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From: sdempsey@UCSD.EDU (Steve Dempsey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: VGX and setmonitor(3g)
Message-ID: <9008020229.AA22321@chem.chem.ucsd.edu>
Date: 2 Aug 90 02:29:39 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 29

system: 4D/340VGX
OS:	IRIX 3.3

I have just discovered (the hard way) that calling setmonitor on VGX
machines is dangerous.  The bug is documented at the very end of
of the setmonitor(3g) man page, and I quote:

    BUGS
	IRIS-4D VGX models may hang the graphics pipe, resulting in failure of
	all running programs including the window manager, when setmonitor is
	called while other graphics processes are running.

This bug is NOT mentioned in the 3.3 release notes, or in the 1.0 StereoView
release notes.

Needless to say, this has put a damper on my attempts to use StereoView on our
new 340VGX.  There seems to be a catch-22 situation here, since I can't
reliably call 'setmonitor' when graphics are running, yet there is always
some graphics process running.  The questions:

1. Will this bug be fixed in the real 3.3 (3.3.1) IRIX release that's
   supposed to arrive any day now?

2. Is it known when it's 'safe' to call setmonitor on VGX machines?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Dempsey						       (619) 534-0208
Dept. of Chemistry Computer Facility, B-014	   INTERNET:   sdempsey@ucsd.edu
University of Calif. at San Diego		     BITNET:   sdempsey@ucsd
La Jolla, CA 92093				       UUCP:   ucsd!sdempsey