This problem is becoming a real pain in the butt to track down and fix.
This page seems to verify my i915 problem is shared by others:
http://wiki.debian.org/KernelModesetting
Unfortunately recompiling the kernel with:
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CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_AGP=y
CONFIG_AGP_INTEL=y
CONFIG_DRM=y
CONFIG_DRM_I915=y
(building them in as opposed to being modules as I had them previously)
made absolutely no difference.
I still get the static cursor in the upper left of the screen, and have to Alt-SysRq-K one or more times to kill the X-Server until it finally decides to start in a usable state (or until it locks up and I have to hard boot it).
This section of the page explains exactly my problem:
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vbetool
Running this will cause X to fail to start up (black screen except for a static cursor at the top left, can't switch vt), and may cause other problems. (This is a kernel bug.) To avoid this, set SAVE_VBE_STATE=false in /etc/default/acpi-support.
I noticed I didn't
have an /etc/default/acpi-support file.
so I installed the package ACPI-SUPPORT , then added SAVE_VBE_STATE=false to /etc/defualt/acpi-support and rebooted.
BIG MISTAKE! I booted into a never-ending blank black screen, and ended up having to boot into recovery mode where I immediately apt-get --pure remove acpi-support.
Rebooted and X started with no problems, but that would happen on occasion with the modular kernels too. Next time I get that annoying cursor in the upper left of my screen, the only things I can think to do are:
1. Add
SAVE_VBE_STATE=false to
/etc/defualt/acpid (unless someone can tell me this is a BAD idea. Just guessing but is acpi-support now depreciated in favor of acpid?)
2. Disable KMS by setting
i915 modeset=0 in
/etc/modprobe.d/i915-kms.conf
3. Really grasping at straws here, but removing vbetool? (as the wiki said
running vbetool causes X to lock up)
Other than that I'm fresh out of ideas. Anyone else familiar with this kind of thing that can assist me?