> Well, sometimes startx reboots my computer. Other times is does nothing > except slow it to a halt for a while. Sometimes is locks up. [snip] > When I type startx, then things go down the tubes. > > What doesn't happen: > X never starts > No error messages get posted to dmesg > no log is generated in /var/log/xorg.0.log > > What DOES happen: > on a good run, I get the error message: > /usr.../startx: fork: resource temporarily unavailable > on a bad run the computer either locks up or reboots, or I get a parade of > notices that the comp is "out of memory, shutting down process xxxxxx". > running top -u tmiller -b>/tmp/top.log in another console generates a huge > file. After deleting the process entry lines (all end in startx, except > the bash line), I get results like this: [snip] > top - 22:28:15 up 4 min, 3 users, load average: 2.54, 0.74, 0.26 > Tasks: 7696 total, 2 running, 7693 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie > Cpu(s): 10.5% us, 45.2% sy, 0.0% ni, 0.0% id, 43.8% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.6% si > Mem: 1024380k total, 896720k used, 127660k free, 264k buffers > Swap: 8385848k total, 1035964k used, 7349884k free, 10372k cached > > with the PID numbers peaking at 12551, tasks at 7696, swap at 1-1.4GB used. [snip] > This was done with the xorg.conf file deleted, so it isn't caused by that. > > Hardware: > AMD 3500+ x86_64 proc > 1GB ram > 8GB swap > 3 x 160GB SATA drives > nvidia nForce4 chipset on Gigabyte MB > Gigabyte nvidia GeForce 6200 video card > firewall is separate ipcop box to ADSL > > Software: > Centos 4.4, fully updated > started as a bare install (uncheck everything except KDE at software > choice screen), then added only things I really want/need > vmware server (free version) > wine > > I had just spent a couple of days getting the install "tweaked" in > preparation to moving to it as my "workhorse" workstation environment. I > had tweaked my dual monitor setup (a 21" landscape screen next to a 17" > portrait screen took a lot of false starts to get xorg.conf right), gotten > vmware working, and was still wondering where the fonts went for my wine > install. It was working pretty well, and I was looking forward to using > it, and when I rebooted, I have this mess. [snip] One more piece of information that is probably irrelevant: I have another couple of installs on this computer (Mandriva 2006 [my daily workhorse that I am trying to replace] and Centos 4.3 [unbooted in some weeks]). All share the same /home partition. I have been trying to figure out how to separate the effects of the two distros on each other, as far as entries in /tmiller/home/.* being made by one distro and seen by the other distro. However, since this also happens when running as #root, I don't think this is an issue (/root is not shared). I will have some questions about this later, after I get startx to boot. Ted in Indiana