Recently I post a query about the PXG graphics boards and DU 3.2C/D - the
X display manager would crash the system when it started. I got several
replies regarding a patch to 3.2C that was supposed to fix the problem. I
found that when I applied the patches to upgrade to DU 3.2D-1 that the
problem went away - mostly. The responses also universally warned that DEC
has obsoleted the PXG graphics boards and they will not be supported in
future versions of DU.
However, I am still left with a few problems that appear to be related
to that board. It is most evident when using netscape - after viewing
some seemingly random number of pages the screen will lock up. And there
is nothing the user can do to get it back. Killing the various processes
does nothing except that the process disappear - the screens are still left
intact and inoperable. The only recourse we have found so far is to kill
both xdm and X and restart xdm. Since this a rather drastic action the
user really doesn't want to do this on a regular basis. Which brings me
to my questions:
1. Is anyone aware if the patches in the D upgrade only covered part of the
problems that were fixed by patch OSF350-034 (the one specified for 3.2C to
make the board work right)? Or should I try to get the specific patch and
apply it too?
2. Assuming that the problem persists the owner of the system has told me
that since that nice graphics board has been obsoleted why don't we just
pull it out - the original board is still in the system. When I run
/usr/sbin/sizer with the -gt option it indicates that there are two adapters:
PMAG-DA and PMAGB-BA (the board that is in there has PXG+ and PMAG-E written
on the slot covers and the original purchase order indicates that is is
a PMAGB-EA). This would indicate that if I pull the PXG board then the
system will automatically switch over and use the other board. Is there
any know problem with just pulling the board? I don't think that he is
actually using any of the features of the board since everything is pretty
much plain 2-d graphics: netscape, xterm, and saoimage (image viewer used
with the IRAF astronomy package).
3. When I try to run saoimage (the image viewer used with the IRAF astronomy
package) it always fails on the console terminal but works fine on an HP
Xterminal. This would indicate that there is still something very unique about
the Xserver on the console. The error message is
X Error of failed request: Bad Match (invalid parameter attributes)
Major opcode of failed request: 1 (X_CreateWindow)
Serial number of failer request: 51
Current serial number in output stream: 57
It appears that something was drastically changed in the Xserver since DU 3.0
(currently running on a neighboring system that works fine). Or else the
Xserver is just plain broken.
I would greatly appreciate any insights on what may be happening here or
patches that I may have missed. My feeling right now is to just pull the
PXG+ board and get it over with but would like to know if I have any other
reasonable options before doing that.
Thanks for any help
Bryan Peterson
peterson_at_physc1.byu.edu
BYU Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Provo, UT 84602
Received on Wed Mar 06 1996 - 18:47:14 NZDT