Laptop locks up when booting, X server issues?

[cantab]

My laptop locks up when booting Intrepid (actually XUbuntu, but the version shouldn't matter for this problem), around about the time I think it's going to start the Xserver. X has long been the bane of said laptop; in the past I've found it necessary to use vesa or fbdev drivers, rather than the trident drivers.

It's a Toshiba S1800.

xorg.conf says very little

[dibl]

Re: Laptop locks up when booting, X server issues?

Right, the new xorg.conf file is not very important, like it used to be.

Probably it is a driver problem. I'll bet it is not actually locked -- did you try Alt-F1, or Ctrl-Alt-F1 when it stops? Probably you can shut it down with Alt-SysRQ RSEIUB.

I would search Ubuntu Forums on your graphics chip -- is it a SIS Unichrome?

[cantab]

Re: Laptop locks up when booting, X server issues?

I'd tried Ctrl+Alt+F1 (which works at the bootsplash, so I don't have any Fkey issues or suchlike) and it does nothing after the screen goes blank. Magic SysRQ keys also do nothing.

EDIT: Actually seems that it's NOT locked - at least CapsLock still toggles the light. And Magic SysRq DOES work - Alt + SysRQ + O shuts down, I guess other stuff works too. (For some reason Linux is unable to reboot the laptop, hence Alt + SysRq + B does nothing).

However, all along, there's no screen output at all. I've tried Fn+F5 - changes the output between panel and external monitor - and that does nothing either.

If xorg.conf isn't important, then what is? This laptop has always been finicky, the driver most Linux distributions try to use doesn't work. It's got worse over time; three/four years ago most any distro I tried worked just fine.

According to lspci (machine boots fine in recovery mode), the graphics card is a "Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1"