
> graphics engine, the pointer moves.
> </Copy n Paste>
>
> However, I don't know how to solve the problem. Is there anything I can do
> about it? I'm lost up to this point. I hope someone may point me to the
> right solution for this.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
> Lightyear
>
>

"Lightyear" <fake@email.com> wrote in message
newsan.2003.10.29.17.10.41.563807@email.com...
> Hi,
>
> Although this might not be Slackware specific question (I apologize if it
> isn't), I don't know where else to ask.
>
> As the subject says, my X freezes everytime I try to rip DVD with mencoder
> (using acidrip). It's not that it'd freeze immediately when I start to
> rip, but it'd freeze randomly after 30 mins to an hour. My mouse cursor
> could still be moved around, but without being able to do anything else. I
> can't even get back to the console mode by pressing CTRL-ALT-F*. The only
> way I can overcome this problem is to start the ripping, and then go back
> to console mode while it's running until it finishes. However, still, when
> I try to go back to X (ALT-F7), it freezes immediately. I'd be forced to
> reboot in either way.

So don't rip DVD's then

On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 01:10:48 +0800, Lightyear wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Although this might not be Slackware specific question (I apologize if it
> isn't), I don't know where else to ask.
>
> As the subject says, my X freezes everytime I try to rip DVD with mencoder
> (using acidrip). It's not that it'd freeze immediately when I start to
> rip, but it'd freeze randomly after 30 mins to an hour. My mouse cursor
> could still be moved around, but without being able to do anything else. I
> can't even get back to the console mode by pressing CTRL-ALT-F*. The only
> way I can overcome this problem is to start the ripping, and then go back
> to console mode while it's running until it finishes. However, still, when
> I try to go back to X (ALT-F7), it freezes immediately. I'd be forced to
> reboot in either way.
>
> I've googled for this matter, and this is what I found:
>
> <Copy n Paste>
> X servers can lock up a system for an amazing variety of reasons and
> with a wide range of symptoms.
>
> Symptom: Mouse moves the pointer, but nothing else happens
>
> Probably a graphics engine lock up caused by either a graphics chip
> error that has not had a workround implemented in the X server or is
> caused by the X server misprogramming something. Possibly the graphics
> chip is waiting for some other register to be set or for some value to
> change. However, the cursor is a hardware cursor and is being
> controlled by the DAC. Since writes to the DAC aren't blocked by the
> graphics engine, the pointer moves.
> </Copy n Paste>
>
> However, I don't know how to solve the problem. Is there anything I can do
> about it? I'm lost up to this point. I hope someone may point me to the
> right solution for this.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
> Lightyear


A few long shots :

1. If you are using the nvidia supplied driver (nvidia_drv.o), switch to
the nv_drv.o that came with your XFree86 distribution. The recent nvidia
drivers are not as stable as the 0.95 (which I used for more than a year,
and played not a few games with).
files to edit :
/etc/X11/XF86Config: the 'driver "nvidia"' line change to 'driver "nv"'

In /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers :
move the existing nvidia_drv.o to someplace else or rename it to
nvidia_Drv.o.DISABLED.
restore the old nv_drv.o into this directory.

Restart the X server.


2. can you do a "nice" on the ripping process and see if it still locks
up?

nice /path/to/mencoder params-to-mencoder

On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 01:10:48 +0800, Lightyear wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Although this might not be Slackware specific question (I apologize if it
> isn't), I don't know where else to ask.
>
> As the subject says, my X freezes everytime I try to rip DVD with mencoder
> (using acidrip). It's not that it'd freeze immediately when I start to
> rip, but it'd freeze randomly after 30 mins to an hour. My mouse cursor
> could still be moved around, but without being able to do anything else. I
> can't even get back to the console mode by pressing CTRL-ALT-F*. The only
> way I can overcome this problem is to start the ripping, and then go back
> to console mode while it's running until it finishes. However, still, when
> I try to go back to X (ALT-F7), it freezes immediately. I'd be forced to
> reboot in either way.
>
> I've googled for this matter, and this is what I found:
>
> <Copy n Paste>
> X servers can lock up a system for an amazing variety of reasons and
> with a wide range of symptoms.
>
> Symptom: Mouse moves the pointer, but nothing else happens
>
> Probably a graphics engine lock up caused by either a graphics chip
> error that has not had a workround implemented in the X server or is
> caused by the X server misprogramming something. Possibly the graphics
> chip is waiting for some other register to be set or for some value to
> change. However, the cursor is a hardware cursor and is being
> controlled by the DAC. Since writes to the DAC aren't blocked by the
> graphics engine, the pointer moves.
> </Copy n Paste>
>
> However, I don't know how to solve the problem. Is there anything I can do
> about it? I'm lost up to this point. I hope someone may point me to the
> right solution for this.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
> Lightyear

Well first off I would do a little google search and see if this is a
known problem with the version of mplayer/mencoder you are using with the
version of slackware you have. Also try to do the entire process from a
console (not a xterm), since mencoder is a cli program Xfree86 really
isn't needed. Also try dvd:rip it is a gui frontend for transcode (witch
doesn't share anything with mencoder), you'll probably like dvd:rip better.

Let me know what happens. I work with DVD's all the time and there are a
few more options that are avliable to you.

Jayson

On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 01:10:48 +0800, Lightyear wrote:
<snippage>
> However, I don't know how to solve the problem. Is there anything I can do
> about it? I'm lost up to this point. I hope someone may point me to the
> right solution for this.
> > Lightyear

Hello
Since you didn't mention logs I suppose you looked through various
logfiles and maybe even enabled verbose logging ( happens it is mentioned
in nVidia driver readme ) but nothing is in logs?
When a system hangs and you're reasonably sure it isn't due to some raw
hardware problem ( power supply overworked or faulty, heat, hard drive
failure, heat, intermittent cabling, heat, offspec FSB, heat, and oh btw
did I mention heat? It's too lame to be an attempt at joking, I am quite
serious. Heat is electronics' PE #1 and can cause instability *way* below
manufacturers specs, or at least in most mobos puny ability to actually
read anything remotely close to real temperature where it counts. The
fact that this is during a burn means not only is CPU pegged but hard
drives are likely working at/near max also, certainly a proper setting for
rapid heat buildup. I strongly recommend GKrellm or something similar to
monitor CPU usage, ram and swap usage, hdd activity, temps and voltages
and it's nice to have the internet and/or LAN activity guages too with the
user and processes lists as well but the point is that it is exceedingly
helpful to be able to see what's going on with your hardware especially
under stress and essential when you are experiencing hangs. With
monitoring you can see what's going on and you can run "ps aux"
simultaneously as well, if you like, to see what programs are chewing
or possibly spawning and help to determine if it is a software or hardware
problem.

Remember hangs due to software are generally one of three types, a program
waits for an "answer" that never comes, two programs fight for identical
resources and either do the polite ( oh, please, you first ) dance ad
infinitum or dog-eat-dog ( if I can't have it no one can )fit, or runaway
spawning in a never-ending spiral until resources are exhausted. All of
these can be seen with such a combination of monitors and greatly narrow
the field if not identifying it outright and your problem is nearly
solved. I love GKrellM and it is a permanent fixture on my desktop.
Without it, it would feel like flying a Wright Brothers plane without even
a gas gauge.

JImmy