[Nix-dev] NixOS loosing terminal inputs

[Tony White]

2009/12/22 Lluís Batlle <viriketo at gmail.com>:
> Hello,
>
> I'm using linux-2.6.32 in a new notebook I bought, and I notice that
> after some minutes of having booted nixos, maybe 5 minutes of normal
> work in virtual consoles, all terminals stop taking input.
>
> This affects all VCs, and even any open ssh session (ptys).
>
> As I had programs running in the shell I was using in a vc, I see the
> program still goes on (rsync), and the screen shows any update.
>
> The vc cursor stops blinking, too. And the alt-sysrq requests somehow
> 'work' (the minimum reactions are written to the screen), but I can't
> change the vt (alt-fX), and output for some listing requests
> (backtrace, processes, memory) does not output more than a single line
> of "SysRq: blablabla".
>
> What can stop any terminal input in a linux, even for the ptys?
>
> Is this a nixos upstart problem? An upstart timeout on something? A
> basic daemon dying (udev?).
> I see upstart still works, because the reaction to "kill-all-tasks" is
> upstart respawning those killed. After that, the inputs are blocked
> still.
>
> Ah, the gpm cursor moves well on screen, but I cannot paste anything.
>
> Any idea? I don't know even what to start looking for.
>
> Thank you,
> Lluís.
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Hi Luis,
Try an older kernel first, 2.6.27 or there abouts. I've experienced
similar but worse here. As soon as my machine hits it's screen
blanking power save time out, input completely fails but processes
still run.
I guess it's an xorg kernel driver bug related to the framebuffer
driver. Reverting back to an older kernel might mean you miss the
commit that causes it.
Maybe even try a different framebuffer driver.

Thanks,
Tony