I just tried to change my keyboard layout in Gentoo64. I noticed that my xorg.conf file was in /root/xorg.conf.new, so I moved it to /etc/X11/xorg.conf, where it's supposed to be and added in the keyboard section something to the effect of,

Option "XkbLayout" "us,cf"

Anyway, I rebooted and X wouldn't start. So then I did X -configure, successfully, but it couldn't find the mouse. This happened last time too. Then I did kdm.... nothing then xdm. The screen blanked, flicked, blanked, repeated a few times, and then brought be back to a terminal. Ok, so I found out that /dev/mouse was hiding as /dev/psaux. Who would have guessed. Anyway, after finding this out, I changed it, and started X. Now... I saw a blank screen, waited a while, and nothing happened. Now I feel stupid, staring at a black screen for minutes on end, my parents probably think I'm crazy. Anyway, I realized that X is starting, it's just not showing up!!!! I tried plugging a monitor, because this is a laptop, but my monitor is stupid and gave my a VGA mode not supported message. However, I even logged into KDE blind, and I know I got in because the little hard drive light started blinking like crazy when I typed in my password followed by enter. Anyway, the drive it wants to use is vga, however I have an Ati card. Can that be right? Please let me know if you can help me.

Thanks,
-Peter

post your xorg.conf

also switch the /dev/mouse to /dev/input/mice, I find that one better.

I just switched to Fedora 64. I think I'm going to install gentoo underneith it.

Thanks though,
-Peter

Installing another distribution because of a problem does not fix anything. Usually, it makes it worst and you will not learn how to fix them.

A PS/2 mouse will be at /dev/psaux. If PS/2 mouse support is compiled as a module, you will need to make sure psmouse is loaded.

Setting the video driver to vga is ok and this is the default for Gentoo. You can change it to radeon (I think). I suggest using the utility gtf to create some modelines. Then copy the modelines to xorg.conf in the monitor section.

Did you check the logs in /var/log. They will give you details what is happening.

BTW, for ease of use try changing the ATI card to a nVidia video card. nVidia video cards are easier to install and to use its features.

mostdef go nvidia.

also I have a PS/2 mouse and i use /dev/input/mice instead of the /dev/psaux. What is the differences?

See, my problem is that this is a laptop, little to no hardware config. Also I have school to worry about. However, didn't there used to be an x -setup utility for just this kind of thing? I thought there was some "magic word" that you could type in that would make X ask you a bunch of questions to create a config file. Does it still exist?

Thanks,
-Peter

P.S. Has there been anything strange going on with gentoo 64 kernel recently? I just tried to fresh install last night and the kernel was looking for a directory that wasn't there. Strange...