Well, just to follow up on this - I did get the nouveau driver working and the system operational.
- The console still does not work; don't know why but it seems to not get a working resolution. Not sure how to fix that right now. - Starting XDM (KDM) works, and brings up the login. - I am able to SSH in from another system now. Now, this was after I paid a little closer attention to some updates. I resync'd emerge, and got the 3.1.6 linux kernel, which I promptly upgraded to. I also went back and rebuilt the X11 drivers (nouveau, keyboard, mouse, evdev), and paid closer attention to the output of the nouveau driver which immediately started off saying there was an issue with the ACPI_WMI and MXM_WMI interfaces from the kernel - another kernel rebuild after enabling those (it had when I selected the driver I think, but I kept disabling the x86 features which removed them) and then it didn't complain any longer. So, I seem to have a working X environment; but no working console environment for now. I'm guessing I probably need to tell the nouveau frame buffer driver what resolution to use to resolve that one. Thanks all! Ben >________________________________ > From: BRM <[email protected]> >To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> >Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 8:49 PM >Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] System shuts off on boot-up > >> From: BRM <[email protected]> >> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> >> Cc: >> Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 11:50 AM >> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] System shuts off on boot-up >> >>> From: Neil Bothwick <[email protected]> >> >>> On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:57:31 -0800 (PST), BRM wrote: >>>> As the system starts to boot-up, it switches like it is going to start >>>> X - changing a video mode somehow. I don't have xdm in the >> runlevels >>>> yet, so it can't be starting XDM at all.This seems to happen right >>>> after udevd is started, while it waiting on the udev events. The system >>>> then just shuts off (power remain on - fans are still on, but monitors >>>> are off, and nothing responds, etc.) , and it never completes boot-up. >>> >>> Do you have another computer you can use to test if it is alive with ping >>> or SSH? This is occurring around the point at which KMS kicks in, you may >>> be just losing your display but still have an otherwise working system. >> >> >> Yes SSH is enabled; no I can't SSH into it. It seems to be completely dead. >> >>> Try adding nomodeset (or intel.modeset=0) to your kernel boot parameters >>> to disable KMS. >> >> >> Ok. Setting "nomodeset" works. However, if I understand the nouveau >> driver correctly then that won't work for using the nouveau driver as it >> requires KMS. >> >> Digging a little deeper into the nouveau driver and KMS[1], I discovered >> that I >> probably need to have CONFIG_VT_HW_CONSOLE_BINDING set in the kernel config >> as >> well - which it wasn't. So that probably explains what was happening as >> CONFIG_HW_CONSOLE was set, so there may have been two drivers competing for >> fb0. >> >> Now off to build a new kernel... > >Well, that doesn't seem to have been the only problem at least...still don't >know what's doing it. > >Ben > > > > >
