X freezes (xfce) instantly after kernel rebuild
 

Hi all,

New build of Slackware 13.1 x86_64 in Dell E4310 laptop. The stock install works fine barring a few bits of hardware but after recompiling the kernel X loads and immediately freezes, whence I need to soft power down (I cannot switch back to a console).

On capturing stderr from the command line, when executing startx I get various warnings including:

(polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2368): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed

Can't really tell if the above is relevant... Sorry I can't dump the lot because the machine isn't on the net yet.

There is nothing errorwise in the Xorg log after a reboot. The very last line relates to a video mode with modeline info etc. I have compiled either into the kernel, or as modules everything I think I need though unfortunately I seem to have to load them all manually, so I hav no idea of I've missed something important. This includes all the Intel drivers i915, drm, intel_agp etc.

Googling suggests bugs with polkit and I don't know why gnome has anything to do with my system in any case.

Other thing that I find annoying is that xorg.conf no longer exists and I am relying on the HAL daemon, about which I know nothing. It took me ages to find how to change the X keyboard map - very frustrating. How do I confirm which video driver etc.?

Can anyone suggest any pointers to something obvious?
Many thanks.

not much related to your problem, but You can create a xorg.conf (I suggest running X -configure), at least for the video options, it will be used.

Dumb question : did you "make modules_install" of the recompiled kernel? Because this sounds like a video driver issue. Try staying in a VT, and running X (the command, with no DE/apps running). If it hangs, you know where the problem lies... Having to load modules manually is really strange, is udev running?

Serafean

Hi serafean,

Yeh, you've got a good point... I definitely did a make install of some description :S Haven't got the laptop on me at the mo but I will double check exactly what I did. I have a feeling it is a video driver problem though all the relevant modules are loaded via rc.modules (I always end up having to modify this manually..?).

On the note related to using xorg.conf I have tried and it hangs X before I even get a desktop appearing. Just goes straight to blank screen - I found that out while trying to change the keyboard map with an xorg.conf rather than via the hal policy files. I have not played extensively so I might try again - its just a pain because every failed attempt requires a reboot, which ultimately becomes time consuming.

Thanks anyway - I'll update later.
Cheers,
Ben