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This happens when running Gentoo LiveCDs and LiveCDs I personally have built
with catalyst:

The video driver is detected by hwsetup and put in /etc/sysconfig/gentoo.
However, hwsetup seems to detect mutiple possible video drivers. I've got this
for example:

[...]
XMODULE="i810"
[...]
XMODULE="vesa"
[...]

When /etc/sysconfig/gentoo is sourced by the mkxf86config script later, XMODULE
will be "vesa" instead of "i810" becuase of their order. While, vesa works, the
i810 is superior (e.g. allows my unusual widescreen resolution on my laptop).
mkxf86config should try to get XMODULE (and possibly other variables) in some
better way than simply sourcing /etc/sysconfig/gentoo, e.g. scanning it and
choosing the "best" alternatives in some intelligent way (e.g. choosing
anything non-vesa before vesa).

Of course, if one is lucky and for whatever reason get XMODULE="i810" (in my
case) after XMODULE="vesa", it works, but a deterministic behaviour is needed.

This is with x11-misc/mkxf86config-0.9.9 and sys-apps/hwsetup-1.2.

BTW, is mkxf86config really a "gentoo project" as indicated by the ebuild
(homepage = gentoo.org)? I couldn't for my life find the sources in the gentoo
cvs which I would expect if that was the case. Perhaps this is not a gentoo
problem, but upstream (who ever that would be)?

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. boot a Gentoo LiveCD (or one generated by catalyst)
2. have bad luch with the order hwsetup enters XMODULE into
/etc/sysconfig/gentoo
3. check that the video driver in xorg.conf is set to vesa instead of the
better alternative

I believe this happens when there are multiple video cards detected. Can you
post your lspci output?

Created an attachment (id=146733) [details]
lspci ouput of my effected Dell Latitude X1 laptop

Sure. This is on a Dell Latitude X1 laptop.

So are both the VGA compatible controller and Display controller counted as
video cards by hwsetup? Also included very verbose lspci output for these at
the bottom of the attached file in case it helps.

Yes, hwsetup is detecting both of them. I'm betting you'd get 2 Device sections
in your xorg.conf if you ran 'X -configure'.

I'm not sure we want to put in a workaround for this. This is a bit of "weird"
situation. A workaround for something like this is bound to do the wrong thing
in some circumstances. The worst that happens now is that you only get vesa
video on the LiveCD.

Yes, I completely understand. I'd say that this is an up-stream hwsetup issue
if anything.

X -configure produced a xorg.conf which only has one device section for video
card, and that one uses the driver "intel", not "vesa". This driver seems to
work just as well as "i810" (I get the correct wide-screen resolution etc). The
resulting xorg.conf actually works very well (although it misses a DRI
section), so perhaps it is time to investigate whether mkxf86config is needed
at all any longer?  

Can you give the output of /etc/sysconfig/xserver please?  I'd like to see what
hwsetup *thinks* it is detecting.

Created an attachment (id=148500) [details]
contents of /etc/sysconfig/{gentoo,xserver}

Right. Also included /etc/sysconfig/gentoo so you can see the order of what it
detects more clearly than my earlier explanation (should probably have included
this in the first place).