[Wylug-help] X modes [Was: X fonts]

[Dave Fisher]

On Mon, Jan 16, 2006 at 09:25:45AM +0000, John Hodrien wrote:
> What have you done to your machine to break it?  


Premature upgrade, then backed out.

> Is the font server running?  

Apparently not, but getting rid of all the font server packages I had (xfs,
then xfstt) seems to have eliminated the font-related error message. I'm not
sure whether this is a good thing or not.

The new problem seems more severe. From Xorg.log:

  Fatal server error:
  no screens found

From earlier in the log:

  (II) I810(0): Using detected DDC timings
  (II) I810(0):   HorizSync 31-80
  (II) I810(0):   VertRefresh 56-75
  (WW) I810(0): config file hsync range 30-65kHz not within DDC hsync range 31-80kHz
  (WW) I810(0): config file vrefresh range 50-75Hz not within DDC vrefresh range 56-75Hz

This is mildly perplexing (to say the least), because I specifically set the
sync and refresh rates to stay within bounds. From my xorg.conf:

  Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "DELL E173FP"
        Option          "DPMS"
        HorizSync       31-80
        VertRefresh     56-75
  EndSection

It's as if some part of the Debian system deliberately chose to throw away my
xorg.conf settings and substitute them with earlier ones from a dodgy
configuration autoprobe.

John's suggestion about looking at /tmp permissions was helpful. I didn't find
any specific problems there, but the idea did bring my attention to an
unkillable gdm process that might be preserving earlier settings.

Sending stop signals via /etc/init.d/gdm  produces:
  
   * Stopping GNOME Display Manager...  
   * GNOME Display Manager not running

Which is a lie, cos ps reveals the same gdm process running bold as brass
before and after the signal.

/usr/bin/gdm-signal stop produces:

  ** (gdm-signal:13334): WARNING **: Failed to establish a connection with GDM: No such file or directory
  ** (gdm-signal:13334): WARNING **: Failed to establish a connection with GDM: No such file or directory

And, again the same gdm process remains before and after.

kill (with -15 or -9) kills the gdm process, but it automatically repawns moments later.

On the other hand, a reboot seems to clear the old settings. 

The system runs X when it comes up again, even if the mode is a terrible 8 bit
640x480 and the gnome enviroment is thoroughly broken.

I suspect that I can fix the gnome stuff eventually, but I'd like to know what
went wrong in the first place.  Not least because, I've had similar problems at
virtually every upgrade on the same machine.

Dave