booting kernel with radeon.modeset=0 fixes the crash.

Please attach your xorg log and dmesg output.  Also what kernel and driver versions are you running?

This is most likely a 3D driver bug.

[fabio@gamma ~]$ uname -a 
Linux gamma 2.6.35-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Aug 20 22:49:24 CEST 2010 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux


xorg.conf: http://sprunge.us/WKda

dmesg: http://sprunge.us/KAGh

Xorg.0.log: http://sprunge.us/hcKb



[root@gamma ~]# X -version

This is a pre-release version of the X server from The X.Org Foundation.
It is not supported in any way.
Bugs may be filed in the bugzilla at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/.
Select the "xorg" product for bugs you find in this release.
Before reporting bugs in pre-release versions please check the
latest version in the X.Org Foundation git repository.
See http://wiki.x.org/wiki/GitPage for git access instructions.

X.Org X Server 1.8.1.902 (1.8.2 RC 2)
Release Date: 2010-06-21
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.34-ARCH x86_64 
Current Operating System: Linux gamma 2.6.35-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Aug 20 22:49:24 CEST 2010 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/d3e811ea-3d79-4380-9a15-7f60474ef034 ro resume=/dev/sda6 quiet
Build Date: 21 June 2010  12:01:49PM
 
Current version of pixman: 0.18.4
        Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
        to make sure that you have the latest version.

I'm not sure this bug is relative to the radeon video driver because somebody reported a similar bug with a different video card:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=592047

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=592047#c24

Guys, would you please explain me how to troubleshoot this one? 

I do have programming knowledge but I need guidance on how to debug this one.

How can I check if this is a radeon bug or kicad bug or what else???

You may want to try the r300 gallium driver that should be more stable e.g. installing the mesa packages from the xorg-edgers ppa:
https://edge.launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

The kernel is rejecting your command stream as invalid.  The command stream is the stream of register writes produced by the 3D driver based on the GL state.  The bug is either in the drm command checker in the kernel or in the mesa 3D driver.  The error in your dmesg is saying that the Z buffer is enabled in the command stream, but that there is no buffer associated with it.  I would guess perhaps ZB_CNTL (0x4F00) is not getting emitted as part of the command stream.

@Fabio Pedretti I'm running Archlinux so I'm unable to use the ppa .. how can I test it with my current config? (see my logs above for software versions)

@Alex ok.. how can I check if this is the case?

> @Fabio Pedretti I'm running Archlinux so I'm unable to use the ppa .. how can I
> test it with my current config? (see my logs above for software versions)

I think you used Ubuntu since you referenced the Ubuntu bug. You should then compile mesa 7.9 from source and replace your r300_dri.so with the new one compiled found in lib/gallium/r300_dri.so.

I did what Fabio suggested above. I'm not sure on how to verify that I'm actually running the gallium driver. This is my Xorg log: http://sprunge.us/ZYiK

However, running with the gallium driver I now get this:

[fabio@gamma ~]$ pcbnew 
The program 'pcbnew' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadDrawable (invalid Pixmap or Window parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 88834 error_code 9 request_code 136 minor_code 8)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

Any idea? How can I break on the gdk_x_error() function?

To see which mesa driver you are using try:
glxinfo | grep OpenGL

(In reply to comment #13)
> To see which mesa driver you are using try:
> glxinfo | grep OpenGL

[fabio@gamma ~]$ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org R300 Project
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on RV530
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 7.9
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20
OpenGL extensions:
[fabio@gamma ~]$

Looks correct to me.

(In reply to comment #13)
> To see which mesa driver you are using try:
> glxinfo | grep OpenGL

Here is mine, I get the same crash

[alain@portable ~]$ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: DRI R300 Project
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R300 (RV515 7210) 20090101  TCL DRI2
OpenGL version string: 1.5 Mesa 7.7.1-DEVEL
OpenGL extensions:

(In reply to comment #10)
> @Alex ok.. how can I check if this is the case?

enable state debugging and make sure the zs and zb state atoms are getting emitted.  See radeon_print_state_atom() in radeon_common.c for more info.

Note that the gallium driver only work with KMS (with radeon.modeset=0 it doesn't work).

Still an issue with more recent driver ?

(In reply to comment #18)
> Still an issue with more recent driver ?

Nope. This was actually a bug in the program. 
However only some video drivers was letting this crash.

For more info see: https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/582997
The fix has been committed in rev 2767 if you guys are interested in what was wrong.

Thanks.