The i915 driver snapshot from freedesktop.org fixed my problems with the video on my acer aspire 1690. It even allows the graphical boot (aka rhgb) to function again.

But I still can't use the dvd player. I still get lots of errors related to accessing hdb in /var/log/messages. I'll have to dig into that one later.

Just wish I could more easily get the ACPI thing fixed so I could keep an eye on battery levels. That's a longer term project – maybe something for the weekend.