Intel 965G / Dell Optiplex 745

[Lieven Buts]

I regret to report that hardware-accelerated 3D on my
Dell Optiplex 745 system (82Q963/Q965 Integrated Graphics 
Controller) is still unreliable. 
Some programs (glxgears, FlightGear, Google Earth) work fine, but 
the molecular visualisation program PyMOL causes a server crash. 
The symptoms are most similar to bugzilla entry #9415. Most
recent log files are at
http://ultr23.vub.ac.be/~lieven/965/Xorg.0.log-i810-02072007
http://ultr23.vub.ac.be/~lieven/965/Xorg.0.log-intel-02072007
http://ultr23.vub.ac.be/~lieven/965/Xorg.0.log-intel-02072007b

(Virtual terminal switching also frequently leads to irreparable 
display corruption (corrupted text on VT1, blank screen or a 
continuously "wrapping around" graphics display). This seems to
be a separate issue, though, because it also happens with the VESA
driver active. It doesn't make debugging any easier, though.)

I have tried various combinations of x86_64 OpenSuSE 10.2, i386 Ubuntu 
7.04 and i386 Ubuntu "Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 2", with different kernels
up to 2.6.22, with the i810 or intel driver, using the packaged versions or 
freshly-built git source up to today, all with the same results. Since the 
problem occurs with both i810_drv and intel_drv, it must be in some common 
component. Disabling acceleration (Option "NoAccel" "TRUE") prevents the
crash, but with the obvious cost of slow software rendering.

Is there any additional information I could try to gather to help
in fixing this issue? I don't know much about X diagnostic tools
beyond glxinfo.

-- 
Lieven Buts
Ultrastructure Laboratory
Vrije Universiteit Brussel