Bug 467

Summary:	Xfree86's "smart scheduler" breaks Xprt
Product:	xprint	Reporter:	Roland Mainz <roland.mainz>
Component:	Server: Other	Assignee:	Roland Mainz <roland.mainz>
Status:	RESOLVED WONTFIX	QA Contact:
Severity:	blocker
Priority:	high	CC:	alan.coopersmith, eich, jay.hobson, MostAwesomedude, roland.mainz
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	All
Whiteboard:
i915 platform:		i915 features:
Bug Depends on:	491
Bug Blocks:

Description Roland Mainz 2004-04-13 17:06:28 UTC

Xfree86's "smart" scheduler seems to break Xprt. If the "smart scheduler" is
active the print jobs are incomplete, usually huge chunks in PostScript jobs are
missing (other symptoms of the problems are random crashes).

Known workarounds:
Compile with |#define UseSmartScheduler NO| or run Xprt with -dumbSched

Comment 1 Roland Mainz 2004-04-13 17:07:21 UTC

Does anyone have a clue what may go wrong here ?

Comment 2 Roland Mainz 2004-04-17 12:50:07 UTC

For the log:
I checked-in a workaround for the bug with bug 491 ("RFE: Need workaround for
bug 467 ("Xfree86's smart scheduler breaks Xprt").

During writing the workaround I found an intersting detail:
First I tried to set |SmartScheduleDisable = TRUE| in |PrinterInitOutput()| -
but that had no effect on the problem. The variable still remained |TRUE|, e.g.
the value was never changed but the problem still occured.
Initalising |SmartScheduleDisable = TRUE| like I did for the current workaround
in  bug 491 seems to work - and running Xprt with the |-dumbSched| works, too.
Conclusion:
Looking at dix/main.c something between |ProcessCommandLine()| and
|PrinterInitOutput()| is causing the problem.

Guessing:
Maybe the signal handling for the smart scheduler interfers with the detail that
the Xprint DDXs create child processes...

Comment 3 Roland Mainz 2004-04-17 12:50:40 UTC

BTW: Who wrote the XF86 "smart scheduler" initially ?

Comment 4 Alan Coopersmith 2004-04-17 12:52:22 UTC

Keith Packard wrote it - see http://keithp.com/~keithp/talks/usenix2000/smart.html

Comment 5 Corbin Simpson 2011-09-13 12:19:57 UTC

Closing WONTFIX because nobody cares about Xprint. Reopen if you plan to address this bug.

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