X freezes on startup

[viznogoud]

I have an nvidia geforce2 card, running
linux 2.4.19 (gentoo 1.4). My system
freezes whenever I try startx. Also while
switching virtual consoles. Pretty XF86Config is fine, because the kernel on the install cd has no such problems.

I've built and tried kernels (2.4.19) with:
with/without agp,vga,apm,acpi
based on suggestions from docs and ppl.
Nothing has worked so far.

Also lspci does list a few pci devices that
share the same irq: USB, FireWire and VGA.
I have a usb kbd. However, this is the same
for the kernel with no problems as well.


Would appreciate any insight/suggestions.

Thanx..

[viznogoud]

Some progress!
I discovered that the machine was actually
reachable from the network when it freezes.
So I could telnet in and look at the syslogs,
where I found the error message:

pc_keyb: controller locked (0x19)

which was repeated a bunch of times.
btw, my ps2 keyboard, my usb keyboard and my ps2
mouse are all unresponsive.

[viznogoud]

Problem solved!!
It turned out to be a stupid kernel option
that I had turned off:
USB HID raw Device support.

I did have USB HID support (whatever that entails) and Input core keyboard support.

This was causing not only my usb keyboard
but my ps2 keybd and my ps2 mouse to hang,
because pc_keyb in the kernel was reporting
a "controller jam".


Thanx for your help anyway.