Cyril (whom I added to CC) asked me to report the bug here, it's a copy of http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=615959

X configuration / logs are at that URL.

Basically, X crashes with the following backtrace:


#0  0x00007f9ac93a1165 in raise (sig=<value optimized out>) at ../nptl/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/raise.c:64
#1  0x00007f9ac93a3f70 in abort () at abort.c:92
#2  0x00007f9ac93d725b in __libc_message (do_abort=<value optimized out>, fmt=<value optimized out>) at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/libc_fatal.c:189
#3  0x00007f9ac93e0ab6 in malloc_printerr (action=3, str=0x7f9ac9494f70 "malloc(
): memory corruption", ptr=<value optimized out>) at malloc.c:6267
#4  0x00007f9ac93e3b4d in _int_malloc (av=0x7f9ac96cce40, bytes=<value optimized out>) at malloc.c:4396
#5  0x00007f9ac93e4ef2 in __libc_calloc (n=<value optimized out>, elem_size=<value optimized out>) at malloc.c:4066
#6  0x00000000004d1d91 in DeviceFocusEvent (dev=0xf54ad0, type=10, mode=0, detail=2, pWin=0x1409d90) at ../../Xi/exevents.c:1236
#7  0x0000000000492792 in DeviceFocusEvents (pDev=0xf54ad0, from=<value optimized out>, to=<value optimized out>, mode=0) at ../../dix/enterleave.c:1347
#8  DoFocusEvents (pDev=0xf54ad0, from=<value optimized out>, to=<value optimized out>, mode=0) at ../../dix/enterleave.c:1393
#9  0x00000000004418e1 in SetInputFocus (client=<value optimized out>, dev=0xf54ad0, focusID=31457350, revertTo=2 '\002', ctime=<value optimized out>, 
    followOK=<value optimized out>) at ../../dix/events.c:4455
#10 0x0000000000432e19 in Dispatch () at ../../dix/dispatch.c:432


after glibc printed that it detected memory corruption.


This happens when I start libreoffice, abiword or gimp with a document/image to open.

It also happens only when the driver is nouveau, and only when I had my second screen plugged in when starting the X server. Oddly, when I hotplug the second monitor while the X server is running, starting libreoffice or such doesn't crash the X server. When I don't have a second monitor, it also doesn't crash.

Cyril had asked me to try vesa, but that refused to start with a second monitor (just flickering), and as expected doesn't crash when I just have my laptop's screen, no external monitor.

Also note: I have seen the kernel crash due to what appeared to be memory corruption, so I was willing to blame it on my 2.6.38-rc kernel that I was running. However, if I now go back to 2.6.37 (vanilla) the same crashes occur.