Bug#616511: xserver-xorg-video-vesa: Blank screen on ATI R580

[Tim <tim-debian@sentinelchicken.org>]

Hi Cyril,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

> as in “X :0”? That's normal, you get a black background and no X
> client by default. You could try:
>   X :0 & sleep 5; DISPLAY=:0 xterm

Ok, its been a long time since I ran X directly, as I normally use
xdm.  There have been so many different issues that have come up with
Xorg in general (window manager config changes, etc) after the last
upgrade that I've had a hard time narrowing down where the problem is.
So let me back up and show you what I'm seeing with xdm:

Currently, with both the radeon driver (with radeon kernel module
loaded) and with vesa (with radeon not loaded) I am able to get to the
xdm login screen.  However, once I log in, xdm reports that X crashes.
See the attached log.

In the case of radeon, when this happens my video is completely toast
and I have to reboot.  With vesa, at least I can recover and try
logging in again or stop xdm.  However, the console font becomes so
big after trying with vesa that it's very hard to use the console.

> Your log indeed looks fine. There's the fbdev driver you could try by
> the way. Or disabling KMS to see if that helps with your radeon
> issue. Is the bug you're having with radeon reported in the BTS?

I did try the fbdev driver with radeon loaded.  I have not tried
disabling KMS yet, but I'm starting to think this may not be directly
related to the video driver.

Let me know what you think.
thanks much,
tim