Unable to start Mate DE from X

Question

So here's a weird problem i've been having since my recent attempt at migrating from Ubuntu to Arch Linux.
I've installed Mate DE but almost never successfully run it on first try. What usually happens is whether I configure it to load on boot according to the wiki, or load it manually using startx, the desktop wallpaper will load with a grey bar on top, but nothing else would load. I couldn't open xterm with the keyboard shortcut, or Ctrl-Alt-Del out of it.
What i'll do at this point is to switch to another TTY console, log in, and pkill mate-panel and X (or mate-panel will continue running at 100% CPU load and eventually i'll have to do a hard restart when the system runs out of memory). I'll startx again, and sometimes mate loads fine, sometimes it doesn't. I've been with Arch for less than a week and really like it so far, except for this little issue. Please let me know if there are any other log files i can provide that may help. Thanks!
uname -a
Linux arch 3.10.6-2-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Aug 13 09:47:01 CEST 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux
grep '(WW)' /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[ 229.328] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for fglrx
[ 229.331] (WW) fglrx: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:0@2:0:1) found
[ 229.366] (WW) fglrx(0): board is an unknown third party board, chipset is supported
[ 229.763] (WW) fglrx(0): Option "VendorName" is not used
[ 229.763] (WW) fglrx(0): Option "ModelName" is not used
fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670
OpenGL version string: 3.3.11672 Compatibility Profile Context FireGL
./xinitrc
#!/bin/sh
userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap
# merge in defaults and keymaps
if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi
if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi
if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then
xrdb -merge "$userresources"
fi
if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then
xmodmap "$usermodmap"
fi
# start some nice programs
if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ] ; then
for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/* ; do
[ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
done
unset f
fi
exec mate-session
P.S.
mate-session --version
mate-session 1.6.1
P.P.S
Thread subject updated for clarity
Last edited by cain (2013-08-26 03:33:27)

Answer 1

Here is what I have installed, if it's any use:
mate/libmatekbd 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/libmatekeyring 1.6.0-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/libmateweather 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/libmatewnck 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-applets 1.6.1-1 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-backgrounds 1.6.0-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-common 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-control-center 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-desktop 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-dialogs 1.6.0-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-doc-utils 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-document-viewer 1.6.1-1 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-file-archiver 1.6.0-2 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-file-manager 1.6.2-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-file-manager-sendto 1.6.0-1 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-file-manager-share 1.6.0-1 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-icon-theme 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-image-viewer 1.6.1-1 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-keyring 1.6.0-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-media 1.6.0-1 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-menu-editor 1.6.0-1 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-menus 1.6.0-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-notification-daemon 1.6.0-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-panel 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-polkit 1.6.0-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-power-manager 1.6.2-1 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-screensaver 1.6.1-1 [installed]
mate/mate-session-manager 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-settings-daemon 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-system-monitor 1.6.1-1 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-terminal 1.6.1-1 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-text-editor 1.6.0-1 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-themes 1.6.1-1 (mate) [installed]
mate/mate-utils 1.6.0-5 (mate-extras) [installed]
mate/mate-window-manager 1.6.2-1 (mate) [installed]