XOrg freeze while playing (random timings)

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XOrg freeze while playing (random timings)IBBoard12/29/2009 - 09:44

I got WoG* for Christmas and started Chapter 1 again after having played the demo. I didn't have any real problems with the demo, and at one point starting and quitting WoG was the only thing that brought my processor usage down from 100%! Unfortunately I've since swapped computers and replaced openSUSE 11.1 with 11.2 and the final game isn't working anywhere near as smoothly.

First I had the segfault issue mention in another thread, then the patch wouldn't work as intended, but the alternate execution worked. Next my TV wouldn't handle the 800x600 res that WoG defaults to, but copying the config to my .WorldOfGoo directory and setting it to 1024x768 solved that, but I now get freezes that leave the computer unresponsive except to SysReq commands.

Specs/system details:
2.4GHz Core 2 Duo (E6600)
2GB RAM
Radeon X1950XTX using the open source drivers
openSUSE 11.2 (64-bit)
Kernel 2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop
Gnome desktop (2.28)
Compiz with Emerald themes
Goodmans HD Ready TV as a monitor @ 1360x768 (the wife let me bring the computer inside for Christmas :) )

WoG setup:
Resolution: 1024x768
Fullscreen: tried both, normally use "false" so I can see Conky and spot full X server freezes rather than game freezes
All other settings the same

Behaviour:
Run WoG from the shortcut or from the console using "WorldOfGoo". Go to Chapter 1, start a level and have it hang or play multiple levels and have it hang (timing of the hang seems arbitrary). Using other apps at the same time as a Windowed WoG also seems to freeze X the couple of times I tried it. Occasionally the mouse will still move but nothing else will respond (can't click between apps, can't drop to a different virtual terminal, can't restart X, can't do anything but SysReq combos).

The logs don't seem to show anything useful about the crash. The game log shows standard game logging, e.g. this log tail from a freeze:

[t=880.66] fps= 50.00 ups= 50.00 (  18ms behind) VmSize=649.34MB  31.00% CPU<br />[t=881.66] fps= 49.95 ups= 49.95 (  20ms behind) VmSize=649.34MB  31.00% CPU<br />[t=882.66] fps= 50.00 ups= 50.00 (  20ms behind) VmSize=649.34MB  31.00% CPU<br />[t=883.20] fps=50.0 ups=50.0<br />[t=883.66] fps= 50.00 ups= 50.00 (  20ms behind) VmSize=649.34MB  30.00% CPU<br />[t=884.66] fps= 50.00 ups= 50.00 (  20ms behind) VmSize=649.34MB  30.00% CPU<br />[t=885.66] fps= 50.00 ups= 50.00 (  20ms behind) VmSize=649.34MB  30.00% CPU<br />[t=885.82] >>>>>>>> keeping undo point

And the last things that the XOrg log shows is a list of supported resolutions etc.

Hacks/fixes attempted:
Use Metacity instead of Compiz (I actually started using Metacity from my first game because of the instructions in the Linux readme file, but gave up and tried Compiz later to see what effect that had - no obvious change in behaviour)
Use windowed instead of fullscreen (again, no difference, both crash but windowed lets me see whether it is a full X lock-up or not).
Rename "libs64" folder so that system libs are used (seemed promising, but still froze after about 10-15 minutes)



It's great that you support Linux and that there's no DRM (I am, after all, a customer and not a criminal ;) ) but it is a shame I'm having these problems.


* I noticed that seems to be the common abbreviation, although it used to have a different and not all that polite usage in Britain many years ago :D I'm sure people here know which I intend ;)


Last modified Thu, 12/31/2009 - 12:01 by IBBoard
Re: XOrg freeze while playing (random timings)Soultaker12/29/2009 - 17:14

[quote author=IBBoard link=topic=2383.msg15834#msg15834 date=1262097894]
Run WoG from the shortcut or from the console using "WorldOfGoo". Go to Chapter 1, start a level and have it hang or play multiple levels and have it hang (timing of the hang seems arbitrary). Using other apps at the same time as a Windowed WoG also seems to freeze X the couple of times I tried it. Occasionally the mouse will still move but nothing else will respond (can't click between apps, can't drop to a different virtual terminal, can't restart X, can't do anything but SysReq combos).
The game shouldn't be able to freeze X, so if this happens, then the problem is somewhere with the X configuration.

Two likely culprits:
1. The video drivers are buggy: Ati's Linux drivers have a bad reputation, but you seem to be using the open-source drivers instead. I'm not sure how stable these are nowadays, but if possible, you may want to try one of the different Radeon drivers that are available and see if these work better in your system.
2. Your hardware is unstable. Maybe the video card or processor overheats during play, or the system draws more power than the PSU can supply. Have you ran other (3D graphics intensive) games on this system? Did they run flawlessly?

The observation that crashes occur randomly (in time) suggests a hardware problem to me, but it's hard to be sure.

Quote:
WoG: I noticed that seems to be the common abbreviation, although it used to have a different and not all that polite usage in Britain many years ago

Hmm, I believe you're the first to mention it, and I hadn't made the connection myself, so as long as we properly capitalize "WoG" I don't think anyone will be offended. ;)

Re: XOrg freeze while playing (random timings)IBBoard12/31/2009 - 09:31

I've never had a problem before with games, although it tends to be my wife playing games in Windows rather than me playing in Linux. I'll try some other games and see what happens. Compiz runs fine at more than adequate speeds, so I expect the config should be okay (I'm actually running without an xorg.conf file and letting the new auto-configure do its magic). One thing I wanted to get set up was SSH so that I could poke my machine from the inside once it froze, but I hadn't managed to get the firewall rules right yet. The only change the machine has had recently is that it has been hauled inside for the Christmas period and hooked up to our TV, but I guess that could have dislodged something.

As for using the official drivers, I've got an X1950 in the machine. It is only three years old,but ATI/AMD have "legacied" it, which for Linux means there aren't any pre-built kernel modules for openSUSE on the build service and the official download was last updated in about March. AFAIK the OSS drivers are quite stable.

It's amazing what people will overlook given time. Robertson's Gollies were originally less politically correct than they were with their name, and they're still not exactly being all that different from their roots, but people accept them now :)


[edit] I've just reconfigured my firewall, SSHed in to the machine from another machine to watch "top", started WoG and then BZFlag and had both freeze the computer. Nothing in dmesg before I rebooted, but top did show both games jumping from 20-30% processor use up to 100%. Killing the Xorg process didn't recover the machine or change the display at all.

So, it looks like it might be some general 3D driver issue that doesn't cause problems with Compiz but does with games. I'll see what I can work out. Sorry for the support topic :)


[edit2] Also, rather obscurely, my XOrg.log lists a load of "RADEONHD" lines about available mode lines, but lsmod lists "radeon" and a fuller grep of the logs shows it loading the RadeonHD driver then the radeon driver. openSUSE has deprecated the Yast module for configuring X since they trust the auto-config, but it looks like something funny is going on!


Last modified Thu, 12/31/2009 - 12:03 by IBBoard