Re: [TCLUG:17874] XScreensaver causing crashes

[Mike Hicks <hick0088@tc.umn.edu>]

Jim Crumley wrote:
> 
> Yes, I have had problems with  xscreensaver, though I thought it
> might be flaky hardware on an old 486.  I get system lockup (can't
> even ssh in) with certain screensaver - I think fireworks.  It doesn't
> happen if I manually choose that screensaver, but many days I'd
> come back and the screen would be locked to the same screensaver.
> I just turned xscreensaver off, and didn't file a bug because of
> the difficulty of reproducing this problem.
> 
> Do you have a link to any info about this?  I'm running
> xscreensaver 3.22, on a Debian Potato system.

I don't have any more information than you have.  On my system, I've
crashed twice just as the `penetrate' screen saver finished (A `Missile
Command' look-alike.)  I just re-installed my system on Monday... 
Previous to re-installation, one of the OpenGL screensavers was always
crashing my box.  I guess it looks like xscreensaver will always crash
on the same screensaver, but which one crashes the system varies across
versions and probably compile environments, too.

I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't just my system or any of my
hardware (My system is significantly different than what could possibly
be in a 486, so hardware is not likely the cause, and I heard of a SPARC
workstation rebooting as well.)

I think I'll fire off an email to Jamie Zawinski, the author, just
explaining that xscreensaver appears to be causing crashes (though his
FAQ shows that he'd likely just blame it on a broken X server
[http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/faq.html#server-crash]).  In the
meantime, the best course of action is to disable or remove it if your
system is crashing..

-- 
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/ \/ \(_)| ' // ._\  / - \(_)/ ./| ' /(__   /* Nuclear event occured */ 
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[ Mike Hicks | http://umn.edu/~hick0088/ | mailto:hick0088@tc.umn.edu ]