This is all a bit beyond me, Ray. But, taking your advice again, I looked in /etc/modules - nothing there referring to usb. Then, I looked in /etc/rc2.d: there, I found S15usbmgr which I changed to NoS15usbmgr. Rebooted with the 2.6.5 kernel, issued startx - same system hang requiring a telnet session to reboot the machine. Next, I looked in rcS.d. Nothing about usb in there, but I found something relating to another package I recently installed - hotplug.
This is probably unrelated to your problem, but the apt-cache listing for hotplug claims that it conflicts with (and is a replacement for) usbmgr. If you are trying to use both in init scripts, the results could be ... well, unpredictable.
So, I changed S40hotplug to NoS40hotplug. Rebooted, issued startx and - WALLA! - normal X and gui startup! I'm not quite sure where to go from here, apart from doing some more testing to make sure the hotplug thing is the culprit (changing NoS15usbmgr back to S15usbmgr).
This is a symlink to a script (in /etc/init.d). The next step (after the one you suggest) is to read the script and see what it does ... most likely, what kernel module(s) it installs. That should isolate the conflicting item (daemon, kernel module, or whatever).
I looked at the xfree log in /var/log that you mentioned, but could not identify any significant problem areas - not that my xfree log interpretation skills are much to speak of.
From your earlier descriptions, it sounds like X is being stalled somewhere in its initialization stage. What is the last thing X reports doing in the log?
Anyway, while I do a bit more experimentation, let me just ask what you think of upgrading X on this system to the latest 4.3? I'd like to update it anyway. Do you think it holds any potential for resolving this problem, or it could possibly interfere with any further troubleshooting?
Especially since you are running Sid (Debian unstable), I always favor upgrading to current versions when you are having trouble. Transient problems in Sid packages are not all that rare -- that's in part WHY it's called "unstable" -- so you just about always want to make sure a problem is not just the result of a glitch in a package that has been fixed. In fact, I'd go so far as to recommend a full upgrade or dist-upgrade, not just upgrading to the current version of xserver-xfree86 (and any dependencies it automatically upgrades).
Unless you have one of the (extremely rare) cards that XFree86 occasionally drops support for, there is no downside to upgrading your X packages that I can think of.
Similarly, a 2.6.6 kernel is now available for Sid. While I'm not too wild about loading a new kernel (I run vmware and so will have to compile new modules for it if I upgrade the kernel), I would consider it if it held some potential for resolving the current display problem. Any advice on that?
No, none. As I said previously, I'm still using 2.4.something myself. You need advice from someone else, someone current with 2.6.x kernels.
Thanks so much for your input: at least I have a vague idea now of the problem's nature.
[old stuff deleted]
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
