On Sunday 06 December 2009 22:23:32 and regarding:
I had a fairly rude surprise when I pulled the testing updates tonight. The install of kernel26-2.6.32-1-x86_64 left my toshiba 205d laptop unbootable. The boot process would start as usual but then get to a point just after it had started X and lock. There was no way to ctrl+f1 to break out of X and the only solution was to reboot.
Thomas, Gabriel: Thank you for the solution in the thread "[arch-general] Kernel 2.6.32 and Radeon KMS". I too was bitten by the bug. The damning part of this bug is that for users with MODULES="radeon" configured in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, the bug hits just as the radeon kernel module is loaded by the initramfs 'which clears the screen' leaving you staring at a blank locked computer. Not much info to debug since no logging has been activated at the time. To fix the problem, as specified in the thread, just restore etc/mkinitcpio.conf to its original state by removing/commenting out the MODULES="radeon" line: # MODULES # The following modules are loaded before any boot hooks are # run. Advanced users may wish to specify all system modules # in this array. For instance: # MODULES="piix ide_disk reiserfs" #MODULES="radeon" MODULES="" and then add radeon to the modules line in /etc/rc.conf: MODULES=(radeon ath5k vboxdrv !pcspkr) Then upgrade the kernel and all will be good. Thanks again for you guys help! -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com