Let me try and get this straight:
1) Booting with i915.modeset=0 *does* improve things - the system frequently hits a “hardware wedged” error, but is still responsive to ssh.
2) Without i915.modeset=0 the system will frequently freeze, and fail to respond to ssh.
3) Disabling DRI makes the system freeze less, but it will still freeze.
Let me try and get this straight:
1) Booting with i915.modeset=0 *does* improve things - the system frequently hits a “hardware wedged” error, but is still responsive to ssh.
2) Without i915.modeset=0 the system will frequently freeze, and fail to respond to ssh.
3) Disabling DRI makes the system freeze less, but it will still freeze.
Have I misinterpreted any part of that?