Official forums for BZFlag.org

Hi,
i am using a Intel-Linux-Box with SUSE 10.1 Linux.
My bzflag client occasionally freezes the whole input and display system (Kernel2.6.16.13-4-default with X.org-mga driver).
Everything is stuck except the mouse pointer. Only a hard reset helps, as i have no second box to try it with telnet/ssh.
It happens totaly randomly. Sometimes I can play for hours, sometimes it happens after a few seconds/minutes.

Any help is appriciated

What kind of Video card do you use? Do you have the latest Drivers for it?

ducktape wrote:What kind of Video card do you use? Do you have the latest Drivers for it?

It is a Matrox G550 card.
X Window System Version 6.9.0

For information: older versions of bzflag are running without problems. But i can´t say since which version the problems started.
I am now using bzflag-2.0.10rc2 and the problem is the same.
Since i have no problems with any other 3D-program, i believe it could be a bzflag-problem.
I googled i bit and saw that a few other people have the same issue, with different cards (nvidia, ...).

Thanks in advance

others with the issues, have usually been driver problems. Make sure you have the current drivers. BZFlag does a lot of stuff other 3d apps don't do ( stencil, and stipple)

JeffM wrote:others with the issues, have usually been driver problems. Make sure you have the current drivers. BZFlag does a lot of stuff other 3d apps don't do ( stencil, and stipple)

I installed the latestet X11 and GL-Drivers for my distribution.
It does not help.

Any hints are welcome

A hard reset? No need. To kill BZFlag (or any other program) ...
then login, then do Then some numbers should appear, then do.. Then it's done, then to go back to your desktop.. Perhaps you might not have the problem with SUSE 10.2? It works fine for me.

PETER wrote:A hard reset? No need. To kill BZFlag (or any other program) ...

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CTRL+ALT+F2 

then login, then do

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pgrep bzflag 

Then some numbers should appear, then do..

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kill -sigkill <numbers>

Then it's done, then to go back to your desktop..

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CTRL+ALT+F7

Perhaps you might not have the problem with SUSE 10.2? It works fine for me.

you can restart the X server with ctrl+alt+backspace. after X restarts, you will be back at the login screen (i use this because i do stuff that crashes X often).

I've had similar problems, however, not just with BZFlag, but with other games. It seems as if the whole system is going down, because the sound stays on for about 30 seconds after there is no response, then that goes off too. Usually, trying to switch to another console (CTRL+ALT+Fx) doesn't work, neither does CTRL+ALT+Backspace. The problem seems to have mostly gone away when I installed a new sound card and tweaked the SLI settings. I'm suspecting an SLI problem, however, this doesn't nessiarily relate to your problem.

Some years ago on my linux (Bz old Version 1.8 ) my pc seemed to randomly freeze, too. After a long time of wondering, i then found out that when my linux freezed, then in kinda 100% of all cases it was due to i was shooting a GM trough a teleporter! Very weird.
(No wonder i needed months to find it out, as it seldom happened that i shooted trough teleporters with GM. Maybe it was even depended wheter i activated GM-lock or not, its too long ago, i just dont remember. Edit: Maybe it happend even the other way round, namely when someone shooted trough teleporter with GM in order to hit me.
On the same computer however when i booted with windows my pc never freezed when shooting like described. Well, obviously on windows there were other drivers and other compiled version of bz, so its not a real wonder that there i hadnt this prob)

Would be pure luck if its the same case for u, but who knows!
In this case just dont shoot with GM trough teleporters...lol

All methods to go to console fail. The Ctrl-Alt-Backspace does not work. I should connect another pc to my router to telnet/ssh on the linux-box to see which process is dead.
GM to teleporter is not the problem, because it fails on piilbox and ducati (no GM no teleporters) too.

Thank you for all answers

More than likely, it's the Matrox driver that's giving you issues. 10.1's a bit old, so the current driver for your distro probably isn't up-to-date. openSuSE 10.3 was just released, so I would try that & see if that makes a difference.

That would be my last choice. Everything else works quite good.

rotor02 wrote:
That would be my last choice. Everything else works quite good.

Well, since you don't seemed inclined to upgrade, I've heard the not only is 10.3 faster than other versions but the package manager is much improved.

Back up your stuff, install 10.3 & I think you'll be a happier person. Personally, I favor Debian & Ubuntu.

Thank you all. I solved the problem with a new graphics card (NVIDIA 6200, before it was a MATROX 550).
After installing the nvidia-drivers and playing some hours, i must say: This was a good choice. The 3D-performance is much better, the signal-quality (vga-analog) is ok for my old 20" display and the best: no freeze

Thank you for all answers

I have a fresh install of Fedora 8 on a dual AMD processor with 4 GB of memory. I have an nvidia video card with the latest drivers.

When I attempt to quit bzflag, my computer locks up tighter than a drum on the Are you sure? prompt.

Is there a fix for this issue?

@rotor02: I had similar problems with an ATI Radeon until I set up a file called
~/.drirc

~> cat ~/.drirc
<driconf>
<device screen="0" driver="r200">
<application name="Default">
<option name="force_s3tc_enable" value="false" />
<option name="no_rast" value="false" />
<option name="fthrottle_mode" value="2" />
<option name="tcl_mode" value="3" />
<option name="texture_depth" value="0" />
<option name="def_max_anisotropy" value="1.0" />
<option name="no_neg_lod_bias" value="false" />
<option name="texture_units" value="6" />
<option name="dither_mode" value="0" />
<option name="hyperz" value="true" />
<option name="round_mode" value="0" />
<option name="allow_large_textures" value="1" />
<option name="nv_vertex_program" value="true" />
<option name="color_reduction" value="1" />
<option name="vblank_mode" value="1" />
<option name="texture_blend_quality" value="1.0" />
</application>
</device>
</driconf>
~>

Sometimes, randomly, bzflag freezes the computer. Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, Ctrl-Alt-F2 does not work. I can login with SSH from another computer and its not slow or anything. I can kill the bzflag process, kill the X server... But the keyboard, mouse and screen stay frozen...

The only way to be able to use the computer (apart from remotely via SSH, or viewing the website using the Web Server, etc.) is to press the power button and wait for [K]Ubuntu to finish the shutdown process (so the machine is not frozen, only the keyboard, mouse and screen).

I can still hear the music from Amarok and the sounds from BZFlag until I kill them via SSH or Ubuntu kills them when shutting down.

This has been happening only recently (I think it wasn't like that around christmas). I use Kubuntu with KDE 4 and the latest nvidia-glx-new drivers. I know that 3d works well because bzflag works , the KDE 4 effects run smoothly and glxinfo gives me Direct rendering: yes. Thanks .

(should I create a new thread for this problem?)