X on Lombard: progress but still no cigar

[Rory Campbell-Lange <rory@campbell-lange.net>]

Synopsis: I'd like to get Blackbox, or some other nice efficient window
manager running on my Lombard.

I've upgraded to woody on my lombard in the mistaken belief (!) that I
could get X running easily. What I have got is an apt-get conflict with
powerpc-utils and hwclock (part of util-linux); and I can no longer move
between virtual terminals using the function keys.

I have installed Xfree86-common, xlibs, xserver-xfree86 (all version
4.1.0-8)

I have had some messages from Debconf:
    DRI needs a more up-to-date kernel
    
I'm runing a 2.2.19 standard kernel.

I'm using append="keyboard_sends_linux_keycodes=1" in yaboot.conf.
Should I have some other video settings in there for my Lombard TFT?

I dumped Michael Schmitz's XFree86 config file in /etc/X11 as my machine at
no stage ran an X11 setup program. Thanks Michael!

I have set my DEFAULT_WINDOWMANAGER=/usr/bin/blackbox and made a file
.xsessions with the line "exec gnome-session".

NOW if I run startx I get a cursor symbol, which waves around when I play
with the trackpad, and a terminal about one sixth the size of the screen
(with no windowing rendering), into which I can type. The fonts are very
unclear on this, but it looks like X is actually running! I have to go init
1 to get out of this funny screen.

However it appears that no window manager is loading. On LinuxPPC on my
other machine, each home directory is littered with X configuration stuff -
.Xauthority, .Xdefaults, .xauth, .xsession-errors, .gnome, .gnome-desktop,
.gnome-help-browser, .gnome-private, .kde, .kderc, .netscape, .sawmill etc.
Apart from the .xsession file and .Xauthority file, I don't have any of
this stuff for root or my login account. How do I set things up to run
blackbox? 

/var/log/syslog reports that:
    atyfb: monitor sense=62b, maps to mode 6
    Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48
    fb0: ATY Mach64 frame buffer device on /pci@80000000/ATY\
    ,LTProParent@11

Thanks for any help! I promise to document the final configuration (if I
ever get there) on my website.

Rory