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Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system

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  Re: Matrox G550   mga driver hangs system Tony Stoneley <ajms@ajms.ukfsn.org> - 2017-03-29 21:50 +0200
    Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-03-29 22:50 +0200
      Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system "Tony Stoneley" <ajms@ajms.ukfsn.org> - 2017-03-30 18:40 +0200
        Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-03-31 08:30 +0200
          Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-03-31 11:00 +0200
          Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system "Tony Stoneley" <ajms@ajms.ukfsn.org> - 2017-03-31 23:40 +0200
            Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-04-01 00:20 +0200
              Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-04-02 00:40 +0200
              Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system "Tony Stoneley" <ajms@ajms.ukfsn.org> - 2017-04-03 19:10 +0200

#179585 — Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system

Felix Miata suggested
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/03/msg00895.html

Thanks, Felix, but I had already seen that and tried it, to no great
effect. I should have said so. Except that I see the log I filed
doesn't say so. Here is (part of) one that does, and fails similarly-

[  6651.505] X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
[  6651.505] Build Operating System: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 i686 Debian
[  6651.505] Current Operating System: Linux tresco 4.9.0-2-686-pae #1
SMP Debian 4.9.13-1 (2017-02-27) i686 [  6651.505] Kernel command line:
BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.9.0-2-686-pae
root=UUID=920046b5-b826-4c18-85a7-c986f9c15dfd ro quiet iomem=relaxed
[  6651.505] Build Date: 03 March 2017  03:15:35PM [  6651.506]
xorg-server 2:1.19.2-1 (https://www.debian.org/support)
 ...
[  6659.399] (EE) 
[  6659.399] (EE) Backtrace:

Apologies. Problem remains, however.

-- 
Tony Stoneley, ajms@ajms.ukfsn.org

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#179589 — Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system

Tony Stoneley composed on 2017-03-29 20:28 (UTC+0100):

> Felix Miata suggested
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/03/msg00895.html

> Thanks, Felix, but I had already seen that and tried it, to no great
> effect. I should have said so. Except that I see the log I filed
> doesn't say so. Here is (part of) one that does, and fails similarly-

> [  6651.505] X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
> [  6651.505] Build Operating System: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 i686 Debian
> [  6651.505] Current Operating System: Linux tresco 4.9.0-2-686-pae #1
> SMP Debian 4.9.13-1 (2017-02-27) i686 [  6651.505] Kernel command line:
> BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.9.0-2-686-pae
> root=UUID=920046b5-b826-4c18-85a7-c986f9c15dfd ro quiet iomem=relaxed
> [  6651.505] Build Date: 03 March 2017  03:15:35PM [  6651.506]
> xorg-server 2:1.19.2-1 (https://www.debian.org/support)
>  ...
> [  6659.399] (EE)
> [  6659.399] (EE) Backtrace:

> Apologies. Problem remains, however.

Did you try other things suggested in that thread or the openSUSE bug referenced 
there
https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1004453 ?
e.g. disabling framebuffer?

Note in that bug I declared the problem solved using the 4.10 kernel, but 4.9 
works too.

Which is yours PCIe, or AGP?

Which WM/DE(s) is/are you trying to use?

Can you see any other clues than Xorg.0.log shows by running
'journalctl -b -1'?
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

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#179600 — Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system

Felix Miata wrote on Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:44:01 -0400
>> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/03/msg00895.html

>Did you try other things suggested in that thread or the openSUSE bug
>referenced there
>https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1004453 ?

To be honest, I'm way out of my depth in all that. I would be happy to
try a particular experiment, given instructions...

>e.g. disabling framebuffer?

Er, how? xserver-xorg-video-fbdev isn't installed, nor for that matter
xserver-xorg-video-modesetting. As I said, I'm out of my depth.

>Which is yours PCIe, or AGP?

Ah! One I can answer:  AGP

>Which WM/DE(s) is/are you trying to use?

xfce4 and all that goes with it, but I don't think it's getting that
far. As previously remarked, that stuff does all work with the vesa
driver (achieved by tweaking xorg.conf).

>Can you see any other clues than Xorg.0.log shows by running
>'journalctl -b -1'?

Nope, though I might possibly not recognise a clue...

Apologies for uselessness (and also btw for wrecking the thread
structure with a completely inadvertent small subject change, the
genesis of which is a complete mystery to me).

--
Tony Stoneley

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#179626 — Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system

Tony Stoneley composed on 2017-03-30 17:12 (UTC+0100):

> Felix Miata wrote on Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:44:01 -0400

>>> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/03/msg00895.html

>>Did you try other things suggested in that thread or the openSUSE bug
>>referenced there
>>https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1004453 ?

> To be honest, I'm way out of my depth in all that. I would be happy to
> try a particular experiment, given instructions...

>>e.g. disabling framebuffer?

> Er, how? xserver-xorg-video-fbdev isn't installed, nor for that matter
> xserver-xorg-video-modesetting. As I said, I'm out of my depth.

A framebuffer is historically how the boot messages get displayed on vtty1 by 
the kernel in other than 80x25 text mode. Plymouth can be and often is used to 
convert that process to a graphical mode. By disabling framebuffer I mean to 
ensure that you are booting in 80x25 mode. Matrox doesn't support all the usual 
standard VESA modes, so getting back to the most basic video output can be key 
to video problem solutions.

Your goal is to boot without Plymouth and without framebuffer, in 80x25 mode, to 
give Xorg the best possible chance to work as expect. If Plymouth is installed, 
purge it.

To proceed, hit the e key when the Grub menu appears, then remove any line that 
says "load_video", and from any line that includes "video=" or "vesa" or "vga=" 
or "quiet" or "splash", remove each whole such string. Optionally, if the string 
"text" appears, remove it too.

If all the above doesn't help, repeat it, but append "iomem=relaxed" to the line 
that included video and/or vesa and/or vga. If this works, and Grub2 is what you 
are using, then /etc/default/grub needs to be modified to match whatever worked, 
followed by running update-grub. If still using Grub, simply update menu.lst to 
match what worked.

>>Which is yours PCIe, or AGP?

> Ah! One I can answer:  AGP

That's what I have.

>>Which WM/DE(s) is/are you trying to use?

> xfce4 and all that goes with it, but I don't think it's getting that
> far. As previously remarked, that stuff does all work with the vesa
> driver (achieved by tweaking xorg.conf).

FBDEV and VESA Xorg drivers are creepy-crawly slow!!!

Are you using a greeter, or logging in on a vtty and using startx or equivalent?

What are the permissions on your /usr/bin/Xorg?

>>Can you see any other clues than Xorg.0.log shows by running
>>'journalctl -b -1'?

> Nope, though I might possibly not recognise a clue...

Doing something like 'journalctl -b -1 | grep -i failed' might be useful. There 
is an awful lot of stuff making particular points of interest hard to identify 
in the journal.

> Apologies for uselessness (and also btw for wrecking the thread
> structure with a completely inadvertent small subject change, the
> genesis of which is a complete mystery to me).

Don't be confused by the fact that some common video terms have multiple 
contexts. Using the VESA driver in Xorg has nothing directly to do with VESA 
modes being used by the kernel or the BIOS. Same goes for modesetting or KMS. 
Matrox gfxchips are not supported by KMS, so the modesetting Xorg driver is not 
an option for Matrox users. xserver-xorg-video-modesetting is appropriate only 
for Intel, ATI and NVidia hardware that is several years newer than your Matrox. 
xserver-xorg-video-fbdev would probably not work as well as xserver-xorg-video-vesa.

Lack of active Matrox support since KMS was introduced into the kernel around 8 
years ago is why were are going through this troubleshooting process. Devs are 
no longer Matrox users, so must rely on users who have problems reporting them 
with enough details that fixes can be implemented by devs who have no matching 
hardware to test on. It may be time for you to ask for help from the devs, using 
the debian-devel mailing list or one of the freedesktop.org Xorg mailing lists, 
or by filing a Debian bug.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

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#179628 — Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system

Felix Miata composed on 2017-03-31 02:22 (UTC-0400):

[xserver-xorg-video-mga is a user-space graphics driver]
...
> If all the above doesn't help, repeat it, but append "iomem=relaxed" to the line
> that included video and/or vesa and/or vga...
This showed up on vtty when I did dist-upgrade from jessie to stretch:

apt-listchanges: News
...
linux-latest (76) unstable; urgency=medium

   * From Linux 4.8, several changes have been made in the kernel
     configuration to 'harden' the system, i.e. to mitigate security bugs.
     Some changes may cause legitimate applications to fail, and can be
     reverted by run-time configuration:
     - On most architectures, the /dev/mem device can no longer be used to
       access devices that also have a kernel driver.  This breaks dosemu
       and some old user-space graphics drivers.  To allow this, set the
       kernel parameter: iomem=relaxed

xorg-server (2:1.17.3-1) unstable; urgency=medium

   The Xorg server is no longer setuid root by default.  This change reduces the
   risk of privilege escalation due to X server bugs, but has some side effects:

   * it relies on logind and libpam-systemd
   * it relies on a kernel video driver (so the userspace component doesn't
     touch the hardware directly)
   * it needs X to run on the virtual console (VT) it was started from
   * it changes the location for storing the Xorg log from /var/log/ to
     ~/.local/share/xorg/

   On systems where those are not available, the new xserver-xorg-legacy package
   is needed to allow X to run with elevated privileges. See the
   Xwrapper.conf(5) manual page for configuration details.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

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#179666 — Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system

Felix Miata wrote on Fri, 31 Mar 2017 02:22:10 -0400
  <lots of helpful stuff, thanks>

>Your goal is to boot without Plymouth and without framebuffer, in
>80x25 mode, to give Xorg the best possible chance to work as expect.
>If Plymouth is installed, purge it.
>
>To proceed, hit the e key when the Grub menu appears, then remove any
>line that says "load_video", and from any line that includes "video="
>or "vesa" or "vga=" or "quiet" or "splash", remove each whole such
>string. Optionally, if the string "text" appears, remove it too.
>
>If all the above doesn't help, repeat it, but append "iomem=relaxed" to the
>line
>that included video and/or vesa and/or vga.

OK, I did all that. More strictly I edited grub.cfg (I do have a
rescue CD, so not a disaster if I broke grub.cfg) to comment out two
calls of load_video, one in the menu entry for the boot and one in the
preamble. The grub dialogue duly came up in 80x25 mode, encouragingly,
but even with "iomem=relaxed" on the "linux" line I still had no joy
when it came to starting X, alas.

>Are you using a greeter, or logging in on a vtty and using startx or
>equivalent?

For this investigation I am using the latter, but normally I use
lightdm and its greeter. I dispensed with lightdm here to simplify
while trying to sort out what was going on.

>What are the permissions on your /usr/bin/Xorg?

-rwxr-xr-x


>Doing something like 'journalctl -b -1 | grep -i failed' might be
>useful. There is an awful lot of stuff making particular points of
>interest hard to identify in the journal.

It certainly is hard to find the needle in the haystack, even when as
in my case much of it is gobbledegook. I've tried the suggestion but
it didn't throw up anything very startling.

One thing I have found is that although ctrl-alt-Fn has no observable
effect when the xserver has jammed, ctrl-alt-del does provoke reboot,
and the shutdown is reasonably orderly, as seen later in journalctl,
so the underlying system is still flying.

Thanks for all the other helpful instruction, even if it hasn't solved
the problem.

>It may be time for you to ask for help from the devs, using the
>debian-devel mailing list or one of the freedesktop.org Xorg mailing
>lists, or by filing a Debian bug.

Yes, perhaps, if I can pluck up enough courage...

Tony

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#179669 — Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system

Tony Stoneley composed on 2017-03-31 22:20 (UTC+0100):

> Felix Miata wrote on Fri, 31 Mar 2017 02:22:10 -0400

>>It may be time for you to ask for help from the devs, using the
>>debian-devel mailing list or one of the freedesktop.org Xorg mailing
>>lists, or by filing a Debian bug.

> Yes, perhaps, if I can pluck up enough courage...

The problem has returned here. Xorg.0.log keeps terminating with an empty 
backtrace, and nothing in dmesg unless adding drm.debug= to cmdline. C-A-D 
doesn't do anything. openSUSE Tumbleweed still works. Nothing I can think of has 
changed overnight. Maybe this is come kind of timing issue, consistently bad for 
your machine, occasionally OK for mine.

Last night and this AM before my last post here I was reliably getting into Xorg 
after a lot of trial & lockups. So, a bug filing is apparently needed. I'd like 
you to file it. You're using XFCE4, so presumably only standard repos, while I'm 
using Trinity, meaning non-standard repos, plus having a related issue you 
haven't mentioned. TDM is trying to start even though the target is multi-user, 
so ATM at least I can't get a chance to even try startx.

Once you've filed and shared a bug I'll subscribe and add comments. Bug filing 
instructions I just used for an installation problem are here:
https://www.debian.org/releases/stretch/i386/ch05s04.html.en

Main instructions seem to be different:
https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

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#179703 — Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system

I uninstalled tdm-trinity, kept iomem=relaxed on cmdline, blacklisted mga, and 
rebuilt initrd. That got Xorg to run TDE and IcwWM via startx. Then I 
reinstalled tdm-trinity, and its greeter now behaves as expected.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

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#179750 — Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system

Felix Miata wrote on Fri, 31 Mar 2017 18:17:09 -0400
>...So, a bug filing is apparently needed. I'd like you to file it....

OK, with great trepidation I've sent a report to the Debian Bug
Tracking System, and received automatic acknowledgement of it as
Bug#859423. Those interested should follow progress via
www.debian.org/Bugs

Tony

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