[arch-general] Linux 3.9.2-1-ARCH cures blank screen

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Mon, 13 May 2013 00:53:17 +0200, Whiskers <catwheezel at operamail.com>  
wrote:
> The blank screen I first reported in January with Linux-3.7.3-1-i686  
> seems
> to have been cured by the latest update to Linux-3.9.2-1-i686 (and/or
> other updates that have happened at the same time).  (Using the nouveau
> graphics driver).
>
> But the desktop and mouse settings in XFCe4 aren't all working.

Are you sure that this is caused by the kernel and/or graphics driver? I'm  
a Xfce only user for a long time and experience it as a PITA. If I would  
know another DE, that would be similar near to the wanted work flow and  
that would be less odd, I would switch the DE.

It's "normal" that lot of options are broken and reporting them to  
upstream as a bug, only does lead to flame.

However, what exactly doesn't work? The default buttons and wheel settings  
should work as expected. Even while there's lot of very bad code for  
desktop stuff, a lot of, if not all default settings should work as  
expected. Customized settings at least often need to be manually restored  
after package updates.

The latest updates for Xfce on Arch where annoying, I e.g. had to switch  
 from a .svg to a .png for the menu icon, because the .svg I used for a  
long time, can't be used anymore. But there are also very serious issues,  
I for example had to remove gvfs, because it does make external drives  
spin down and up again and again. The menu is a complete mess and it can't  
be fixed with Alacarte or other menu editors, it only can be done without  
such a tool.

FWIW, I'm using the open source ATI and the kernel-rt from AUR on 64 bit  
architecture. Sometimes I use a NVIDIA on the same machine and experienced  
the nouveau driver as better working, unfortunately the graphics can have  
impact to real-time audio abilities so I sometimes prefer to use an ATI.