@Not_Oles did your NetBSD VPS ever lock up (waiting for I/O that never completes)?
I am seeing my NetBSD VPS occasionally lock up, and so far it looks like some issue with the virtio block device (either on the NetBSD side or the qemu side).
With something like
while sleep 0.4; do echo Hello >~/stress-test.txt; sync; rm ~/stress-test.txt; done
I seem to get it to lock up after a few hours (with the sleep the load on the host should be fine, even when running over longer periods). Just wondering if that's something that you are (or could be) seeing on your VPS as well?
(btw, the VPS comes back to life when logging in via the VNC console)
@cmeerw I feel really lucky, no trouble at all here. FWIW, do I remember right that we are on different node processor architectures? Mine is AMD Ryzen 9 9950X on kvmaz13. If I can help, please let me know. Thanks @linveo!
@Not_Oles said: @cmeerw I feel really lucky, no trouble at all here. FWIW, do I remember right that we are on different node processor architectures? Mine is AMD Ryzen 9 9950X on kvmaz13. If I can help, please let me know. Thanks @linveo!
I used to be on an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core Processor on kvmtx11, but it seems I am now also on an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16-Core Processor (thanks @linveo). Just trying to figure out how reproducible (or common) the issue I am seeing is...
@Not_Oles said: @cmeerw I feel really lucky, no trouble at all here. FWIW, do I remember right that we are on different node processor architectures? Mine is AMD Ryzen 9 9950X on kvmaz13. If I can help, please let me know. Thanks @linveo!
I used to be on an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core Processor on kvmtx11, but it seems I am now also on an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16-Core Processor (thanks @linveo). Just trying to figure out how reproducible (or common) the issue I am seeing is...
FWIW, I did read skim through the gnats link you posted and onward also through the references there. First time I looked at nxr.netbsd.org and opengrok.
I'm still not having any trouble on my very fast @linveo VPS! But I am glad to see this bug exposed. Thanks @linveo for the VPSes @cmeerw and I are using!
@Not_Oles said: @cmeerw I feel really lucky, no trouble at all here. FWIW, do I remember right that we are on different node processor architectures? Mine is AMD Ryzen 9 9950X on kvmaz13. If I can help, please let me know. Thanks @linveo!
I used to be on an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core Processor on kvmtx11, but it seems I am now also on an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16-Core Processor (thanks @linveo). Just trying to figure out how reproducible (or common) the issue I am seeing is...
Sorry it's been a while since I have been around this thread. I have completed all of the node upgrades in Texas to 9950X, so 7950X is a thing of the past. Now all locations are on 9950x.
Could someone please help me with the following type mismatch compile error in /pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome?
Today is November 18. The error has persisted for several days, since I first saw it on November 12. I seemed to have had a successful pkgsrc rebuild on November 5, but I am not sure that xf86-video-openchrome was included in the November 5 rebuild.
Specific questions:
NetBSD and pkgsrc seem to catch issues very quickly. The fact that this issue has persisted for several days makes me wonder if some mistake I made somehow is an underlying cause of the error.
Where do I look for daily pkgsrc build reports by package to see whether xf86-video-openchrome builds on the test platform?
How do I find the commit history showing where and when the cause of the error was introduced?
How to fix without causing a problem for other packages?
Thanks very much, everyone! Special thanks to @linveo for the very fast VPS!
Tom
To update pkgsrc, I usually run, as root, inside tmux, in /usr/pkgsrc:
nohup time cvs -q up -dP
nohup time pkg_admin fetch-pkg-vulnerabilities
nohup time pkg_rolling-replace -rsuv
The terminal output is captured in a file called nohup.out.
linveo# pwd
/usr/pkgsrc
linveo# cat -en nohup.out
[ . . . ]
513 /bin/sh ../libtool --tag=CC --mode=compile gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.. -I/usr/pkg/include/xorg -fvisibility=hidden -I/usr/pkg/include -I/usr/pkg/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/pkg/include/X11/dri -I/usr/pkg/include/libdrm -D_POSIX_THREAD_SAFE_FUNCTIONS -D_REENTRANT -I/usr/pkg/include/xorg -I/usr/pkg/include -I/usr/include -I/usr/pkg/include/freetype2 -I/usr/pkg/include/libdrm -I/usr/pkg/include/xorg -fvisibility=hidden -I/usr/pkg/include -I/usr/pkg/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/pkg/include/X11/dri -I/usr/pkg/include/libdrm -D_POSIX_THREAD_SAFE_FUNCTIONS -D_REENTRANT -I/usr/pkg/include -I/usr/pkg/include/libdrm -I/usr/pkg/include/X11/dri -O2 -I/usr/pkg/include/xorg -I/usr/pkg/include -I/usr/include -I/usr/pkg/include/freetype2 -I/usr/pkg/include/libdrm -MT via_driver.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/via_driver.Tpo -c -o via_driver.lo via_driver.c$
514 libtool: compile: gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.. -I/usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/.buildlink/include/xorg -fvisibility=hidden -I/usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/.buildlink/include -I/usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/.buildlink/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/.buildlink/include/X11/dri -I/usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/.buildlink/include/libdrm -D_POSIX_THREAD_SAFE_FUNCTIONS -D_REENTRANT -I/usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/.buildlink/include/freetype2 -fvisibility=hidden -D_POSIX_THREAD_SAFE_FUNCTIONS -D_REENTRANT -O2 -MT via_driver.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/via_driver.Tpo -c via_driver.c -fPIC -DPIC -o .libs/via_driver.o$
515 via_driver.c: In function 'VIACreateScreenResources':$
516 via_driver.c:1678:45: error: implicit declaration of function 'shadowUpdatePackedWeak'; did you mean 'shadowUpdatePacked'? [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]$
517 1678 | if (!shadowAdd(pScreen, rootPixmap, shadowUpdatePackedWeak(),$
518 | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~$
519 | shadowUpdatePacked$
520 via_driver.c:1678:45: error: passing argument 3 of 'shadowAdd' makes pointer from integer without a cast [-Wint-conversion]$
521 1678 | if (!shadowAdd(pScreen, rootPixmap, shadowUpdatePackedWeak(),$
522 | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~$
523 | |$
524 | int$
525 In file included from via_driver.c:33:$
526 /usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/.buildlink/include/xorg/shadow.h:78:28: note: expected 'ShadowUpdateProc' {aka 'void (*)(struct _Screen *, struct _shadowBuf *)'} but argument is of type 'int'$
527 78 | ShadowUpdateProc update,$
528 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~$
529 *** Error code 1$
530 $
531 Stop.$
532 make[4]: stopped making "all-am" in /usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/xf86-video-openchrome-0.6.0/src$
533 *** Error code 1$
534 $
535 Stop.$
536 make[3]: stopped making "all-recursive" in /usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/xf86-video-openchrome-0.6.0/src$
537 *** Error code 1$
538 $
539 Stop.$
540 make[2]: stopped making "all" in /usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/xf86-video-openchrome-0.6.0/src$
541 Making all in man$
542 sed -e 's|__vendorversion__|"xf86-video-openchrome 0.6.0" "X Version 11"|' -e 's|__xorgversion__|"xf86-video-openchrome 0.6.0" "X Version 11"|' -e 's|__xservername__|Xorg|g' -e 's|__xconfigfile__|xorg.conf|g' -e 's|__projectroot__|/usr/pkg|g' -e 's|__appmansuffix__|1|g' -e 's|__drivermansuffix__|4|g' -e 's|__adminmansuffix__|8|g' -e 's|__miscmansuffix__|7|g' -e 's|__filemansuffix__|5|g' < openchrome.man > openchrome.4$
543 Making all in tools$
544 *** Error code 1$
545 $
546 Stop.$
547 make[1]: stopped making "all-recursive" in /usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/xf86-video-openchrome-0.6.0$
548 *** Error code 1$
549 $
550 Stop.$
551 make: stopped making "all" in /usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/work/xf86-video-openchrome-0.6.0$
552 *** Error code 1$
553 $
554 Stop.$
555 make[1]: stopped making "replace" in /usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome$
556 *** Error code 1$
557 $
558 Stop.$
559 make: stopped making "replace" in /usr/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome$
560 *** 'make replace' failed for package xf86-video-openchrome.$
561 *** Please read the errors listed above, fix the problem,$
562 *** then re-run pkg_rolling-replace to continue.$
563 - xf86-video-openchrome$
564 53.87 real 28.96 user 21.69 sys$
linveo#
@Not_Oles said: Where do I look for daily pkgsrc build reports by package to see whether xf86-video-openchrome builds on the test platform?
Looks like maybe I found the pkgsrc BulkTracker! The BulkTracker is linked from the pkgsrc home page, https://pkgsrc.org. Scroll down to information for developers, wherein BulkTracker is the last item.
But, if I go to the BulkTracker x11 page, there do not seem to be any amd64 entries. So I am confused. . . .
Am I making a mistake expecting to build xf86-video-openchrome on amd64?
linveo# pkg_info xf86-video-openchrome
Information for xf86-video-openchrome-0.6.0nb3:
Comment:
Modular Xorg OpenChrome driver for VIA UniChrome video chipsets
Requires:
libXvMC>=1.0.2
modular-xorg-server>=21.1.9nb1
Required by:
modular-xorg-drivers-1.19.0nb9
Description:
This is the VIA openchrome video driver for the modular Xorg server.
The OpenChrome project is committed to providing and supporting fully free
and Open Source drivers that take full advantage of the hardware
acceleration of VIA chipsets featuring the VIA UniChrome, UniChrome Pro and
Chrome9 integrated graphics processors.
Homepage:
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Openchrome/
linveo#
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
Ever since March 14, pkgsrc, as implemented on this VPS, nothing special, has been rebuilding Xorg without any issue until about November 12 or a little before.
Yes, definitely looks like it would work! Thank you!
Another alternative might be to remove the modular xorg meta-package and go with a simpler install of only some of the packages in the meta-packages? For example, maybe an approach like https://rubenerd.com/modular-xorg-on-netbsd-from-scratch/ might work. Um, which if any driver is needed for this VPS? Which packages? More fun coming up soon!
I'm a long-term NetBSD user -- but not exclusively NetBSD -- but I don't like living on the edge, so I've always just used NetBSD stable (now: 10.1) and pkgsrc stable
I confess that I've never tried to build modular-xorg, largely because the xorg that's part of the base distribution has always worked for my purposes
As you probably know, NetBSD has the X11R7 set in the main distribution and Xorg in pkgsrc.
I think that they're both xorg, but that the xorg of the base distribution has been modified to suit the purposes of the base distribution. If you wish, the xorg of the base distribution is a kind of "light fork" of the standard xorg, where the latter is available as modular-xorg in pkgsrc
Just to note that that's a very old blog entry from 2004, shortly after the forking of xorg from xfree86, which doesn't reflect the current state of X in NetBSD
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
Oh God. I didn't think I'd be reading about XFree86 in TYOOL 2025. XLibre has really pissed off a lot of troons and they're going out of their way to stymie and destroy it from different distributions (e.g. Alpine) by making baseless claims and stating privately that it's entirely political.
That's why I'm nuking my Alpine instances and going back to OpenBSD.
I posted to pkgsrc-users, received and tried some great suggestions, but the xf86-video-openchrome error continued.
I reverted to my Linveo backup from November 5, which I had imagined to be the last good build. However, the error was present in the November 5 build and also was present in the next previous October 26 build. I just didn't notice.
When the build errors out, and the compiler errors scroll off the terminal, the only remaining visible clue seems to be the minus sign ahead of the last line of output. There is no additional error message at the end. And time completes as expected. Obviously I would have seen the prominent compiler errors if I had scrolled up even a little bit through the output. Clueless™
chronos@penguin:~/servers/linveo$ `head -n 1 login`
Last login: Wed Nov 5 17:04:13 2025 from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
NetBSD 11.99.3 (GENERIC) #3: Tue Nov 4 03:43:15 UTC 2025
linveo# cd /usr/pkgsrc
linveo# ls -l no*
-rw------- 1 root wheel 3909356 Nov 4 05:05 nohup.out
-rw------- 1 root wheel 5198871 Oct 26 20:21 nohup.out-old
linveo# tail nohup.out-old
+ polkit
+ pulseaudio
+ py313-cython
+ py313-setuptools_scm
+ raqm
+ rust
+ vala
+ xf86-video-savage
- xf86-video-openchrome
9226.38 real 8076.45 user 805.59 sys
linveo#
What now? I still haven't figured out exactly why and where xf86-video-openchrome comes into the picture. As mentioned above, I installed the modular xorg meta-package. So I am guessing xf86-video-openchrome derives from the meta-package.
Besides looking at the meta-package, additional options include @angstrom's suggestion to change a makefile to exclude xf86-video-openchrome, maybe adding a cast to fix the type mismatch error, and maybe deleting all the modular X packages and rebuilding with precisely specified packages instead of meta-packages.
I could go back to the X which is in /usr/xsrc, as part of the regular NetBSD distribution, instead of the X which is in pkgsrc. Or just leave X entirely out and concentrate on command line serial stuff.
Since @Crab is here maybe I should try FreeBSD again? Since @AuroraZero is here, maybe I should try Slackware again?
@Not_Oles said:
I posted to pkgsrc-users, received and tried some great suggestions, but the xf86-video-openchrome error continued.
I reverted to my Linveo backup from November 5, which I had imagined to be the last good build. However, the error was present in the November 5 build and also was present in the next previous October 26 build. I just didn't notice.
When the build errors out, and the compiler errors scroll off the terminal, the only remaining visible clue seems to be the minus sign ahead of the last line of output. There is no additional error message at the end. And time completes as expected. Obviously I would have seen the prominent compiler errors if I had scrolled up even a little bit through the output. Clueless™
I was surprised when you said that the build succeeded as recently as the end of October, but I didn't want to question you on this
What now? I still haven't figured out exactly why and where xf86-video-openchrome comes into the picture. As mentioned above, I installed the modular xorg meta-package. So I am guessing xf86-video-openchrome derives from the meta-package.
Yes, as I said above, it's a dependency of the meta-package "modular-xorg-drivers"
Besides looking at the meta-package, additional options include @angstrom's suggestion to change a makefile to exclude xf86-video-openchrome,
If I may say so, this would be the simplest thing to try!
As I also said above, it's telling that xf86-video-openchrome isn't present in the pkgsrc binary repository, which indicates that it currently fails to build
I could go back to the X which is in /usr/xsrc, as part of the regular NetBSD distribution, instead of the X which is in pkgsrc. Or just leave X entirely out and concentrate on command line serial stuff.
I'm not sure that I fully understand why you're trying to build the package "modular-xorg", but if it's just for fun, then I (kind of) understand
Since @Crab is here maybe I should try FreeBSD again? Since @AuroraZero is here, maybe I should try Slackware again?
For what it's worth, I don't find the package "xf86-video-openchrome" in the FreeBSD ports and packages collection either:
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
@angstrom said: I was surprised when you said that the build succeeded as recently as the end of October, but I didn't want to question you on this
One of the best ways to be my friend is to catch and post about my mistakes. The more quickly I learn about my mistakes, the better off I am! Thanks for your wonderfully positive and helpful motivation toward questioning me about something I said that seemed wrong!
@angstrom said: Yes, as I said above, it's a dependency of the meta-package "modular-xorg-drivers"
@angstrom said: As I also said above, it's telling that xf86-video-openchrome isn't present in the pkgsrc binary repository, which indicates that it currently fails to build
It seems like everyone who currently installs X via pkgsrc on any architecture with the pkgsrc "x11/modular-xorg" meta-package receives a dependency that doesn't compile.
@angstrom said: I'm not sure that I fully understand why you're trying to build the package "modular-xorg", but if it's just for fun, then I (kind of) understand
This very fast Linveo VPS is just for fun! It has given me the opportunities to
@Not_Oles said: just leave X entirely out and concentrate on command line serial stuff.
Pkgsrc modular X is now removed. Of course, we could add the main distribution's /usr/xsrc X or restore pkgsrc modular X if somebody comes aboard and wants it.
What I did procedurally was make a backup and then remove all pkgsrc packages with
linveo# cat delete-all-packages.sh
for pkg in $(pkg_info | awk '{print $1}')
do
pkg_delete $pkg
done
linveo#
Just run this a few times until there are no more "still needed dependencies" in the output. I had 517 packages. I ran delete-all-packages.sh about six times.
Once all the packages were gone, I reinstalled /www/lynx, /www/curl, /www/tinyproxy, and /devel/git. Including their dependencies, these 4 packages resulted in 75 installed packages.
linveo# pkg_info | wc -l
75
linveo#
linveo# pkg_info
libnbcompat-20251029 Portable NetBSD compatibility library
cwrappers-20220403 pkgsrc compiler wrappers
mktools-20250213 Collection of pkgsrc mk infrastructure tools
digest-20220214 Message digest wrapper utility
m4-1.4.19nb1 GNU version of UNIX m4 macro language processor
libtool-base-2.4.7nb1 Generic shared library support script (the script itself)
gettext-lib-0.22.5 Internationalized Message Handling Library (libintl)
gettext-tools-0.22.5nb1 Tools for providing messages in different languages
lynx-2.9.2nb5 Alphanumeric display oriented World-Wide Web Client
pkgconf-2.4.3nb1 API-driven pkg-config replacement
gmake-4.4.1 GNU version of 'make' utility
libffi-3.5.2 Foreign function interface
libuuid-2.40.2 Generate unique identifiers for objects
mpdecimal-4.0.1 C/C++ arbitrary precision decimal floating point libraries
readline-8.3nb1 GNU library that can recall and edit previous input
sqlite3-3.51.0 SQL Database Engine in a C Library
python313-3.13.9 Interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language
py313-flit_core-3.12.0 Distribution-building parts of Flit
py313-installer-0.7.0nb3 Library for installing Python wheels
py313-pyparsing-3.2.5 Parsing module for Python
py313-packaging-25.0 Core utilities for Python packages
py313-pyproject_hooks-1.2.0nb1 Wrappers to call pyproject.toml-based build backend hooks
py313-build-1.3.0 Simple, correct PEP517 package builder
py313-setuptools-80.9.0 New Python packaging system
xmlcatmgr-2.2nb1 XML and SGML catalog manager
docbook-xml-4.5 XML DTD designed for computer documentation
perl-5.42.0 Practical Extraction and Report Language
docbook-xsl-1.79.2nb7 Docbook XSL modular stylesheet
getopt-1.1.6 Program to help shell scripts parse command-line parameters
libgpg-error-1.56 Definitions of common error values for all GnuPG components
libgcrypt-1.11.2 GNU cryptographic library
libxml2-2.14.6 XML parser library from the GNOME project
libxslt-1.1.43nb4 XSLT parser library
asciidoc-10.2.1nb5 ASCII to formatted document converter
gperf-3.2nb1 GNU perfect hash function generator
tinyproxy-1.11.2 Lightweight HTTP/SSL proxy
libunistring-1.2 Unicode string library
libidn2-2.3.7 Convert internationalized domain names to/from ASCII Encoding
nghttp2-1.68.0 Implementation of HTTP/2 in C
curl-8.17.0 Client that groks URLs
pcre2-10.47 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions library (major version 2)
git-base-2.52.0 GIT Tree History Storage Tool (base package)
p5-gettext-1.07nb10 Perl5 module interface to C I18N functions
help2man-1.49.3 Generate simple manual pages from program output
autoconf-2.72 Generates automatic source code configuration scripts
automake-1.18 GNU Standards-compliant Makefile generator
xmlto-0.0.29 Tool to help transform XML documents into other formats
git-contrib-2.52.0 GIT Tree History Storage Tool (contrib)
git-docs-2.52.0 GIT Tree History Storage Tool (documentation)
p5-DBI-1.647nb1 The database-independent Perl database access API
p5-DBD-SQLite-1.76nb6 Perl DBI/DBD driver for sqlite databases (self contained)
p5-Error-0.17030nb1 Perl extension module for try/throw/catch exception handling
p5-Capture-Tiny-0.50nb1 Capture STDOUT and STDERR from Perl, XS or external programs
p5-Net-3.15nb3 Perl5 modules to access and use network protocols
p5-TimeDate-2.33nb5 Perl5 TimeDate distribution
p5-MailTools-2.22nb1 Perl5 modules related to mail applications
p5-Digest-HMAC-1.05nb2 Perl5 module for HMAC
p5-Net-IP-1.26nb13 Perl extension for manipulating IPv4/IPv6 addresses
p5-Socket6-0.29nb7 Perl5 module to support getaddrinfo() and getnameinfo()
p5-IO-Socket-INET6-2.73nb4 Perl object interface for AF_INET/AF_INET6 domain sockets
p5-Net-DNS-1.53 Perl5 module for DNS resolution
p5-Net-Domain-TLD-1.75nb9 Work with TLD names
p5-Email-Valid-1.204nb2 Perl5 module for testing validity of an email address
gsed-4.9nb1 GNU implementation of sed, the POSIX stream editor
libidn-1.42 Internationalized Domain Names command line tool
p5-Net-LibIDN-0.12nb17 Perl bindings for GNU Libidn
p5-Net-SSLeay-1.94nb2 Perl5 module for using OpenSSL
p5-Mozilla-CA-20250602nb1 Mozilla's CA cert bundle for Perl
p5-IO-Socket-SSL-2.095 Perl5 SSL socket interface class
p5-Net-SMTP-SSL-1.04nb9 Perl5 module providing SSL support for Net::SMTP
p5-Crypt-URandom-0.54nb1 Perl5 module to provide non blocking randomness
p5-GSSAPI-0.28nb18 Perl extension providing access to the GSSAPIv2 library
p5-Authen-SASL-2.1900 Perl module to handle SASL authentication
git-perlscripts-2.52.0 Git commands that rely on Perl
git-2.52.0 GIT version control suite meta-package
linveo#
Thanks again for helping me understand the dependencies of pkgsrc's modular xorg!
@angstrom said: I'm a long-term NetBSD user -- but not exclusively NetBSD -- but I don't like living on the edge, so I've always just used NetBSD stable (now: 10.1) and pkgsrc stable
May I please ask, how did you get started with NetBSD? Thanks!
Comments
@Not_Oles did your NetBSD VPS ever lock up (waiting for I/O that never completes)?
I am seeing my NetBSD VPS occasionally lock up, and so far it looks like some issue with the virtio block device (either on the NetBSD side or the qemu side).
With something like
I seem to get it to lock up after a few hours (with the sleep the load on the host should be fine, even when running over longer periods). Just wondering if that's something that you are (or could be) seeing on your VPS as well?
(btw, the VPS comes back to life when logging in via the VNC console)
@cmeerw I feel really lucky, no trouble at all here. FWIW, do I remember right that we are on different node processor architectures? Mine is AMD Ryzen 9 9950X on kvmaz13. If I can help, please let me know. Thanks @linveo!
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
I used to be on an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core Processor on kvmtx11, but it seems I am now also on an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16-Core Processor (thanks @linveo). Just trying to figure out how reproducible (or common) the issue I am seeing is...
I have filed https://gnats.netbsd.org/59618 for this issue, and it already got confirmed.
@cmeerw Congrats!
FWIW, I did read skim through the gnats link you posted and onward also through the references there. First time I looked at nxr.netbsd.org and opengrok.
Since testing and troubleshooting were done on hlcs, I guess we now can celebrate hlcs having contributed to NetBSD development! Thanks @Hosteroid for hlcs!
I'm still not having any trouble on my very fast @linveo VPS! But I am glad to see this bug exposed. Thanks @linveo for the VPSes @cmeerw and I are using!
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
Sorry it's been a while since I have been around this thread. I have completed all of the node upgrades in Texas to 9950X, so 7950X is a thing of the past. Now all locations are on 9950x.
linveo.com | Shared Hosting | KVM VPS | Dedicated Servers
Could someone please help me with the following type mismatch compile error in /pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome?
Today is November 18. The error has persisted for several days, since I first saw it on November 12. I seemed to have had a successful pkgsrc rebuild on November 5, but I am not sure that xf86-video-openchrome was included in the November 5 rebuild.
Specific questions:
NetBSD and pkgsrc seem to catch issues very quickly. The fact that this issue has persisted for several days makes me wonder if some mistake I made somehow is an underlying cause of the error.
Where do I look for daily pkgsrc build reports by package to see whether xf86-video-openchrome builds on the test platform?
How do I find the commit history showing where and when the cause of the error was introduced?
How to fix without causing a problem for other packages?
Thanks very much, everyone!
Special thanks to @linveo for the very fast VPS! 
Tom
To update pkgsrc, I usually run, as root, inside tmux, in
/usr/pkgsrc:The terminal output is captured in a file called nohup.out.
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
Looks like maybe I found the pkgsrc BulkTracker! The BulkTracker is linked from the pkgsrc home page, https://pkgsrc.org. Scroll down to information for developers, wherein BulkTracker is the last item.
But, if I go to the BulkTracker x11 page, there do not seem to be any amd64 entries. So I am confused. . . .
Am I making a mistake expecting to build xf86-video-openchrome on amd64?
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
Looks like I could do without the xf86-video-openchrome package since I might not be using a VIA chipset? See also https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Openchrome/.
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
Unfortunately, I don't have the answer to your question, but you might try asking on the NetBSD mailing list "pkgsrc-users":
https://netbsd.org/mailinglists/#pkgsrc-users
In the past, I sometimes wrote to this list when I had an issue with a compilation using pkgsrc.
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
Right, if you don't have that chipset, then the best strategy would be to avoid trying to build it
By the way, it appears that this package hasn't been built for any of architectures that NetBSD supports:
https://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/x11/xf86-video-openchrome/index.html
In addition, this package isn't available in either Debian 13 (trixie) or Debian testing:
https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=all§ion=all&arch=any&searchon=names&keywords=xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
This suggests that an attempt to build xf86-video-openchrome at this time won't succeed
But for NetBSD it would be nice to find where exactly the option not to build this package is located
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
@Not_Oles , you seem to like living on the edge
Any reason why you're trying to build modular-xorg?
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
I think that I've found the relevant Makefile:
https://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/modular-xorg-drivers/Makefile
You could try commenting out the line
and see whether this brings you more luck
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
Yes!
This VPS isn't running any services. It's just for having lots of fun trying small parts of NetBSD.
I just wanted to try the modular Xorg. You can see, above, on March 14, when I installed the modular xorg meta-package.
As you probably know, NetBSD has the X11R7 set in the main distribution and Xorg in pkgsrc. Part of the reason for the two different approaches to X might be differences in the licensing and differences in developers.
Ever since March 14, pkgsrc, as implemented on this VPS, nothing special, has been rebuilding Xorg without any issue until about November 12 or a little before.
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
Yes, definitely looks like it would work! Thank you!
Another alternative might be to remove the modular xorg meta-package and go with a simpler install of only some of the packages in the meta-packages? For example, maybe an approach like https://rubenerd.com/modular-xorg-on-netbsd-from-scratch/ might work. Um, which if any driver is needed for this VPS? Which packages? More fun coming up soon!
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
Looks like xf86-video-amdgpu might be the only driver needed for this VPS?
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
What happens if I get rid of the modular xorg meta-package plus all the other X packages, and install just
wm/twm
x11/modular-xorg-server/ # includes Xvfb
meta-pkgs/modular-xorg-fonts/
x11/xf86-input-keyboard/
x11/xf86-input-mouse/
x11/xf86-video-vmware/
x11/xauth/
X11/x11vnc
X11/xeyes/
x11/xinit/
X11/xterm # Maybe X11/rxvt-unicode
Will this give me a minimal, but working X via VNC?
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
I'm a long-term NetBSD user -- but not exclusively NetBSD -- but I don't like living on the edge,
so I've always just used NetBSD stable (now: 10.1) and pkgsrc stable
I confess that I've never tried to build modular-xorg, largely because the xorg that's part of the base distribution has always worked for my purposes
I think that they're both xorg, but that the xorg of the base distribution has been modified to suit the purposes of the base distribution. If you wish, the xorg of the base distribution is a kind of "light fork" of the standard xorg, where the latter is available as modular-xorg in pkgsrc
Just to note that that's a very old blog entry from 2004, shortly after the forking of xorg from xfree86, which doesn't reflect the current state of X in NetBSD
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
I think you are right! Yesterday I was trying to figure out the history of X and X as it has been in NetBSD. . . .
Thanks for always being helpful!
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
Oh God. I didn't think I'd be reading about XFree86 in TYOOL 2025. XLibre has really pissed off a lot of troons and they're going out of their way to stymie and destroy it from different distributions (e.g. Alpine) by making baseless claims and stating privately that it's entirely political.
That's why I'm nuking my Alpine instances and going back to OpenBSD.
My pronouns are like/subscribe.
I posted to pkgsrc-users, received and tried some great suggestions, but the xf86-video-openchrome error continued.
I reverted to my Linveo backup from November 5, which I had imagined to be the last good build. However, the error was present in the November 5 build and also was present in the next previous October 26 build. I just didn't notice.
When the build errors out, and the compiler errors scroll off the terminal, the only remaining visible clue seems to be the minus sign ahead of the last line of output. There is no additional error message at the end. And time completes as expected. Obviously I would have seen the prominent compiler errors if I had scrolled up even a little bit through the output. Clueless™
What now? I still haven't figured out exactly why and where xf86-video-openchrome comes into the picture. As mentioned above, I installed the modular xorg meta-package. So I am guessing xf86-video-openchrome derives from the meta-package.
Besides looking at the meta-package, additional options include @angstrom's suggestion to change a makefile to exclude xf86-video-openchrome, maybe adding a cast to fix the type mismatch error, and maybe deleting all the modular X packages and rebuilding with precisely specified packages instead of meta-packages.
I could go back to the X which is in /usr/xsrc, as part of the regular NetBSD distribution, instead of the X which is in pkgsrc. Or just leave X entirely out and concentrate on command line serial stuff.
Since @Crab is here maybe I should try FreeBSD again? Since @AuroraZero is here, maybe I should try Slackware again?
Thanks to @linveo for the nice, very fast VPS!
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
I was surprised when you said that the build succeeded as recently as the end of October, but I didn't want to question you on this
Yes, as I said above, it's a dependency of the meta-package "modular-xorg-drivers"
If I may say so, this would be the simplest thing to try!
As I also said above, it's telling that xf86-video-openchrome isn't present in the pkgsrc binary repository, which indicates that it currently fails to build
I'm not sure that I fully understand why you're trying to build the package "modular-xorg", but if it's just for fun, then I (kind of) understand
For what it's worth, I don't find the package "xf86-video-openchrome" in the FreeBSD ports and packages collection either:
https://ports.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=xf86-video-openchrome&stype=all&sektion=all
But the good news is that it's available in Slackware current:
https://packages.slackware.com/?r=slackware64-current&p=xf86-video-openchrome-0.6.0-x86_64-6.txz
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
One of the best ways to be my friend is to catch and post about my mistakes. The more quickly I learn about my mistakes, the better off I am! Thanks for your wonderfully positive and helpful motivation toward questioning me about something I said that seemed wrong!
Yes. So, if I understand right, "x11/modular-xorg-drivers" is a dependency of "x11/modular-xorg" and "x11/xf86-video-openchrome" is a dependency of "x11/modular-xorg-drivers"
It seems like everyone who currently installs X via pkgsrc on any architecture with the pkgsrc "x11/modular-xorg" meta-package receives a dependency that doesn't compile.
This very fast Linveo VPS is just for fun! It has given me the opportunities to
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
Pkgsrc modular X is now removed. Of course, we could add the main distribution's /usr/xsrc X or restore pkgsrc modular X if somebody comes aboard and wants it.
What I did procedurally was make a backup and then remove all pkgsrc packages with
Just run this a few times until there are no more "still needed dependencies" in the output. I had 517 packages. I ran delete-all-packages.sh about six times.
Once all the packages were gone, I reinstalled /www/lynx, /www/curl, /www/tinyproxy, and /devel/git. Including their dependencies, these 4 packages resulted in 75 installed packages.
Following the reinstall I made another backup.
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
@angstrom
Thanks again for helping me understand the dependencies of pkgsrc's modular xorg!
May I please ask, how did you get started with NetBSD? Thanks!
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!
Checked to make sure that the delete-all-packages.sh script mentioned above does delete all the old, earlier than today binaries from /usr/pkg/bin.
In case anyone might be interested, here is the full /usr/pkg/bin directory listing:
I hope everyone gets the servers they want!