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Re: problems with XFree


Harold, thanks for the suggestions. I was hoping that oue of them would solve the problem. I checked and found only one cygwin1.dll on the system. It's dated 5 July. I update frequently using setup.exe.

I agree with you assessment of Windows. However, my problem isn't the BSOD but XFree86 seg fault. Windows keeps on working and the (apparent) memory leak resolves itself after CFree86 croaks.

Let me know if there is anything else I can do on my end to identify the problem.

Thanks,
Tom

Harold Hunt wrote:
Tom,

I bet that you either have two copies of cygwin1.dll on your system, or that
you have a really old version of cygwin1.dll.  For more information see:

http://xfree86.cygwin.com/docs/faq/cygwin-xfree-faq.html#q-status-access-vio
lation

I run XDMCP sessions for several hours with no slowdowns or lockups.  I also
log off and back on to XDMCP sessions all the time.  A couple of days ago I
did identify and fix a memory leak that happens when the X server resets,
which happens when you logoff an XDMCP session.

I think that Windows 2000 and Windows XP do not show a bluescreen anymore by
default.  You can change that option in the Control Panel.  You mention that
this also happens on Windows 95/98/Me, which seems to be about the level of
information that you can expect from those OSes when they crash.

Harold


-----Original Message-----
From: cygwin-xfree-owner@cygwin.com
[mailto:cygwin-xfree-owner@cygwin.com]On Behalf Of Tom Bozack
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2002 10:32 PM
To: cygwin-xfree@cygwin.com
Subject: Re: problems with XFree


I think Cygwin/XFree86 is a great product  -- but there is nothing so
good that it can't be improved.  I agree with all of you comments,
although I haven't had the system reboot experience.

One persistant problem that you didn't mention (manybe you haven't run
into it yet) is a very persistent and repeatable lock-up when used to
login to another host using XDMCP.  The symptom is of a sudden large
memory leak after 15-30 minutes of use.  XFree86 becomes unresponsive,
system memory and swap resources are rapidly used up, and finally
XFree86 crashes with a seg fault.  This also happens immediately (you
don't have to wait 15-30 min) when you logoff the host and login again.
 I've experienced this under Windows 98/98SE/ME.

For me this is a showstopper since it makes Cygwin/XFree86 unusable as
an X server platform.  It's fun to play with, but this "bug" makes it
unacceptable for routine use as an X server.

Tom

gsroka@mmsa.com wrote:

(last email I sent complained about HTML MIME. i hope i'm not
double-posting)

I started playing with XFree last week. It's been a few years
since I've

used UNIX, so you can call me a newbie, if you like. I'm
running Windows

2000 Pro on a P4 1.7 GHz with 768 MiB of RAM and 10 GB free on my hard
drive. I (eventually) did a full Cygwin/XFree86 download and install
(binaries, not source).

Please don't flame me if I'm out of line. I didn't know if I
should break

this up into several emails or have one big one. Also, please send
responses to me by email.

Here are my obervations/problems.
Showstoppers:
1) The very first time I brought up the X server, I had modified
startxwin.bat
to use wmaker instead of twm. It crashed because /home
hadn't been created yet. This was "fixed" by running the text-mode bash
icon first.
2) when I run Xman, it says "No App-Defaults File". If I run
"Xman -notop"

instead, I can browse one man page, and then it stops working.
(it gives a

"likeToSave" message box with yes and no buttons that don't seem to do
anything.) It seems to be related to missing a locale binary.
Is there a

way to get this to work?
3) within the first few hours of usage, I ran a "find / -name
abc -print"

from the command-line, and my trusty Windows 2000 box
restarted. no blue

screen, no error. it was like someone pulled the power plug and
plugged it

back in. after it came up, i tried the same command and it worked fine.
4) i had a similar "restart" to #6 when I ran setup.exe while
cygwin was

up. of course, bad user, i should have stopped cygwin before running
setup, but i'm still amazed at how easily my robust kernel, based on NT
Technology, came down.

Nice-to-haves:
5) it'd be nice if setup.exe showed the size (in bytes or
megabytes, etc.)

of each package (it's in setup.ini). on my 56 Kb/s modem, downloading a
large, unnecessary file takes a painfully long time, but a small
unnecessary file is not so bad.
6) on that note, how about displaying those nice descriptions from
setup.ini in setup.exe so we can see what the packages are before
downloading them. a resizable window would come in handy for this.
7) the first time I downloaded (a partial download, not full), i picked
"more" and "clear", but next time I went into setup.exe, it had
"forgotten" that. perhaps if I can unrust my C, I can fix some of these
bugs myself. give me a few weeks.
8) the XFree86-fnts package is 16 MiB. it's kind of big. the
first time i

downloaded from http:uiuc, it got 98% and stopped responding--1 hour
wasted (at 56 Kb). the second time (no joke) it got 99% and
stopped--another hour wasted. so i copied it from somewhere else.
9) my X clients on an AIX box didn't work because i didn't use the -kb
switch on XWin. but i found that one on the faq. a possible
enhancement to

setup.exe?
10) using K (or Ki) and B for byte on setup.exe is always nice.
make sure

to leave a space between the number and the unit. 10 KB, not 10KB. how
about estimated download time in addition to % ?
11) also, what's all that /b stuff about in startxwin.bat?
gotos, etc. but

there is no /b ! (there is no spoon either ;-)


Please no one take offense at all this. I'm not trying to throw
blame. It

seems like a great product, so far (except for the deadly
restarts). These

are perhaps suggestions for doing it better. I know some coworkers who
tried to get this to work, but gave up because of the problems. So will
the average newbie or the busy IT pro who doesn't have time to
read lots

of faqs and will buy Exceed instead. I hope my observations will help
others.

Gabriel Sroka
gsroka at mmsa dot com







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