[CLUE-Tech] (In)Stability of X?

[Michael J. Hammel]

Thus spoke David Snyder
> Here's something that's wierd.  I have a Gateway P3-850 w/512MB RAM and 
> an SB Live Platinum.  I am running RH 7.2 and Ximian Gnome.  Under that 
> configuration I have had problems with total system lockups (no 
> ctrl-alt-bkspc, no ssh in, etc) at random times.  It ususally coincides 
> with a sound file being played.
> 
> Meanwhile when I run KDE 2.2.2, I have had it run seemingly on and on 
> with no system lockups.

If ssh is locked up, then you had a network driver issue which in itself is
not X or GNOME related.  If a sound file was being played then you were
working with the audio drivers.  A conflict between the audio and network
card drivers is one possible problem.

If KDE doesn't give you this problem then you are not using the same low
level drivers.  Again, this isn't X or GNOME.  It's the low level drivers
they are connecting to.  In this case it may be a fine line, though, as some
particular GNOME application may be dependent on some particularly flakey
driver.  

I use Ximian GNOME with audio (piped through my stereo) without problems.  I
switch between Realplayer, XawTV and DVD players (MPlayer and VideoLan)
without incident on a regular basis.  My hardware is about two-three years
old (old Atipa tower with Soundblaster compatible card and 3Dfx Voodoo 3
card).  

> Any ideas?

Use a different tool to play your sound stuff while under GNOME and see if
the problem persists.

-- 
Michael J. Hammel           |
The Graphics Muse           |  If you can't be kind, at least have the decency
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org  |  to be vague.
http://www.graphics-muse.com