
The /usr/src/linux was pointing to something wrong which was fixed by the m-a invocation above.
This didn't help though.
Then I started fooling around with Xwrapper.config.
Nothing seemed to help, but the following (non-default) combo produces an extra error:
allowed_users=anybody
needs_root_rights=no
namely (for other computer so no cut'n paste):
xf86enableioports : failed to set IOPL for I/O
I suspect my only recourse is a full install. I'll wait a few weeks until stretch has promoted to stable and then just zap everything. That should also get rid of any rot created over the last 6 years of applying updates.
Back to nouveau again
