Bug#378081: "Cannot read V_BIOS" memory allocation error

[Joe Rayhawk]

Package: xserver-xorg-core
Version: 1.0.2-9

My six-card x.org configuration started failing and/or crashing during
the xserver initialization with memory allocation errors on the 6.9
release and hasn't been fixed so far as I've found yet.

Requesting insufficient memory window!: start: 0xd0000000 end: 0xdbffffff size 0xd88a0000
Requesting insufficient memory window!: start: 0xdc000000 end: 0xe3ffffff size 0xd88a0000
(EE) R128(3): Cannot read V_BIOS

Only the AGP card seems to work with the 7.0 release. The individual
logs for all cards and each card, along with a lot of diagnostic
information, are available (for size reasons) at
http://neuroblastoma.omgwallhack.org/home/jrayhawk/xorgbugreport/

The 6.8 log is a Gentoo compile of x.org made for reference which works
much the same way (as far as I can see) as Debian's 6.8 releases did.
Gentoo's 6.9/7.0 packages exhibit the same broken behavior as seen here.

I can provide any further information if requested.

I am willing to give a trustworthy interested party root access to the
machine. Just provide a SSH key and I can get that set up.

[Milan Zamazal]

I had the same problem. I've finally solved it (I hope) by applying the
patch

https://bugzilla.novell.com/attachment.cgi?id=86821

from

https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=171453&x=0&y=0

to xserver-xorg-core_1.0.2-9 (it required some manual adjustments). I
don't know yet how stable the solution is but the X server at least
starts and seems to work on the first glance, including 3D acceleration,
on my secondary graphics card and the "Cannot read V_BIOS" error message
is gone. My Linux kernel version is 2.6.17-3.

Regards,

Milan Zamazal

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http://www.zamazal.org

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[Milan Zamazal]

>>>>> "MZ" == Milan Zamazal <p...@zamazal.org> writes:

MZ> I don't know yet how stable the solution is but the X server at
MZ> least starts and seems to work on the first glance, including 3D
MZ> acceleration, on my secondary graphics card and the "Cannot read
MZ> V_BIOS" error message is gone.

When an X server is running and I start another one on the other
graphics card, input devices (keyboard and mouse) of the first X server
stop working.

I guess it has nothing to do with the patch, but it's a bug anyway.

[Milan Zamazal]

>>>>> "MZ" == Milan Zamazal <p...@zamazal.org> writes:

MZ> When an X server is running and I start another one on the other
MZ> graphics card,

... and the same VT (with -sharevts) ...

MZ> input devices (keyboard and mouse) of the first X server stop
MZ> working.

Actually the X server freezes completely.

Regards,

Milan Zamazal

[Joe Rayhawk]

My attempts to munge it into the current source (without knowledge of C)
didn't result in a successful start. Do you still have a working source
tree you can diff against?

Unfortunately this looks suspiciously like a feature reversion rather
than an actual bugfix. But I guess it can tide me over until the sysfs
interface for this get sorted out. Assuming I can get that patch
working, that is.