XFree86, plus the S3 Savage/MX driver from Tim Probo does not work on my Sony PCG-SR17k. It is not a bug introduced by the redhat version, but both the redhat and compiled-from-source versions suffer from these symptoms: the X server starts, gets a short way (starts to initialize the graphic video mode - blank black screen), and spins, consuming 100% of the cpu, getting nowhere. Kill -9 is required to stop the server, and you can never get any of the text consoles back either via ctrl-altF1-F6 or chvt 1-6. suspend/resume doesn't re-init the gfx back to text mode either. a reboot is required. THe fix is to compile/install 4.0.2. Something in the source is just fixed. This may affect other systems, other video subsystems, but it at least affects mine. In addition, 4.0.2 comes with the S3 Savage/MX (and /IX) driver already with, so no extra work is required, even though adding Tim Probo's driver isn't that hard (copy 3 files to the right /usr/X11R6/modules/... directories) - Kevin Wang, kjw
4.0.2 is currently in Rawhide.