Failure to read WM protocolsForum: X and Fluxbox Topic: Failure to read WM protocols started by: Alisdair Kelly Posted by Alisdair Kelly on Nov. 27 2004,19:48
I am having something of a problem with one of my linux boxes. The box in quesiton is a PII-450 with 128 Mb RAM. It has DSL ver 0.73 installed on the hard drive (Knoppix derivative) which has been modified with apt-get. A full version of X-86Free has been installed as well as SAMBA, CUPS, and Firefox. (And I won't tell you about doing the dirty samba with SAMBA. )The problem is that after around 30 hours of non-use, the X-server fails. When this happens I get the following information/warnings/messages: Failed to load groupfile Apps file failure BScreen::BScreen: managing screen 0 using visual 0x21,depth 16 Warning: failed to read WM protocols (repeated 6 times) X connection to:0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown) Xinit:connection to X server lost So, it seems that I've screwed up the X server. Any ideas on what I need to do to fix the situation? This is a non-critical box, so I could wipe the installation and start fresh with a Sarge Network install or try one of the other "Debian" liveCD mini-distros. I would rather figure out how to fix existing installation and learn from that though. Posted by cbagger01 on Nov. 27 2004,21:04
I would not worry about the Bscreen messages or above.The warning and below are not normal messages. If you have a full installation of X-Windows, try looking inside your XFree86 log file. It should be stored in /var/log or somewhere inside the /var directory structure. Posted by Alisdair Kelly on Nov. 27 2004,22:05
The log indicates that there are multiple xdm errors (pid varies) that are caused by additional instances of xdm (pid 423). I'll do some looking thru ps -aux and see if I can find the pid 423 and kill it. I thought that I had a full install of X86, but apparently only have a partial. Thanks. Posted by mikshaw on Nov. 28 2004,01:29
Failed to load groupfile - This means only that the groupfile listed in .fluxbox/init does not exist, but it doesn't cause a problem. Just create the file and you won't get the message.Apps file failure - I believe this is the same as the groupfile thing. BScreen::BScreen: managing screen 0 using visual 0x21,depth 16 - This is just information. Warning: failed to read WM protocols (repeated 6 times) - This is a harmless Fluxbox bug...I used to get it all the time until upgrading to 0.9.10 (or maybe it was 0.9.9). It has something to do with window decorations of terms and dockapps I think. The other messages are also normal, though the source is impossible to tell from the generic message....it could have been caused by an intentional close of X, or it could have been a crash. Posted by Alisdair Kelly on Nov. 28 2004,11:31
Thanks Mikshaw.I took a look at active processes last night and could not find anything going on that might have been the culprit. I'll edit the .fluxbox/init later to add the groupfile. I've printed out the docs from the fluxbox site, but haven't finished reading thru them yet. The X connection failure is a crash of some sort. When it occurs, you have to re-start X (startx) whether operating as a usr or root. I'm just about convinced that I'd probably be smart to wipe the installation clean and re-install with a more recent version of DSL. However, the mixture of stable and testing Debian applications/services may be part of the problem. I spotted a tag line in one of the linux newsgroups to the effect that "Screwing up" is a euphemism for "learning curve" <BEG> Posted by littlepenguin on Nov. 29 2004,03:53
Also, it might have to do with replacing with full X.
Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Nov. 29 2004,04:19
No, it doesn't. Lots of people, including myself, have sucessfully replaced Kdrive with Xfeee of Xorg. And one-liners are not appreciated when they do not help with the problem.have you tried removing and reinstalling the X window system? If nothing else, you said it's a non-critical box, wipe the sucker and do a net install of Debial Sarge. And screwing up is normal when your learning. (I must be learning an awful lot lately!) Peace! -J.P. Posted by Alisdair Kelly on Nov. 29 2004,12:53
Hi, J.P! Well, I've fixed the groupfile problem after reading thru the fluxbox man pages a couple of times. I guess that the next set would be removing (or trying to remove) X system and a re-install. I'm holding off on the wipe and net Sarge for a little longer. Overall it works, but it could work better, eh? I can atest to the validity of "learning a lot lately" <BEG> But I've also been having a lot of fun whilst doing 'it'! Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Nov. 29 2004,16:11
And that's the whole point, isn't it? Having fun?Glad to hear you got it working. Mucking around with X can be frustrating. -J.P. Posted by Alisdair Kelly on Nov. 29 2004,16:29
heh! Absolutely spot on WRT having fun AND how bloody frustrating X is!Onward thru the fog. |