Video problems with some applications.

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#1 
gary@AbitBox:~> uname -a
Linux AbitBox 2.6.22.17-0.1-default #1 SMP 2008/02/10 20:01:04 UTC i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
gary@AbitBox:~>

The video display “cycles” on and off
in some applications.
Two of them are VirtualBox and Mythtv.
For other applications, such as nx and open office, everything works normally.

This has started happening after switching monitors from an old Hitachi to a relatively new Benq flat panel and adding a Belkin two port KVM switch

Any suggestions as to what might be causing this behavior and how to fix it?

#2

just a quickie, did you update sax to show the change in monitors ?

Andy

#3

I think so.
From desktop, I hit ctl-alt-backspace;
then at the signon screen selected console login. logged in as root, then ran: “sax2 -r”

All indications were that it picked up new montor

Garyg

#4

have a quick look through your xorg.conf & make sure it has the new monitor bits in & nothing referring your old monitor, just to be sure

Andy

#5

HI Andy;

Looking at Xorg.conf, the new monitor is specified.

Thankyou for the suggestions.

FWIW: here is the complete story.
The two desktops have been shut down for a couple of weeks while some remodeling was done. One desktop is suse 10.3, the other is running 10.2. The 10.2 had an old ati all-in-wonder video card - I removed that, and am now using the on-board video on that box.
the monitor is now being shared with the 10.3 pc thru a KVM switch.

The 10.3 box is the one that was connected to the hitachi monitor; it is now connected to my BENQ monitor thru a KVM switch.

garyg

#6

Does it also happen without the switch?
And if no please raise a bugreport at bugzilla.novell.com

#7

The switch has been removed and the problem still occurs.

Some apps I’ve discovered that the display cycles on and off with are:

  • VirtualBox - with an XP virtual machine starting
  • vlc
  • mplayer
  • kde4

With some of the apps it appeared that the cycling on and off of the display was initiated by keyboard and mouse movement.

Kaffeine plays an mpeg file without problems.
The mouse was a usb-mouse.

Monitor is a Benq T701

The OS is 2.6.25.5-1.1-pae #1 SMP 2008-06-07 01:55:22 +0200 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Sax2 reports the card as: “SiS SiS 660”

#8

Problem Solved

Got an ATI video card and de-activated the on-board one.

Sometimes it seems like everything SiS only half works!