Xref: utzoo comp.unix.ultrix:1943 comp.sys.dec:1962
Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!lethe!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!purdue!bu-cs!buengc!bph
From: bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix,comp.sys.dec
Subject: xcons murders the X server
Message-ID: <4327@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 23 Sep 89 03:04:04 GMT
Reply-To: bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton)
Followup-To: comp.unix.ultrix
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 30

This is with Ultrix 3.1, UWS 2.1, X11R3, on a VAXstation II/GPX; the display
is a vr290.

A few hours after starting up the xcons (by putting the proper line
in /etc/ttys and doing kill -HUP 1), the console-display's X server
(Xqdsg) locks up.

Not only is the server going south, but it takes the display head
with it.  It sends video gibberish, making a tightly-meshed lissajous
pattern on the screen.  Because of the severity of the mess, I thought
at first that it was the vr290 that was bad.  Then I remembered that
I had just tried xcons, and I had been wondering why my predecessor
as manager of these machines had not used it.

I can fix it temporarily by rlogin from the second vr290 (it's a
two-headed GPX) and kill -KILL on the Xqdsg and all other processes
attached to ttyv0, including the xcons, but init starts up both the X
server and xcons, and a couple of hours later it all crashes again.

Removing the xcons line from /etc/ttys eliminates the problem (it hasn't
crashed in days).

But that's no solution.  It won't do to have random warnings scribbled
all over the console's screen, especially when running display-intensive
CAD tools.

I'd appreciate any help or insight.

				--Blair
				  "Even a lollipop. :-)"