On Apr 21, 2010, at 9:54 AM, Don Krause wrote:
>
> On Apr 21, 2010, at 9:36 AM, Ned Slider wrote:
>
>> Don Krause wrote:
>>> Twice now over the past year, I've had something edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file without user intervention.
>>>
>>> The machine in question is a 3 headed X-Terminal that displays the accelerator control system application for a medical proton accelerator, and operated by staff who do NOT have root or root like access (sudo) on the X-Term, as once it's configured, it should never need changing. It lives on a private network (Network? Actually a crossover cable to the Sun box in a protected environment) with no reachable route even from within the organization.
>>>
>>> Out of the blue, on 2 occasions now, an entry for 1 of the video cards (out of 3) has changed it's driver entry from "nvidia" to "nv". This, of course, prevents X from starting.
>>>
>>> This morning, while of the phone with the field service tech, I corrected the entry, set the xorg.conf file to 444, and when they rebooted the X-Term, it again changed the entry from "nvidia" to "nv".
>>>
>>> Again, I corrected the xorg.conf file, reset it to 444, and rebooted the X-Term again, and it started fine, no changes.
>>>
>>> This box does get rebooted quite frequently, yet the unexpected change has only happened 3 time total, once 6 months and probably 30+ reboots ago, and again twice this morning on back to back reboots. (Yet the third and forth reboots did NOT change the file)
>>>
>>> I've never seen this happen before, and am at a bit of a loss wondering where to look.
>>>
>>> CentOS 5.3, 2.6.18-128.1.6.el5 #1
>>> The X-Term is diskless, boots via PXE from a Solaris 10 box. Diskless boot configured using stock Cent tools (system-config-diskless and friends)
>>>
>>> Any suggestion where to look would be appreciated.
>>>
>>
>>
>> Had any updates to xorg-x11-server-Xorg recently on the affected systems
>> as that can make changes to xorg.conf?
>>
>> Also, how are you handling nvidia.ko over kernel updates? Could a reboot
>> have booted to a new kernel, xorg failed due to nvidia.ko not matching
>> the present kernel, and reconfigured to use nv? Using the elrepo kmod
>> driver or rpmforge dkms nvidia driver would alleviate this.
>>
>
> Sorry, should have been a little more clear. It's configuration is locked as is, unless a critical bug is found that affects our operation. As such, no updates have been applied since it was approved for use.
One other note:
It appears that this is happening when one of the three monitors fails, or has a problem with it's DVI cable.
Is it possible that the X server itself is rewriting the config file trying to create a startable version?
--
Don Krause
Head Systems Geek,
Waver of Deceased Chickens.
Optivus Proton Therapy, Inc.
P.O. Box 608
Loma Linda, California 92354
909.799.8327 Tel
909.799.8366 Fax
dkrause@xxxxxxxxxxx
www.optivus.com
"This message represents the official view of the voices in my head."
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