FE Screenmode changes resulting in system freezes (resolved)

[xenic]

I've been experiencing unreproducable system freezes since installing OS4.1FE. The freezes don't affect mouse pointer movement or operation within some programs. When these freezes occur I can no longer open/close windows or start any programs. I've finally found a way to reproduce the problem but the current OS4 SDK must be installed and assigned. Here is how I've reproduced the problem:

1. Perform a warm reboot (possibly not necessary).
2. Change Workbench screenmodes (only changing the screenmode depth & not the resolution works).
3. Open a shell window and enter "make".

Make will not return to the command line. No Workbench windows can me opened or closed. No programs can be started and the system is almost completely unresponsive.

Can anyone else confirm this problem and get this bug entered in the OS4 bug tracker??

[Raziel]

I cannot confirm that (though i don't have a make project to test)

1) Changing the screen depth
2) Typing make on an empty dir works (results with *no project files and no makefile* or something like that
3) Trying in a gmake project will crash either way as make is trying to build a gmake project

So, sorry, works here

[broadblues]

2. Change Workbench screenmodes (only changing the screenmode depth & not the resolution works).

From what to what?

I changed from ARGB32 rto 16bit and no issue.

3. Open a shell window and enter "make".

Make took a couple of moment to make it's mind up but return saying no make files, I then CD to an actuall project and still got no lockup.

[xenic]

@all
After further investigation I discovered another factor involved in the problem. If I remove the "lock" command from WBStartup or remove AmiDock from WBStartup, the problem goes away. Apparently, locking (write-protecting) my System partition (lock System: on WORD) now causes a problem with AmiDock that affects other things in my system. I've been locking (write-protecting) my System partition from user-startup for over 2 decades. It prevents unwanted writes to my System partition from mis-behaved applications etc. As of OS4.1FE, I can't lock my System partition from the user-startup because it results in endless "Volume is write-protected" requesters. Instead I had to add a delay in WBStartup and add the System locking as the last item. Now I have a problem with AmiDock. It looks like the "lock" command is now useless as far as write-protecting my system partition. I guess I have no choice but to return to OS4.1Update6.

As I said previously, you will need to have the OS4 SDK installed and assigned. It probably sure it won't be fixed or changed but here is how you might reproduce original problem I posted:

1. Perform a warm reboot (possibly not necessary).
2. Open a shell window and enter "lock System: on word".
2. Change Workbench screenmodes (only changing the screenmode depth & not the resolution works).
3. Return to the shell window and enter "make".

You don't need to be actually trying to use make on any sources. It will just return an error unless you follow the above procedure; in which case it won't return to the command line.

[broadblues]

Went through your sequence

Rebooted
Locked SYS:
Cnage screem iode from 32 to 16 bit
started shell and ram make

still no lockup


Can you provide a serial log?

Whilst I think keeping sys: locked is pointless, and counetr productive in this day and age, (if you are concerned about data intergrety *backup* on a seperate partition and retain the full functionailty of the OS, a number of beta testers do so this and have not encountered these problems , so something installed on your system must be causing this problem, some combination of dockies perhaps.

Obviously it could still be system component that's crashing, but we need to know more clues about what.

[xenic]

Whilst I think keeping sys: locked is pointless, and counetr productive in this day and age, (if you are concerned about data intergrety *backup* on a seperate partition and retain the full functionailty of the OS, a number of beta testers do so this and have not encountered these problems , so something installed on your system must be causing this problem, some combination of dockies perhaps.

Thanks for the help! I didn't think of the dockies. When I eliminated the X1kTemp.docky, the problem disappeared. It's a little strange that I can only reliably reproduce the problem by attempting to run "make" after a screenmode change with my system partition locked. I'm guessing that the X1KTemp.docky may not be reacting well to being closed by AmiDock. I'm going to run my system without X1KTemp.docky to see if it eliminates other system lockups.

As far as locking my system partition, just consider me paranoid Thanks again for the help.

[xenic]

I found that there is an additional parameter needed to reproduce this system freeze. It only occurs when booting from an FFS partition. Here is how I can reproduce the freeze:

1. Boot from an FFS partition.
2. Install the X1kTemp.docky in AmiDock if you don't already have it installed.
3. Open a shell window and enter "lock System: on word".
4. Change Workbench screenmodes (only changing the screenmode depth & not the resolution works).
5. Open SYS:System/FInd and select only the System partition for a search.
6. Enter "Installer" in the Pattern string gadget and click the Start button.

I either get a WorkBench lockup or system freeze.

The problem can also be reprodcuced by replacing steps 5 & 6 with this:

Return to the shell window and enter "make".

Can anyone else reproduce this system freeze with the new steps above?

[broadblues]

How much stack do you have set in DOS prefs and WBPrefs ?

[xenic]

How much stack do you have set in DOS prefs and WBPrefs ?

I have 64K set for DOS & WBPrefs. I'm going to switch my main boot partition back to SFS/02 and see if I can avoid these freeze issues. The only reason I switched to FFS in the first place was to get faster compiles for huge sources. I'll just switch my alternate FE partition to FFS for compiling.

[broadblues]

I'd bump that to 80k. 64k never seems quite enough to me.