Subject: Re: Anyone having desktop freeze, possibly associated with rcs0 hang,
g_enriron_set-env -SOLVED

On Sat, 28 Dec 2019 01:33:47 +0000, Jim Beard wrote:

Since adding a Unicomp Model M keyboard, Classic 104 Trackball Black
Buckling Spring USB with Trackball, to my system in mid-November, I have
been having problems with the desktop freezing up. There is no explicit
set of drivers for this keyboard and built-in trackball, and I have been experimenting with variations. Selecting U.S. Keyboard (international)
and generic 104-PC seemed to be working for a time but after last kernel update the problem is recurring for all the drivers I have tried, both
for the new kernel 5.4.6-desktop-2.mga7 but for kernel 5.4.6-
desktop-2.mga7 as well.

Terminal 12 invoked with Cntl-Alt-F12 shows a variety of errors, with g_environ_set_env: assertion 'value !=NULL' failed and resetting for
hang on rcs0 multiple times seem to recur aperiodically, with other
errors as well.

Recovery has been attempted, to no consistent pattern for success.
Sometimes I can kill the browsers running (two browsers in use seems to
be a common feature, though it also happens with only one, or maybe
none). Cntl-Alt-BkSpace two or more times may kill the desktop and I
may be able to use the reset command and start up the Gnome desktop
again. Other times that fails but I can use cntl-alt-f2 to get a new
terminal and as root kill all the processes in tty 1 and then go to tty1
and restart. At that point, logged in, gnome may load as usual, or
maybe a blank gray screen will result, which may or may not be killable
with cntl-
alt-bkspace multiple times. If killable, restarting with startx usually works.

There are times when a soft reboot is necessary, as I cannot get to tty2
and the entire keyboard will be dead.

There have been a couple or three times when simply letting the machine
set idle resulted in recovery, spontaneously. Usually, the quicker I
start trying recovery procedures the better the chance of getting things
to restart.

Anyone else?

The 'Net says rcs0 hang can result from any of a variety of bugs in gfx,
but I have found nothing I understand and replicate that would narrow
things down.

The solution was to move .desktop in my home directory to .desktop-old
and allow startx to use whatever the defaults are.

I currently am using the 5.4.12 desktop kernel, that had continued to
freeze up with rcs0 hung until I got .desktop out of the way.

Cheers!

jim b.

--
UNIX is not user-unfriendly, it merely expects users to be computer-
friendly.

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