Kwin crash in 11.2

English Install/Boot/Login
21

Crashing kwin is still a problem in context with ATI-driver installation. Renders my system unusable. Using Icewm i tried uninstalling, removing kwin config, re-installing kwin. Kwin still crashes.

I got OpenSuse 11.2, a RV610 (ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT) graphics card, at the moment using radeon driver, for the kernel uname -a tells me “Linux <machine-name> 2.6.31.12-0.2-default #1 SMP 2010-03-16 21:25:39 +0100 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux”. I removed the ATI-driver again, but the problem with kwin persists.

I experience same problems as prior posters: At login kwin reports multiple prior crashes and proposes to switch to another windowmanager (fvwm2 running at the moment). If one simply ignores the window (aborts) the keyboard behaves strangely, some key combinations work, other don’t. The (USB) mouse works after switching to an USB port on the mainboard (it was not powered by the build-in USB hub in my MS-Natural keyboard).

At the moment I use fvwm2, though I am not very used to it. Wonder how I could get kwin work again?

22

Have you tried the propritary ATI driver?

23

>Have you tried the propritary ATI driver?

Sorry in case I was unprecise above, the propritary ATI-driver led to the problem in the first place.

Meanwhile I got kwin back to work by following steps using another available windowmanager (icewm, fvwm, …) and zypper or the grafical software installation frontend of your choice:

  1. remove eventually installed propriatary ati-driver packages

Additional hint for users of Virtualbox or other emulators potentially installing some kind of ‘imaginary’ grafics card: You may want to get this software installed/working before switching to the proprietary ATI driver.

  1. re-install (as root) the ati-driver package version from
    Graphics Drivers & Software (at time of writing version 10.3)

  2. run (as root) aticonfig --initial twice, ignoring an eventual error message after the first run.

  3. Log out. Log in with kwin.

Worked fine for me.

And remember, future kernel changes by automatic software package updates may again break the kernel-dependand ati driver …

Good luck!

24

Same problem. Opensuse 11.2 with ATI drivers. Everything was working fine before. Now I get the crash message “Kwin unstable” etc.

Have tried disabling ATI drivers by replacing xorg.conf with the non-ATI xorg.conf, but kwin still crashes.

Does this mean that the crash is nothing to do with the ATI drivers?

25

Post your repo list

zypper lr -d

Can’t you login with Gnome or IceWM?

26

I solved the problem by re-installing the ATI drivers (the same ones).

Now kwin functions as before, with desktop effects, hw acceleration etc.

In the previous post, I said that the problem occurred even without the ATI driver: I’m sorry, but that was NOT TRUE, the xorg.conf I used still used the fglrx driver.

Reinstalling the drivers was quite complicated for me.

At the end of this post I’ll paste the instructions I used, which assume you have already downloaded the drivers. Don’t bother asking me questions about those instructions because I’m not technical enough.

Anyway, this is the output of the zypper lr -d command:

1 | ATI Repository | ATI Repository | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://www2.ati.com/suse/11.2 |
2 | Packman | Packman | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | Index of /suse/11.2 |
3 | Videolan | Videolan | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | Index of /pub/vlc/SuSE/11.2/ |
4 | http-download.opensuse.org-b168f3ae | Updates for openSUSE 11.2-0 | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | Index of /update/11.2 |
5 | openSUSE 11.2-0 | openSUSE 11.2-0 | No | No | 99 | yast2 | cd:/// |
6 | repo-debug | openSUSE-11.2-Debug | No | Yes | 99 | NONE | Index of /debug/distribution/11.2/repo/oss |
7 | repo-non-oss | openSUSE-11.2-Non-Oss | Yes | Yes | 99 | yast2 | Index of /distribution/11.2/repo/non-oss |
8 | repo-oss | openSUSE-11.2-Oss | Yes | Yes | 99 | yast2 | Index of /distribution/11.2/repo/oss |
9 | repo-source | openSUSE-11.2-Source | No | Yes | 99 | NONE | Index of /source/distribution/11.2/repo/oss |

Below are the instructions I used (sorry I dont know the URL, because I found them in my home directory!)

Get into runlevel 3 and run the following:

cd /usr/src/linux

make mrproper

make cloneconfig

make modules_prepare

make clean

Remove previous drivers properly by executing the command:

rpm -e $(rpm -qa | grep fglrx)

Troubleshooting - Step 2

Reinstall the driver again running:

rpm -Uvh --force fgl*.rpm

Troubleshooting - Step 3

Use ldconfig and aticonfig to setup xorg.conf by running:

ldconfig

aticonfig --initial --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf

And then check Other important Settings in the xorg.conf

After your run these two commands reboot back into Runlevel 3. You can accomplish this from the boot menu by typing init 3 after the command: prompt
Troubleshooting - Step 4

Now we need to ensure the kernel modules are in place. If not you would e.g. get the following in your /var/log/Xorg.0.log:

(EE) fglrx(0): atiddxDriScreenInit failed, GPS not been initialized.

So to install the modules type:

fglrx-kernel-build.sh

It will tell you what is missing, e.g. the make package which you can install via sudo zypper in make.

Followed by:

sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx -b /usr/share/doc/packages/fglrx/sax2-profile

If that didn’t work for you, use this:

sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx

Attention: If sax2 is still causing blank screens and lockups update sax2 to the latest version from the repository below and then try to run sax2 again.

Note: You may need to reboot for changes to take effect.

type: http
server: ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu
directory: /pub/suse/suse/update/10.2

Reboot the machine and hopefully your back on track. Check by using the Testing section of this tuturial.

If sax2 fails when loading screen or opening test-screen, and you have “PreInitDAL failed” in the sax.log file, then check PreInitDAL failed Problem