Re: Panel hangs X server on APM resume (?)

[Toralf Lund <toralf kscanners com>]

> The cause of this is your BIOS's need to access the registers of your
> display controller during the power down/resume sequence interfering
> with the X servers need for those registers to not get messed with
> behind its back.

>
> On many graphics chips, this causes chaos, up to and including freezing
> the machine completely.  On some, it is benign, and doesn't bother anything.

That's what I've been thinking all along, but what strikes me as really odd is
that I've not been able to reproduce the problem with a simple X session, or even
GNOME without a menu panel or a panel "sliding in".

>

>
>
> Solution:
>
> Arrange to switch to a text console as part of the power down sequence,
> and move back to the X server at the end of resume.
>
> On recent RedHat systems, part of the scripts invoked can do this
> automatically by a trivial edit documented in the scripts; and I believe
> recent XFree86 servers may do this on their own.  Why they didn't make
> this the default behavior is beyond me...

I forgot to tell that I tried that earlier, but it caused but the X server would
crash just after the switch back from the VT. Again, this seems strange to me, as
this never happens if I change back and forth by hand (i.e. via
Ctrl+Alt+<F-Key>), or even if I switch to a virtual console before suspending,
then let the apm script change back.

>
>
> But this is the cause of your trouble. (above and beyond whatever brain-damage
> your hardware may have with power management).
>                                 - Jim

- Toralf