# [SOLVED] strange crashes when xscreensaver running

## v_andal

Recently I had to change my old good AMD64 desktop because it finally died after 8 years of working. The new one has

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
> 
> cpu family	: 6
> ...

 

Usually, I leave my computer running with the xscreensaver locking the display. But I've discovered that when I come in the morning the computer is dead. It does not respond to keyboard, no network, nothing. So I have to do hard reset. Nothing is written in the logs. The system kind of "disappears".

To make sure, that the problem is with xscreensaver, I've left the system running in terminal mode and it worked all 2 weeks while I was in vacation. Then I've left Xorg running without xscreensaver, again the system has survived the night. Only the conky has crashed.

This left me wondering, what xscreensaver can do to completely wipe out the system? Probably it has something to do with the idle modes of CPU. Maybe there are some suggestion on what I should check in my kernel configuration (I don't use genkernel). Just in case, my current .config file can be obtained from  http://vandal.sdf-eu.org/my_configLast edited by v_andal on Tue Nov 22, 2011 9:01 am; edited 1 time in total

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## Hu

Do you use any screensaver programs from xscreensaver or is it only present to lock the display?  If you use screensavers, try turning them off overnight.

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## v_andal

I've also thought about this. So I've disabled the screensavers, just left the locking. Same thing.

Interesting is that conky has crashed. So it shouldn't be the screensaver. It should be some code that attempts to access hardware (which conky does as well, to check the CPU temperature for example).

Actually, I've also experienced problems with xscreensaver on HP625 laptop with AMD V series CPU. There it also was freezing the system, so I had to disable it. But then I thought that it has some conflicts with Radeon card. Now my desktop has Intel Sandy Bridge, but xscreensaver still crashes the system. So I came to thinking that it might be something with the power management. I just don't know what specifically to disable  :Smile: 

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## Kiwon Um

I have exactly the same problem. When the monitor get turned on from the auto-display-sleeping, the system suddenly gets stuck after locking off. Did you solve this problem?

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## v_andal

No. I've simply stopped using xscreensaver.

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## Hu

What video card and video driver are you using?  Does it matter if you disable DPMS, so that the monitor can show a black background but never disable its backlight?

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## Kiwon Um

 *v_andal wrote:*   

> No. I've simply stopped using xscreensaver.

 

After switching to gnome-screensaver and rebuilding packages depend on xorg-server, it seems to work fine.

Try:

```
emerge -1av `equery depends xorg-server|awk '{print " ="$1}'`
```

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## v_andal

 *Hu wrote:*   

> What video card and video driver are you using?  Does it matter if you disable DPMS, so that the monitor can show a black background but never disable its backlight?

 

My video card is Intel Sandy Bridge, but I've experienced the same thing on laptop with Radeon video card.

I haven't tried to disable DPMS. I'll try tonight and see if this helps.

Actually, I've  tried  to use xlockmore instead of xscreensaver and looks like it works fine. Well, provided that I don't use any heavy DE it is very simple for me to exit Xorg at the end of the day and start it again in the morning. That is why I kind of quit using screensavers  :Smile: 

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## destroyedlolo

Hello,

I had exactly the same problem. It happened several times, sometime not with X but with the console blanker.

Last result was a global corruption of emerge repository and finally I did a full re-install (not a pb as I was installing this machine).

My graphic card is a Matrox ("mga").

Nevertheless, after this full reinstall (so with latest software available), I didn't faced this issue anymore.

Bye

Laurent

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## v_andal

Well. My system is freshly installed from scratch. So another reinstall does not make sense  :Smile: 

I've tried to disable DPMS. It did help. Well, I first should make sure that the problem was not fixed by some of the upgrades, so tonight I'll let the xscreensaver to run with DMPS enabled  :Smile: 

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## v_andal

Unfortunately I can't reproduce the problem any more. I haven't use xscreensaver for long time and during this time quite a few things have changed. I've switched to using sawfish instead of fluxbox. The xorg was updated. Kernel was updated. Quite a few other packages was updated. I don't have any desire to search what has fixed the problem. I'm satisfied with the final status that the problem is gone. So I mark the topic as SOLVED.

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