Thinkpad T21. If I exit X, do an init 3 or whatever I am left with a blank console and can only ctrl-alt-delete.

Looked around but not find anything that will fix this. Tried the driver and tips here too: http://www.probo.com/timr/savage40.html

Even tried disabling framebuffer in kernel and using normal vga console as I thought it might be an fb issue similar the the nvidia one, but no. It seems to have no effect.

If anyone has any sort of thinkpad/savage card and managed to find a cure please let me know.

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. 86C270-294 Savage/IX-MV (rev 13)
2.6.21.5 #20 SMP PREEMPT Sun Feb 17 23:44:14 GMT 2008 i686 Pentium III (Coppermine) GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

I was using FreeBSD on my T23 and had exactly same problem with Xorg 6.9. Linux had 7.1 by then already, so I switched to Linux and never had the problem again. This obviously is buggy Xorg Savage driver causing it.
What Xorg version you are using?

6.9 I will see if I can do an upgrade.

Indeed the savage driver from 7.3 fixed it. Thanks for the hint.