Quoting Ignatios Souvatzis (02-May-01 06:22:20):

> On Wed, May 02, 2001 at 07:07:33AM +0100, Georges Heinesch wrote:

>> During night time (at #03:38), /netbsd gives out the following
>> message. It's the same one which is also displayed when booting up.
>> Basically, I can't remember any more what it means (there was a
>> thread in this mailing list #1 year ago),

> if you have direct internet access and a web browser, point it at 
> http://mail-index.netbsd.org/
> which is a search engine for the mailing list archives.

Thanks. I found quite a lot about this geometry stuff.
Summary ... can be disregarded.

>> but the problem is that after the
>> message appears, the top lines of the window manager are corrupt
>> (#10 most top lines).
>> 
>> This is the message after which the pixel errors appear:
>> 
>> ----- cut here -----
>> warning found rdb->secpercyl(1339) != rdb->nsectors(1340) *
>> rdb->nheads(1) warning unknown dostype: 0x0 marking unused
>> Partition 'DH_fusion' geometry 1/1340 differs from RDB 1/1340

> Short resolution:

(more some workarounds ;))

> 1. /etc/daily runs, and fsck -n isn't disabled in daily.conf (or
> NetBSD is
>    too old to include daily.conf)

I run NetBSD 1.5. /etc/defaults/daily.conf contains run_fsck=NO and
/etc/daily doesn't have any contrary entry. As far as I understood,
fsck should not be triggered ?!

----- [ /etc/defaults/daily.conf ] -----
find_core=YES
expire_news=NO
purge_accounting=YES
run_msgs=YES
run_calendar=YES
check_uucp=YES
check_disks=YES
check_mailq=YES
check_network=YES
run_fsck=NO
run_rdist=YES
run_security=YES
run_skeyaudit=YES
----- cut here -----

> 2. fsck reads and interprets the rdb. the RDB reading routine has
> lots of
>   warning messages built in, which are used to detect potential
>   problems with  some braindead Amiga RDB creating programs (well,
>   with interpreting the crazy geometry they create).

Ok, that's also what I got from the mailing-list archives.

> 3. You don't run xconsole, so the output writes to the console and
> overwrites
>    whatever is there in video memory.

Hmmm ... this should not happen even if xconsole is not used ?!?!

> Workaround, also preferable for other reasons: run xconsole whenever
> you run X11.

Gonna do that.

> 3. will also be disappear when Amiga switches to full wscons, but
> this will take some time.

Ok.

> 2. could be helped by leaving out those warning messages, or
> decoupling them from general kernel DIAGNOSTIC messages. I'm very
> tempted to do that, but have to leave for kindergarten and work in a
> couple of minutes.)

Ok, gonna compile a new kernel with this option commented out.

But still I believe that writing to the console should never interfere
with video memory, resukting in pixelk trashing.

Sounds like a bug for me ?!

-- 
Cu  Georges Heinesch, Luxembourg
    geohei@geohei.lu
    http://www.geohei.lu
    PGP RSA & DH/DSS public key on request and on public servers

... all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal ...