Hi all again, well, it turns out that the server reboots when gdm tries to start. I have RageXL adapters, so if anyone has these working successfully I''d love some help. How did they go about configuring the correct kernel features? Thanks, Paul. ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: YOU BE THE JUDGE. Be one of 170 Project Admins to receive an Apple iPod Mini FREE for your judgement on who ports your project to Linux PPC the best. Sponsored by IBM. Deadline: Sept. 24. Go here: http://sf.net/ppc_contest.php _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
> well, it turns out that the server reboots when gdm tries to start. I have > RageXL adapters, so if anyone has these working successfully I''d love some > help. How did they go about configuring the correct kernel features?What happens if you boot to a boot to a console and then start X manually without any of the gnome stuff? Are you trying to compile in agpgart, drm or other fbdev components into the kernel? I''d certainly recommend trying to avoid having any of these in the kernel -- most X server drivers will work fine without them, though with reduced performance [*]. What happens if you just use the standard X "ati" driver? There was an email thread recently where attempts were made to make agpgart/drm work, but it ended inconclusively. We don''t have any hardware that actually needs agpgart or any of the fbdev components so we haven''t been able to test this. You might like to try the patches in the linux-2.6.8.1-patches directory in the repo. Part of the problem is that these drivers have only ever been used on x86 hardware, so the authors have been rather ''fast and loose'' with their use of various kernel functions (such as assuming bus and physical addresses are the same). Most other Linux drivers are rather more careful as they have to work on PPC, Alpha etc, and Xen relies on this. agpgart.patch and drm.patch clean up some obvious "bugs", but I suspect more fixes will be required. Someone who actually has some of this hardware will need to fix it. Ian [*] I believe the Intel i815 driver is an exception to this; it requires agpgart. ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: YOU BE THE JUDGE. Be one of 170 Project Admins to receive an Apple iPod Mini FREE for your judgement on who ports your project to Linux PPC the best. Sponsored by IBM. Deadline: Sept. 24. Go here: http://sf.net/ppc_contest.php _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
Just prior to your email I had tried to start X from the command line after taking gdm out of the startup. Again with the spontaneous reboot. I''m not really concerned about graphical performance at all, I just prefer working in a graphical environment if I can. I''m also considering a case whereby our web developers may one day work with Xen VMs on their workstations (thus saving our precious server resources) which would be transfered easily to the servers when they are ready), in which case having X play nice would be crucial. If anyone has a machine with a RageXL adapter or another one that uses the ati xfree86 driver, I''d love a copy of their config file, and to know what they had to do to get it all working with the Xen0 kernel. In the meantime I''m having a go with the agp and drm patches to see if that improves the situation. Thanks all for your time. Regards, Paul On Wednesday 22 September 2004 11:33 am, Ian Pratt wrote:> > well, it turns out that the server reboots when gdm tries to start. I > > have RageXL adapters, so if anyone has these working successfully I''d > > love some help. How did they go about configuring the correct kernel > > features? > > What happens if you boot to a boot to a console and then start X > manually without any of the gnome stuff? > > Are you trying to compile in agpgart, drm or other fbdev > components into the kernel? I''d certainly recommend trying to > avoid having any of these in the kernel -- most X server drivers > will work fine without them, though with reduced performance > [*]. What happens if you just use the standard X "ati" driver? > > There was an email thread recently where attempts were made to > make agpgart/drm work, but it ended inconclusively. We don''t have > any hardware that actually needs agpgart or any of the fbdev > components so we haven''t been able to test this. You might like > to try the patches in the linux-2.6.8.1-patches directory in the > repo. > > Part of the problem is that these drivers have only ever been > used on x86 hardware, so the authors have been rather ''fast and > loose'' with their use of various kernel functions (such as > assuming bus and physical addresses are the same). Most other > Linux drivers are rather more careful as they have to work on > PPC, Alpha etc, and Xen relies on this. > > agpgart.patch and drm.patch clean up some obvious "bugs", but I > suspect more fixes will be required. Someone who actually has > some of this hardware will need to fix it. > > Ian > > [*] I believe the Intel i815 driver is an exception to this; it > requires agpgart. > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by: YOU BE THE JUDGE. Be one of 170 > Project Admins to receive an Apple iPod Mini FREE for your judgement on > who ports your project to Linux PPC the best. Sponsored by IBM. > Deadline: Sept. 24. Go here: http://sf.net/ppc_contest.php > _______________________________________________ > Xen-devel mailing list > Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: YOU BE THE JUDGE. Be one of 170 Project Admins to receive an Apple iPod Mini FREE for your judgement on who ports your project to Linux PPC the best. Sponsored by IBM. Deadline: Sept. 24. Go here: http://sf.net/ppc_contest.php _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
I''m still having no luck with this, though I think my expectations are pretty reasonable at this time. I used xf86config to generate a new minimal XF86Config-4 file. The key components of it are: Load "dbe" Option "omit xfree86-dga" Load "type1" Load "speedo" Driver "vga" Driver "vesa" [note I''ve pulled these out of context, as I''m sure most of you know where they go]. Even with this the server spontaneously reboots if I try to start x, with nothing in the log files. I''m using a fresh Xen build with pristine kernel (no agp or drm patches). Starting X from a different kernel works fine. I''m beginning to think it''s something stupid that I''ve overlooked.... Paul ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: YOU BE THE JUDGE. Be one of 170 Project Admins to receive an Apple iPod Mini FREE for your judgement on who ports your project to Linux PPC the best. Sponsored by IBM. Deadline: Sept. 24. Go here: http://sf.net/ppc_contest.php _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
> I''m still having no luck with this, though I think my expectations are pretty > reasonable at this time. I used xf86config to generate a new minimal > XF86Config-4 file. The key components of it are: > > Load "dbe" > Option "omit xfree86-dga" > Load "type1" > Load "speedo" > Driver "vga" > Driver "vesa"OK, I guess I''d expected "vga" to work, but you should be able to do rather better than that. "vesa" won''t work. It relies on call-backs to the BIOS to configure the display, which we don''t currently support. I guess we could, but there''s usually a better driver than vesa available anyhow, so it hasn''t been a priority. What happens if you use the "ati" driver? Are you sure your kernel is build without CONFIG_{DRM,AGP,FP} ? If so, its hard to understand why it''s rebooting. I wander if anything might be gleaned from strace''ing what happens when you start X. Ian ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: YOU BE THE JUDGE. Be one of 170 Project Admins to receive an Apple iPod Mini FREE for your judgement on who ports your project to Linux PPC the best. Sponsored by IBM. Deadline: Sept. 24. Go here: http://sf.net/ppc_contest.php _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
> OK, I guess I''d expected "vga" to work, but you should be able to > do rather better than that. > > "vesa" won''t work. It relies on call-backs to the BIOS to > configure the display, which we don''t currently support. I guess > we could, but there''s usually a better driver than vesa available > anyhow, so it hasn''t been a priority. > > What happens if you use the "ati" driver? > > Are you sure your kernel is build without CONFIG_{DRM,AGP,FP} ? > > If so, its hard to understand why it''s rebooting. I wander if > anything might be gleaned from strace''ing what happens when you > start X.To get the oops message you will need to connect a null modem serial cable and grab a serial dump when booting with ''console=ttyS0''. -- Keir ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: YOU BE THE JUDGE. Be one of 170 Project Admins to receive an Apple iPod Mini FREE for your judgement on who ports your project to Linux PPC the best. Sponsored by IBM. Deadline: Sept. 24. Go here: http://sf.net/ppc_contest.php _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
> I''m still having no luck with this, though I think my expectations are pretty > reasonable at this time. I used xf86config to generate a new minimal > XF86Config-4 file. The key components of it are:Paul, Please can you give the latest bk repo a go. I fixed a nasty bug to do with mapping /dev/mem on 2.6.8.1 that must have been breaking many X drivers and caused memory corruption in the kernel. I''d expect the "ati" driver to now work for you -- I''ve tested it on a Rage XL card and it works for me. Cheers, Ian ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: YOU BE THE JUDGE. Be one of 170 Project Admins to receive an Apple iPod Mini FREE for your judgement on who ports your project to Linux PPC the best. Sponsored by IBM. Deadline: Sept. 24. Go here: http://sf.net/ppc_contest.php _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
You guys are great! Ian, that did the trick. Thanks very much for tracking that one down. I owe you a pint! :o) Cheers, Paul On Thursday 23 September 2004 05:52 am, Ian Pratt wrote:> > I''m still having no luck with this, though I think my expectations are > > pretty reasonable at this time. I used xf86config to generate a new > > minimal XF86Config-4 file. The key components of it are: > > Paul, > > Please can you give the latest bk repo a go. I fixed a nasty bug > to do with mapping /dev/mem on 2.6.8.1 that must have been > breaking many X drivers and caused memory corruption in the > kernel. > > I''d expect the "ati" driver to now work for you -- I''ve tested it > on a Rage XL card and it works for me. > > Cheers, > Ian > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by: YOU BE THE JUDGE. Be one of 170 > Project Admins to receive an Apple iPod Mini FREE for your judgement on > who ports your project to Linux PPC the best. Sponsored by IBM. > Deadline: Sept. 24. Go here: http://sf.net/ppc_contest.php > _______________________________________________ > Xen-devel mailing list > Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: YOU BE THE JUDGE. Be one of 170 Project Admins to receive an Apple iPod Mini FREE for your judgement on who ports your project to Linux PPC the best. Sponsored by IBM. Deadline: Sept. 24. Go here: http://sf.net/ppc_contest.php _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel