I used chvt 1 to switch to virtual console one (I can't use ctrl-alt-F1 due to bug #63795), upon switching back, I get a blank screen followed shortly by X restarting and a new login screen. I see the following in Xorg.0.log.old (WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such file or directory) Fatal server error: EnterVT failed for screen 0 Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.X.Org for help. Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information. *** If unresolved symbols were reported above, they might not *** be the reason for the server aborting. FatalError re-entered, aborting Caught signal 11. Server aborting Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Start X, open a terminal and execute chvt 1 2. Switch back to vt7 3. Actual Results: X crashes and restarts Expected Results: Return to previous X session Portage 2.0.51_rc9 (default-x86-2004.2, gcc-3.3.4, glibc-2.3.4.20040808-r1, 2.6.8-gentoo-r2 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.8-gentoo-r2 i686 Pentium III (Coppermine) Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r5 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1 Binutils: sys-devel/binutils-2.14.90.0.8-r1 Headers: sys-kernel/linux26-headers-2.6.8.1 Libtools: sys-devel/libtool-1.5.2-r5 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium3 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/bind /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium3 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache distlocks fixpackages sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.mirrors.pair.com/ http://gentoo.osuosl.org http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X acpi alsa apm arts artswrappersuid avi berkdb bitmap-fonts cdr crypt cups encode esd f77 foomaticdb gdbm gif gtk gtk2 i8x0 imap imlib java jpeg kde libg++ libwww mad mbox mikmod mmx motif mozilla mpeg ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl oss pam pda pdflib perl png ppds python qt readline samba sdl slang spell sse ssl svga tcltk tcpd tiff truetype usb x86 xml2 xmms xprint xv zlib linguas_en"
FYI, I'm still seeing this issue with 6.8.0-r3 whenever I switch consoles.
This appears to because the system in question is using the i810 drivers. So this is probably a duplicate bug. I couldn't find one that looked close enough to mark it myself. When I get the chance I will load the system using the i915 drivers and compare.
x11-base/xorg-x11-6.8.2-r1 works fine with no changes to the xorg.conf that was being used with xorg-x11-6.7.0-r3