Subject: FVWM: FVWM 1.24 hangs on all our systems

From: Scott Seighman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 1997 12:58:13 -0500

We have encountered a strange problem with fvwm 1.24 on Solaris 2.4
systems.  Every month (or so, haven't narrowed down the frequency) all
of the systems in our facility (and even remotely) that have the fvwm
window manager hang (well, sort of...).  The mouse is still active,
however, you cannot get focus on any of the windows (cursor block
remains empty even when the mouse is in the window).  You can still type
in whatever window was active at the time of the hang.  The only way to
fix the problem is to restart the window manager.  The last day it
happened was October 8th, 1997.  We can actually reproduce the problem
by setting the date on any workstation back to Oct. 8th.  Strange, huh?

Anyone experience a similar issue....?

Thanks,
Scott
[email-masked]
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From: Michael Tiefenback <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 13:19:34 -0500 (EST)

> Anyone experience a similar issue....?

I used to see this with fvwm1 when I would set the system clock backwards.
It would only be effective until the clock wound back to where it started.
I found this while playing with a time-setting process learning how to
keep my Linux box sync'd with certain other computers.  It had slipped a
significant number of minutes ahead of the real world.  I probably 
wouldn't have noticed only a second or two of delay.  The first time I hit
it, I restarted.  If you are setting the clock back to Oct 8 while fvwm1
is running, you might get the same effect but lasting for a month.  I
guess it is possible on other OS's such as Solaris, that the freeze might
never time out.

All this is prelude to asking you whether the freeze-ups are somehow
correlated to NTP or other time-synchronizing procedures you might have
active on all of your machines?  One of my colleagues here has observed
what he feels is unsatisfactorily smooth clock manipulations from xntpd on
his Linux setup.  Winding the clock backwards might be your trigger event.
Hope this helps....

Michael Tiefenback

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From: Grant McDorman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 13:20:37 -0500

According to Scott Seighman:
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> Subject: FVWM: FVWM 1.24 hangs on all our systems
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> Anyone experience a similar issue....?

Do you, by any chance, periodically synchronize the time on your
workstations? The symptoms you describe can occur if the system's date and
time move _backwards_.  This has been fixed in one of the more recent
versions of 2.x.

-- 

Grant McDorman <[email-masked]>
ISG Technologies, Inc.  http://www.isgtec.com
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada