Blank screen after using X

[Ian Smith]

On Mon, 13 Nov 2006 Christian Walther wrote:

 > I forgot to mention that the machine is an IBM Thinkpad T23 with S3
 > Savage chip, max. resolution is at 1024x768.

Ok, now your first problem becomes one that I've had :)

 > > I'm using FreeBSD 6.x for a couple of month now, and I'm quite happy with it.
 > > Since the beginning I've a problem that I was unable to fix: When I
 > > quit X, or X dies for some reason, the screen remains black. I can
 > > type blindly, starting X again, or doing a shutdown.

I tried quite a few things to fix this on my T23, and wound up having in
/etc/sysctl.conf: 
 hw.acpi.reset_video=0
 hw.syscons.sc_no_suspend_vtswitch=1

and in /boot/loader.conf:
 acpi_ibm_load-"YES"
 hint.psm.0.flags="0x3000"
 vesa_load="YES"

VESA may or may not be relevant; it seemed to help here.  Getting screen
restoration through suspend/resume, from either X or vty, was my goal. 

 > > I searched the net a found an older thread from another FreeBSD-User,
 > > posted to this mailing list. Link to the initial message:
 > > http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=195067+0+archive/2006/freebsd-questions/20060723.freebsd-questions
 > >
 > > It was suggested that this would be a configuration problem, that
 > > something has to be changed in xorg.conf. But there isn't any solution
 > > provided, so I hope that someone here can help me.
 > >
 > > I'll attach Xorg.0.log with the latest crash information (it complains
 > > a segfault at the end), and my current xorg.conf.

Can't help with that.  I'll look through these later; if your conf was
autodetected it's a bit different to mine.  I just added stuff from a
config given on the FLCL, and may have some refresh rates and such non
optimal, but it's been working ok on 6.1-R here.

Hope the above helps with the blank screen problem.  Caveat: my T23's
still running an ancient BIOS and EC that can't be updated until I find
an external USB floppy drive - or go mad and install Windows or freedos?
to get that done - which might also be relevant.

Cheers, Ian