XFree86 hangs - 99% CPU usage

["Doug" <SupportList@dougtheslug.ca>]

Alrighty, I have been googling and fiddling with this issue for a few hours now.  All I can find is other people
complaining about what appears to be an identical problem, but I have yet to find a solution....

I have setup a Debian box, I will describe the setup I did, as it might not exactly be considered common (openmosix)

install from disk (2.4.18bf boot disks) basic system, no tasksel, no dselect
download 2.4.26 kernel from kernel.org
download 2.4.26 openmosix patch and tools from sourceforge.
patch and compile.
setup openmosix and reboot.  (openmosix kernels works, and successfully migrates processes)
- note, I change to testing, since mtop wants glibc 2.3, requiring me to install libc6 from testing
apt-get upgrade (so entire system is 'testing')
tasksel - select X and desktop environments
download nvidia drivers (geforce4mx420) and install, no problems
manually edit a couple lines in XF86.Config-4
reboot

I try to login at the gui console now, and it 'freezes up' within about a minute of logging in.  Sometimes it will
freeze before the login console (kde_greet?) will load.

Reason I say 'freezes up' in quotes, is because I can still access the machine by ssh from another machine.  I can then
mtop and see 'XFree86' at around 99%.  Killing the runaway process sometimes lets the machine recover, and it brings up
another X login, other times it completely becomes unresponsive on the local terminal.  No keyboard, mouse, nothing on
screen.  SSH always works from a remote machine, so I can still reboot cleanly at least.

I can provide a complete XF86Config-4 file if necessary, but I do not suspect that (I am on digest due to large volume
of this list, I will respond asap)

I have tried both gdm and kdm, and they both freeze (dpkg-reconfigure kdm/gdm)

info:
--------------------------------------------
#dpkg -l xserver-xfree86
...
ii  xserver-xfree8  4.1.0-16woody5  the XFree86 X server

#cat /var/log/XFree86.0.log | grep EE
    (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER

#cat /var/log/XFree86.0.log | grep WW
    (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(WW) The directory "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic" does not exist/
(WW) Cannot open APM
(WW) System lacks support for changing MTRRs
(WW) Cannot open APM
--------------------------------------------

any help appreciated
-rp