Strange and sudden misbehavior switching to shell window (X)

Strange and sudden misbehavior switching to shell window (X)

[Ray Simard]

Hello.

Something very strange has just started happening, and which I don't
seem mentioned on this list so far.  It is this:

I customarily have at least one, and usually several, Cygwin-X bash
shell windows open constantly. (I was briefly without that ability a
little while ago and felt nearly crippled.)  I've been doing that for
years now.

Over the past several days, when I attempt to switch to one of them with
ALT-TAB or clicking the taskbar, usually nothing changes; the current
window stays up.  Sometimes the X window comes up after a long (maybe
half a minute or so) delay.  If I right-click on the X icon on the tray
and try again, usually several times, or sometimes after just clicking
back and forth among things for a while, it will eventually come up.

Here are some key facts about this:

1. Sometimes, unpredictably, the problem will disappear and things will
be normal for a while.

2. Cygwin installed from scratch about a month ago, with no problems
until now.

3. bash shells in the cmd.com (non-X) windows can be switched to
instantly without exception.  Only the X variety has the problem.

4. Launching a fresh X shell window runs a little show but usually works
OK before too long; I can't swear that it's slower than usual, but it
might be.  (Same with launching the X server.) It's only when switching
to an already-running one that has the problem.

5. Nothing else seems to be out of the ordinary.

6. Uninstalling and reinstalling everything under the X11 subtree
doesn't change anything.


My immediate thoughts are:

1. Malware (Some kind of stealth X11 grabber?)   NAV (which I keep for
historical reasons), sysinternals RootkitRevealer and Spybot S & D don't
turn up anything.  I have sysinternals Process Explorer running all the
time too, and see nothing untoward there, though malware can hide.

2. A failing disk.  I don't think that's very likely, since browsing all
over the disks in the system (there are several), particularly in the
Cygwin intallation, the Windows home volume and temp areas doesn't seem
unusual.  The only way I can think of that a disk would matter here is
if virtual memory were involved, and that would no doubt manifest itself
in other ways as well.


Any ideas? It's getting very tiresome very fast.  Much thanks in advance.

Ray Simard

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R: Strange and sudden misbehavior switching to shell window (X)

[Marco Atzeri]

--- Sab 17/7/10, Ray Simard  ha scritto:


> Hello.
> 
> Something very strange has just started happening, and
> which I don't
> seem mentioned on this list so far.  It is this:
> 
> I customarily have at least one, and usually several,
> Cygwin-X bash
> shell windows open constantly. (I was briefly without that
> ability a
> little while ago and felt nearly crippled.)  I've been
> doing that for
> years now.
> 
> Over the past several days, when I attempt to switch to one
> of them with
> ALT-TAB or clicking the taskbar, usually nothing changes;
> the current
> window stays up.  Sometimes the X window comes up
> after a long (maybe
> half a minute or so) delay.  If I right-click on the X
> icon on the tray
> and try again, usually several times, or sometimes after
> just clicking
> back and forth among things for a while, it will eventually
> come up.

X issues are discussed on cygwin-xfree mailing list

this issue was discussed here
http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-xfree/2010-07/msg00008.html

> 
> Here are some key facts about this:
> 
> 1. Sometimes, unpredictably, the problem will disappear and
> things will
> be normal for a while.
> 
> 2. Cygwin installed from scratch about a month ago, with no
> problems
> until now.
> 
> 3. bash shells in the cmd.com (non-X) windows can be
> switched to
> instantly without exception.  Only the X variety has
> the problem.
> 
> 4. Launching a fresh X shell window runs a little show but
> usually works
> OK before too long; I can't swear that it's slower than
> usual, but it
> might be.  (Same with launching the X server.) It's
> only when switching
> to an already-running one that has the problem.
> 
> 5. Nothing else seems to be out of the ordinary.
> 
> 6. Uninstalling and reinstalling everything under the X11
> subtree
> doesn't change anything.
> 
> 
> My immediate thoughts are:
> 
> 1. Malware (Some kind of stealth X11
> grabber?)   NAV (which I keep for
> historical reasons), sysinternals RootkitRevealer and
> Spybot S & D don't
> turn up anything.  I have sysinternals Process
> Explorer running all the
> time too, and see nothing untoward there, though malware
> can hide.
> 
> 2. A failing disk.  I don't think that's very likely,
> since browsing all
> over the disks in the system (there are several),
> particularly in the
> Cygwin intallation, the Windows home volume and temp areas
> doesn't seem
> unusual.  The only way I can think of that a disk
> would matter here is
> if virtual memory were involved, and that would no doubt
> manifest itself
> in other ways as well.
> 
> 
> Any ideas? It's getting very tiresome very fast.  Much
> thanks in advance.
> 
> Ray Simard
> 

Regards
Marco





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