On making a proper kernel for gnome-shell

[Jonathan Corbet]

So I'm still trying to find my way into this gnome-shell 3D world.  In the
process, I'm running into display corruption on my Intel Q35-based
system.  I'd like to try to track it down; in particular, I'd like to
figure out if the problem exists in the mainline kernel so I can report it
right to the source, preferably with a bisection.

My problem: I can't build a kernel which consents to run gnome-shell.
What I get (on typing "gnome-shell --replace") is:

failed to create drawable
Window manager error: Unable to initialize Clutter.

As far as I can tell, my kernel configuration is the same as Fedora's for
the relevant options - i915, KMS by default, etc.  But the Fedora kernel
works, mine does not.

Other interesting observations:

 - The Xorg.0.log output appears to be identical in both cases.

 - The glxgears benchmark (known to be the definitive measure of 3D
   performance :) runs ten times faster on my custom kernel than on the
   Fedora kernel.  On my kernel, I don't get the "using vertical sync"
   message.

So I'm mystified.  Any ideas?  Might there be some magic in the Fedora
initrd that I'm missing (I've never used initrd on my systems)?

Thanks,

jon