According to Dustin Sallings:
>
>	My machine just completely freezes up.  One time, I was actually able
>to switch consoles and type something before it froze up, but I think I was
>just lucky that time, every other time I've sent it to sleep, it completely
>froze (no network, no console).
>

Me too me too.  I have a Toshiba 2400CT and it does the same when the
apmd decided to put the machine to sleep.  I can resume later but X
loses badly - sometimes I can kill X using CTL-ALT-BACKSPACE and
things work ok from then on but other times the machine is just
locked.  If I invoke the sleep from the command line using zzz then
all comes up ok when I resume (mostly - sometimes I get a cannot
resume but that is relatively rare).  I have a mostly working battery
monitor for X that gives you a simple bar graph of the battery life
read from /dev/apm0 which I hope will give me a bit more warning of a
critical battery condition than the current beep-beep-beep-clunk :-/

>
>	Yes, I'm using pcvt.  The strange thing is that I *can* use xdm if I
>start it later.  I didn't investigate this enough (didn't want to freak out my
>machine too much).
>

Definitely xdm is fighting for the virtual term.  Check your xdm
config and put a vt device past the last vt you are using.  Being able
to run up xdm from the command line but not from boot is a dead give away.

-- 
Brett Lymn, Computer Systems Administrator, British Aerospace Australia
===============================================================================
  And the monks would cry unto them, "Keep the bloody noise down!"
  - Mort, Terry Pratchett.