I am working with a fresh install of Slackware 14.1 on a Dell Inspiron 15 laptop. I installed the proprietary drivers from Realtek as per the instructions supplied in the driver zip file. When I run startx, I get a steady (not blinking) "underscore" cursor in the upper left hand corner of the screen. I can't change terminals; I can't ctrl-alt-delete. It's a vegetable. I have to power off the laptop to get it back up and running.

When I don't attempt to run X, and I try to reboot with either reboot or shutdown, the shutdown process will hang, and it will not complete the reboot. (I do not have my laptop with me, so I cannot at the moment give WHERE in the shutdown process it occurs.)

My research has come up mostly empty, so I am hoping someone here can give me a help-out. These look like to be known issues, and they are connected to the audio driver, but I haven't found a solution.

Any and all help: greatly appreciated!

Check the output of 'dmesg' command, may point out some problem.

Remove the proprietary driver and see what happens.