[arch-general] X fails to start with intel card after latestkernel update

[David C. Rankin]

On Friday 16 October 2009 06:11:10 am Guus Snijders wrote:
> 2009/10/16 David C. Rankin <drankinatty at suddenlinkmail.com>:
> > On Thursday 15 October 2009 06:06:15 pm David C. Rankin
> 
> [...]
> 
> >> Maybe a brake-through I managed to get a strace of startx. While the
> >> strace was running, I had a sustained X session with a small xterm in
> >> the top-left corner of the display. I couldn't do anything with it and X
> >> crashed at the end of the strace session, but hopefully the information
> >> I captured will let a archlinux X guru solve the riddle. The strace
> >> output is here:
> >>
> >> http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/bugs/supersff/strace-start
> >>x.t xt
> 
> Though i'm far from being any guru , i did notice the following lines:
> 
> 472 (EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
> 
> 476 FATAL: Module fbcon not found.
> 477 Setting master
> 478 record: RECORD extension enabled at configure time.
> 479 record: This extension is known to be broken, disabling extension now..
> 480 record: http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20500
> 481
> 482 waiting for X server to shut down Dropping master
> 
> (the numbers are the linenumbers).
> 
> Could it be that it's just trying to load the wrong video driver?
> 
> 
> 
> mvg,
>       Guus
> 

Well (yes and no), that's what I thought, but evidently the fbdev error isn't 
the show-stopper. It is expected and normally doesn't cause problems. The 
fbcon is the Biggie!. But that is now some compiled into the kernel magic that 
I'm pretty much at a loss to deal with. I installed xf86-video-fbdev and the 
fbdev error is gone, but as others correctly said, that wasn't the problem.

The only thing I am 100% certain of at this point is there is a problem 
somewhere because the box worked great up until I did the update on 10/8 and I 
haven't seen kde since...

I'm sure it's something simple that just needs to be fixed in the kernel or in 
one of the modules. But I am equally sure that it will take someone much 
smarter than I on the kernel or module at issue to do it :p

-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
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