startx flashes nvidia logo then goes to black screen

[yesweclam]

Hello!

I'm new to Gentoo; previously I used Arch and Ubuntu (so I have a bit of linux experience) and I wanted a try a source-based distribution.

I'm running Gentoo on my eee pc 1015pn (Intel Atom, Nvidia Ion) and so far I've managed to get most things working. (Configuring and compiling the kernel was pretty neat!) The only problem is that I can't get X to work.

I've followed the Gentoo Nvidia guide (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml) and xorg server guide (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml) and emerged xorg-server with VIDEO_CARDS='nvidia' in my /etc/portage/make.conf. I've also disabled the in-kernel nvidia drivers. I installed twm and xterm, and when I tried starting X I got a "no screens found" error. I then ran nvidia- xconfig which generated an xorg.conf file.

Now when I run startx, the Nvidia logo flashes for a half second and then I get a black screen with no backlight. I tried deleting parts of the auto-generated xorg.conf (http://pastebin.com/AwnQ6Yrf) and the only part that makes a difference is the "Device" section. I get the "no screens found" error if that's not set to "nvidia" (and the log shows that the nvidia driver is not loaded). I'm not sure how to solve the problem at this point. I was wondering if any of you have had any experience with similar problems or if you could point me to another post that deals with this issue (I tried searching but couldn't find anything).

Also my Xorg.log (http://pastebin.com/Xp3eQ8uJ) doesn't seem to have any errors, except for a "failing to load dbi" error but I think that's supposed to be there.

Any help would be appreciated!

[NeddySeagoon]

yesweclam,

Welcome to Gentoo.

The only piece of the xorg.conf you need is the Device section, as xorg does not attempt to load binary blobs unless its told to.

[yesweclam]

Thank you!

I got it working. I feel pretty stupid; it was working all along, I just didn't have anything in my .xinitrc except "exec twm" >_<

For some reason I thought it would start some xterms automatically or at least show a mouse.

The reason X terminated successfully was that I went back to tty1 and ^C'd it.

Unrelated, but when playing with my laptop's external video switch I found some strange behavior. In Grub2's OS selection screen, it effectively switches monitors. In Gentoo it doesn't switch monitors. However, if I switch screens in Grub, Gentoo will continue on that screen...unless I startx. Then it will switch back to my laptop screen no matter what and stay there. My Ubuntu 11.04 install does the same thing...the nvidia drivers recognize the other screen, but no matter what I do, will not display anything on that screen. Anyway, that's another issue for another time.

Now on to installing the Haskell platform and Xmonad. I'm excited for Gentoo!

Thanks again!