Hi,

Just installed Debian Etch a few days ago, and I'm just having on problem so far. Sometimes, at random, when clicking Desktop -> Log Out USERNAME -> Switch User, the system will lock up. The screen will go black (like it usualy does when switching users), then it will go all white, and have a text field (for typing something in) in the middle of the screen, and that's it. White screen with a text box. And if I try to switch to another console (ctrl+alt+Fx) the screen will start flashing diffrent colors, then stop on a color, or a garbled mess of colors and I'll have to hard shut down my machine. My system is a P4 2.8GHz, 512megs of ram, with an ATI Radeon 9550 (using the fglrx driver). Any help would be much apreiciated.

Etch just a few days ago released an upgrade including an upgrade to the kernel. Did you get that? I've often found that such problems are fixed with a kernel upgrade. You might also want to get an even newer kernel from backports.org. I think they are currently supplying 2.6.20 for Etch.

You are also correct in considering the possibility that it's a fglrx issue. To test that, you might try it with xorg's ati free drivers.