new kernel -> no 3d, help!

[zfc-tinkerer]

I just recompiled my kernel, and now although the 3d hardware accel still works great when I boot into the old kernel, it won't work in the new kernel. I don't think I changed anything that should affect the 3d

my hardware:
ati M7 (basically a radeon 7500) with 64 megs onboard video memory
Intel motherboard of some kind

What I changed in the new kernel:
a few usb and mouse settings (configuring for a usb mouse)

My general video settings:
I have agp_gart as a module, and used emerge xfree-drm, but don't have the drm (or is it called dri there) in the kernel included.

I've tried reemerging xfree-drm and running opengl-update xfree, but neither seems to help. I also don't see how I could have made a change that messes things up in my new kernel, but not in the old. Also, the usb mouse also works in the old kernel now, because compiling the new kernel created the modules. I could just use the old kernel, until I need to do any kind of update. What happened here? How could changing usb and mouse settings have messed up my video settings? And my computer was working so well, too!

[djprotoss]

what modules are loaded when you boot into each of the different kernels? (i.e. whats the results of lsmod under each one?)
And what kernel are you runnning?

[zfc-tinkerer]

lsmod gives the following:
old kernel, not under x:
usbcore, ntfs, hid, mousedev,input,8139too(network card), mii

new kernel, not under x: same as old

old, in x:
add agpgart and radeon to above list

new, in x:
don't add anything

when I try to insmod agpgart in the new kernel, I get a crash if in x, and error (input/output error) otherwise. right after this insmod, dmesg gives the version number (.99), memory to use (439M), chipset (Intel i845), aperture(64M@0xa0000000), and then "unable to get minor:175"
(this statement about minor is the only way this differs from a insmod on the old kernel, which gives no errors)

when starting x or running glxinfo or glxgears in the new kernel, I get an error about InitDriver and glx (sorry, in the new kernel right now, can't get the exact text)

on a possibly related note, the new kernel gives an error while booting:
can't locate module nls-iso1559-1 (or something like this). The new kernel does not do this.

I'm pretty sure after seeing this that the problem is that agpgart won't load, but why?

[djprotoss]

ok,
(1) have you tried insmodding radeon?
(2) try recompiling the kernel with agpart compilied into the kernel
(3) nls-iso-1559-1 is a codepage. for some reason the kernels don't always default to building any codepage at all, although (apart from it complaining at the start) I haven't seen any ill effects of forgetting to build them, and conflicting with the AGP seems unlikely. If you do (2) above, it would probably be worth trying though...