X server goes to gray screen

[Mike P]

Hi,

I'm running Debian linux, and I have just upgraded to kernel 2.6.26
from 2.6.18. I have NVidia GeForce Go 7700, and Debian's nvidia-glx
and nvidia-kernel packages never worked for me, and they didn't this
time either. Before this update I always succeeded in downloading a
driver from NVidia's website, compiling the kernel interface, and my X
would always work (until the next kernel upgrade). Not so this time.

I downloaded the 180.22 IA32 driver and compiled the kernel interface,
letting nvidia change my xorg.conf. (I made sure I removed all Debian
nvidia packages with --purge option beforehand). Everything succeeded
as before. However, firing up gdm brings me to X server's gray screen.
This is the screen you usually get by running X yourself, and before
any window manager has started. I see a mouse pointer in the form of
"X" which I can move. But there is no gdm login screen. I tried
running "X :0" myself, and then running a window manager from the
console, also without success. fvwm, icewm, and blackbox all just
"hang". When I switch to virtual terminal with X on it (vt7), I see
the same gray screen.

I also tried to setting the background from a console with

xsetroot -display :0.0 -solid green

After which I get the following message:

xsetroot: ../../src/xcb_lock.c:33: _XCBUnlockDisplay: Assertion
'xcb_get_request_sent(dpy->xcb->connection) == dpy->request' failed.
Aborted.

I tried searching for similar problem but did not find anything. It
seems the X server is able to use nvidia's driver, but then is unable
to paint on the screen. Or it is unable to accept connections for some
reason. I inspected /var/log/Xorg.0.log and didn't find anything
suspicious, there are several (WW) messages about font paths and
"unable to grab event device" for touchpad, none of which I think are
relevant to this problem.

Can anyone help me or point me where I can get some information about
this problem?
I can post more output from the logs, and/or system information if needed.

Thank you.

-Mike