[comp.sys.hp] Looking for HP

raveling@isi.edu (Paul Raveling) (11/07/89)

	HELP!!!!!!

	We're seeing a lot of X11 display server crashes on
	HP 9000/300 series machines running MIT X11R3.  If
	anyone else (HP people perhaps?) have seen this and
	tracked it down, we'd appreciate hearing about it.

	Symptoms are inconsistent, but often involve bus errors,
	segmentation faults, and "softer" failures in XRealloc.
	They're generally consistent with memory clobber.  Some
	core files show stack traces that also strongly hint at
	memory clobber.

	What's common among these failures is that it appears
	they all involve either:

	--  Tiling the root window, especially with a pixmap that's
	    larger than the screen.  For example, I can reproduce it
	    at will by running xbigphoon on a Topcat (1024x768) display.
	    It's harder to produce failures when tiling with smaller
	    pixmaps, but it happens.  When it happens, it's clear that
	    the pixmap needs to be clipped at the edge of the screen.

	--  An exposure on a window with at least one dimension larger
	    than the corresponding screen dimension.

	A couple stack traces from dumps suggest one of the ValidateGC
	routines may be involved (perhaps cfbValidteGC or
	topcatValidateGC).

	Does anyone recognize these symptoms?


----------------
Paul Raveling
Raveling@isi.edu

dan@hpurvmc.HP.COM ( Dan Felman (SE) ) (11/28/89)

>	HELP!!!!!!

>	We're seeing a lot of X11 display server crashes on
>	HP 9000/300 series machines running MIT X11R3.  If
>	anyone else (HP people perhaps?) have seen this and
>	tracked it down, we'd appreciate hearing about it.

>	Symptoms are inconsistent, but often involve bus errors,
>	segmentation faults, and "softer" failures in XRealloc.
>	They're generally consistent with memory clobber.  Some
>	core files show stack traces that also strongly hint at
>	memory clobber.

>	What's common among these failures is that it appears
>	they all involve either:

>	......

Since the S300 6.5 server is R2 based, I assume you have the MIT release
instead. Instead of trying to tear your hair out with 'untested' s/w, I
would wait for HP's 7.0 release where X11 will ship with R3 server and
OSF MOTIF window manager. 

Hope this helps!!!

regards
Dan

Dan Felman   ;  Systems Engineer  ;  Hewlett Packard   ;  2 Choke Cherry Rd 
dan@hpurvmc         (inside HP)   ;  (301) 258 - 5910  ;  Rockville MD  20850
dan%hpurvmc@hplabs  (outside HP)

tml@hemuli.atk.vtt.fi (Tor Lillqvist) (11/29/89)

In article <80013@hpurvmc.HP.COM> dan@hpurvmc.HP.COM ( Dan Felman (SE) ) writes:
>Since the S300 6.5 server is R2 based, I assume you have the MIT release
>instead. Instead of trying to tear your hair out with 'untested' s/w, I
>would wait for HP's 7.0 release where X11 will ship with R3 server and
>OSF MOTIF window manager. 

But... at about the same time 7.0 with the X11R3 style server (does
this (I mean the server, not the MOTIF stuff) affect much else than
font naming?) comes from HP, MIT will release X11R4, containing among
other goodies a non-rectangular window extension...  I will probably
run the MIT server, and a mixture of MIT and HP clients.  I haven't
seen mwm, so I can't say whether I will use it or continue using twm.
(I have an old version of hpwm, which is clearly inferior to twm.)
-- 
Tor Lillqvist, VTT/ATK

harry@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Harry Phinney) (11/30/89)

I've cut your questions up a bit, but I think I preserved the content.


> (does this (I mean the server, not the MOTIF stuff) affect much else than
> font naming?)

The "R3" changes for 7.0 are really minor, and you are correct that the
only really visible change is the font naming.  The 7.0 server also has
better performance that the 6.5 server, and it generally uses less
memory.


> But... at about the same time 7.0 with the X11R3 style server
> comes from HP, MIT will release X11R4, containing among
> other goodies a non-rectangular window extension...
> I will probably
> run the MIT server, and a mixture of MIT and HP clients.
> Tor Lillqvist, VTT/ATK

There's certainly nothing wrong with using the server distributed on the
MIT tape, but you should realize that we are not in a position to
provide support for it.  We are supplying a server for R4 specifically
for those customers who wish to take advantage of such features as the
shape extension, and are willing to suffer all the disadvantages of
using unsupported software.  For various reasons (primarily Starbase
support), our production servers are significantly different than those
distributed on the MIT tape.  We simply can't devote too much time to
maintaining the "free" MIT server.  I view the MIT distribution as a
developer's kit, with the customer-quality product delivered with the
HP-UX releases.

Harry Phinney