Virtual consoles corrupted after starting Xorg

T

threeRd

I made the jump from FreeBSD 7.3 to 8.1 a couple of weeks ago and I haven't been able to sort out this problem: whenever I start X, it destroys all my virtual consoles. When I do Ctrl+Alt+F1, the text mode is corrupted with mostly vertical lines. If I exit X, the problem persists. I can still type blind here, I've been able to restart X or restart the machine from the command line, despite the fact I can't make out what I'm typing.

I'm at work right now, so I can't post my xorg.conf, but there wasn't a significant difference between my 7.3 and 8.1 files. I am using the "nv" driver. I'm running an old RIVA TNT card, and I compiled the x11/nvidia-driver-71xx port, but it didn't work, and after googling the problem, I found a site that led me to believe that the issue was code that would never be updated, so I've never been able to run the "nvidia" driver.

Its not a major issue since I can run terminals in X, but this is a server and I usually don't run X unless its necessary. Any suggestions?
 
Don't run X.
or
Run remote X sessions so the server video card is not a problem.
or
Use motherboard video if available.
or
Replace the video card with something else, preferably not nVidia. Middling old SIS cards work okay, or I've used Radeon 7000ve in PCI or AGP slots.
 
Did you recompile all of your 7.x ports under 8.x, or are you using a COMPAT7 layer? If you haven't recompiled your ports, I suggest you do so.
 
Wow, I am so sorry I didn't respond to these prompt replies. My first post got no responses at all. Unfortunately, I haven't been in the same room with my FreeBSD machine since I posted this.

The hardware is a Dell Optiplex GX110 that I bought off eBay for $35. The best I could get out of the native video card was 800x600. I could do 1024x768, but only with 256 colors. I bought the Riva TNT off eBay too--not willing to pump too much money into a $35 machine. Seeing its such a cheap machine this wouldn't be a big deal, except for the fact that it worked fine before I upgraded. There has to be a way to make this work. I could never force my inner geek to accept a statement like "Don't run X."

Because of some bad experiences with upgrading Fedora and Ubuntu, I now always perform clean installs. I also took this opportunity to install a different hard drive, so vestiges of 7.3 are not an issue.

I'll make some time when I get home this afternoon to try the commands jb_fvwm2 mentioned.
 
Its taken me this long to get to try out the stty commands. They didn't work. Even when I killed X and tried to restore terminal settings, the screen was still corrupted. I was still able to startx again though.
 
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