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JWM crashes

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 12:15 pm
by amethyst

I seem to experience this every now and then (relatively frequently) with Bionic 32 I'm using at the moment. First thing that goes is the drive icons. After this has happened there is no cure, have to switch off. Anyone else experience the same?


Re: JWM crashes

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 12:29 pm
by bigpup

Anything specific, you are doing, just before this happens?


Re: JWM crashes

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 12:34 pm
by amethyst
bigpup wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 12:29 pm

Anything specific, you are doing, just before this happens?

I wonder if this is related to a memory issue or perhaps even a issue/clash with Palemoon I'm using. Does seem to happen especially after browsing the youtube site. I don't remember the same happening as frequently when using Stretch under the same conditions though. I think I'm going to use Stretch again for a few days just to make sure.


Re: JWM crashes

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 2:10 pm
by geo_c
amethyst wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 12:34 pm
bigpup wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 12:29 pm

Anything specific, you are doing, just before this happens?

I wonder if this is related to a memory issue or perhaps even a issue/clash with Palemoon I'm using. Does seem to happen especially after browsing the youtube site. I don't remember the same happening as frequently when using Stretch under the same conditions though. I think I'm going to use Stretch again for a few days just to make sure.

I've experienced that same thing in various pups over the years, I think you may be right about memory, or maybe some other graphics related conflict, like picom. Could it even be the video card's cache/buffer? (If they even work that way, I don't know much about them)


Re: JWM crashes

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 6:59 pm
by bigpup

To really try to help figure out what could be the cause.

What Computer?
Make and model?
Specs.

Pick a specific Puppy version, it is happening on, and stick to troubleshooting it.

Pale Moon browser had some bad recent updates, because of someone, in their development group, that left, and put some bad code in Pale Moon.

Took several updates to get it all fixed.

Make sure you are using the latest version of Pale Moon.

If you want to check the memory.
Memtest86
https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=159

Stuff in a computer can get dirty, corroded contacts, loose connections, etc......

I recently started having strange issues with my desktop computer.
I took the cover off.
Unplugged all connections and all hardware that was plugged into motherboard.
Cleaned all connection contacts and inside of computer. (it was dirty inside)
Plugged everything back in.
Runs like a brand new computer.
No issues!!


Re: JWM crashes

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2022 6:08 am
by williams2

First thing that goes is the drive icons. After this has happened there is no cure, have to switch off.

When the icons on the desktop disappear, it is not jwm.
It is Rox-Filer that creates the desktop (the Rox pinboard.)
When Rox crashes it is the desktop (the wallpaper and desktop icons) that disappears.
When Jwm crashes, Xorg stops and you are back in a text terminal. Type xwin to restart X.

I have a script named pp to restart Rox, which is easy to type in terminal window.
I put pp in /root/my-applications/bin/

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
cd
killall -q ROX-Filer
rox -p /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin &>/dev/null

Rox will crash if it tries to display a thumbnail of an empty (zero bytes size) file.

This has been fixed since 10 or 20 years ago, but some versions have the workaround, and other versions of Rox are broken again.

If you turn off thumbnails, by right clicking the eye icon, rox won't crash when it tries to show a thumbnail of a zero length picture, because you turned off thumbnails. And Rox will run faster.


Re: JWM crashes

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2022 7:10 am
by amethyst

Well JWM and X server also crashes. The menu can't be accessed and neither can X be restarted. Needs a power turnoff by switch. I'll turn off thumbnails and see if the situation improves but I doubt it. I'll also have to use other internet browsers for a prolonged time to see if this is not browser related. I do seem to have more problems with later versions of Palemoon. I used Palemoon 28.14 for a long time previously and that was very stable.


Re: JWM crashes

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2022 6:36 pm
by williams2

If jwm and X crash, that is not caused by the Rox bug.

You should be able to kill X by pressing ctrl+alt+backspace.
Then type xwin to restart X.
Or press ctrl+alt+del to reboot (after killing X)
A normal press of the power button should power off if you are at the boot loader.
Or if you are running FreeDos.

Booting pfix=ram should tell you if the problem is in save space or not.
In your case, I think you would need to disable the adrv.sfs file.
If it seems to be something in the save space,
it could be configuration, corruption, a module or .so library file.
Or even hardware.

I mostly use Firefox, and the past 5 or 6 updates don't work properly.
If I click to view a tab, it does nothing, but if I switch to another desktop work space, when I switch back, it shows the tab that I selected. So i'm running an older version of Firefox.
So stuff happens.


Re: JWM crashes

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2022 12:19 am
by amethyst

No, when it crashes nothing can be done. Keyboard is dead. Need to switch off with the power switch. I've changed the version of ROX-Filer with that of the one used in Stretch 7.5. I'll see if there is an improvement.