[CentOS] Xorg goes bonkers, bazillion NVIDIA errors...

[Robert Heller]

At Mon, 7 Dec 2009 18:58:40 -0500 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote:

> 
> on one of my Centos 5.4 boxes, a machine that's around 5 years old and
> has always run Centos and X, and has had the same Nvidia card in it for
> its entire life, I'm suddenly getting these lines in the xorg log file:
> 
> (WW) NVIDIA(0): WAIT (2, 6, 0x8000, 0x00000000, 0x000003c0)
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to allocate clip rectangle
> (EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to allocate clip rectangle
> (EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to allocate clip rectangle
> (EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to allocate clip rectangle
> (EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to allocate clip rectangle
> (EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to allocate clip rectangle
> (EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to allocate clip rectangle
> (EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to allocate clip rectangle
> (EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
> 
> followed by millions more like them. it's currently sitting mostly
> unused, except that it's running a Folding At Home client. it'll run
> for a day or a week then I'll note the screen is in powersave mode, will
> attempt to wake it up by moving the mouse or touching a key and nothing
> happens. (for purposes of this testing I've disabled the screensaver,
> so the screen should never shut off.) I can SOMETIMES ssh into it, if
> it hasn't completely died yet, and if I can, top shows that Xorg is
> consuming about 99% of the CPU instead of the folding at home client
> which should be consuming most of it. I guess it's busy spewing errors
> to the Xorg log file, or something.
> 
> The last time I found it like this I tried to kill xorg. kill -15 wouldn't
> kill it so I tried kill -9, then the whole box seized up, requiring a
> reset.
> 
> sometimes it's already unresponsive, even to ssh or ping, by the time I
> notice the problem.
> 
> it's running an old Nvidia Geforce 4 MX400 card and the Nvidia proprietary
> driver NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.01-pkg1.run, downloaded directly from the 
> nvidia web site. the date on that file is Oct 2007, so that means that's
> the one that it has been using since then. but it's only the last 6 weeks
> or so it's started doing this.
> 
> other than some vaguely-defined "nvidia driver problems", what may be
> going on here?  (I can buy an nvidia conflict with the stock centos
> kernel, but I'd be dubious, since it's been running this driver for
> two years and earlier versions for 4 or 5. any such conflict would seem
> likely a kernel issue, to me, since it's newly exhibited.)

Random thoughts: it is possible that the video card has 'died' on some
level -- such as its on-board memory is developing errors or some
component has shifted out of spec, etc.  Does the card have a fan on it
(some video cards have little processor elements with heat sinks AND
fans).  Is the card covered in a thick layer of dust (and thus not
being cooled properly)?  Are all of the case fans on this '5 year old
box' working?  Is the PSU still in spec?  Is its fan working? I'd try
cracking the case and have a serious visit with Mr. Vacume Cleaner. 
Then powering it back up (with the case cover off) and checking to see
if the fans are *all* working.

> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Fred

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
heller at deepsoft.com       -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/