A short summary/report on the latest status of this problem:
(Mandrake 9.0 dual boot with win 2K)
1) linux on console works fine, doesnt crash. gpm works fine too.
2) X works fine as long as I dont touch the mouse. Infact I am composing
this mail from X.
3) The machine freezes/crashes after I move the mouse a few times. This is
true for serial/usb/ps2 mice. After this, the keyboard is also locked.
The machine stops responding to ping and ssh does not work. Hard reboot
is the only option. Before the freeze, ping and ssh into the machine
work fine.
4) Xf86configuration detects the correct graphics chipset (sis 630), mouse
and keyboard. So everything seems fine until I move the mouse.
5) Video memory is 32M which is shared from a RAM of 256M . I tried lilo
with append="mem=224M" also. Crashes with/without this option.
6) The memory section in "Control Centre" in KDE shows kernel memory as
224 M, so it seems as if linux (probably X too) knows that only 224 M
is available.
7) Surprisingly, I did not find any section in "Control Centre" refering
to Video RAM, not also in the X server section.
8) The X Server is Xfree86 4.2.1, patch level 3mdk (default X server with
Mandrake 9.0)
Any ideas on what could be wrong? Any other data/tests needed which might
help in diagnosing the problem?
Thanks much.
- Abhijeet
On Fri, 4 Oct 2002, Technoslick wrote:
> Try adding an append statement to lilo to reduce memory usage by the
> amount of shared RAM used for video (your RAM amount less the 32 MB of
> shared video RAM). Your X-Windows session may be trying to tap into the
> very same memory registers that video is using. It is a proper
> precaution, if nothing else. 256 MB - 32 MB then equals 224 MB usable RAM:
>
> append mem=224
>
> I find myself having to go back and specifically pick my video card to
> avoid the automatic pick of a the generic chip series used. I have seen
> it pick the wrong card altogether, especially when I installed it on a
> system with a Diamond Stealth II S220. It hadn't a clue what it was,
> never realizing that it had an S3 chipset. XF86Config would show you
> what your current setup is, as well as allow you to make changes. I like
> it because it allows me to change mouse, keyboard, video and monitor
> settings in one fell swoop. Xconfigurator will work, too, but it will
> only deal with video, resolution, color depth and choice of monitor.
> Whichever program you use, make sure that you check your final settings
> to see if they work. If it allows your settings, you're doing it.
>
> Of course, if all is set correctly and you only have this problem in
> Linux, not Windows...you could have weak or bad memory.
>
> T
>
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