This issue is caused by pango.
When booting up image with nographic mode, I can get the following error messages in console:
#############
(matchbox-panel:417): Pango-CRITICAL **: No modules found:
No builtin or dynamically loaded modules were found.
PangoFc will not work correctly.
This probably means there was an error in the creation of:
  '/etc/pango/pango.modules'
You should create this file by running:
  pango-querymodules > '/etc/pango/pango.modules'

(matchbox-panel:417): Pango-WARNING **: failed to choose a font, expect ugly output. engine-type='PangoRenderFc', script='common'
Invalid XSETTINGS property (read off end)
Invalid XSETTINGS property (read off end)

(matchbox-desktop:416): Pango-CRITICAL **: No modules found:
No builtin or dynamically loaded modules were found.
PangoFc will not work correctly.
This probably means there was an error in the creation of:
  '/etc/pango/pango.modules'
You should create this file by running:
  pango-querymodules > '/etc/pango/pango.modules'

(matchbox-desktop:416): Pango-WARNING **: failed to choose a font, expect ugly output. engine-type='PangoRenderFc', script='latin'

(matchbox-desktop:416): Pango-WARNING **: failed to choose a font, expect ugly output. engine-type='PangoRenderFc', script='common'
############

The /etc/pango/pango.modules file exists but is empty:
############## 
root@qemuppc:~# ls /etc/pango/pango.modules 
/etc/pango/pango.modules
root@qemuppc:~# cat /etc/pango/pango.modules  
root@qemuppc:~#
##############

I run the following command to re-generate this file:
#################
root@qemuppc:~# pango-querymodules > '/etc/pango/pango.modules' 
root@qemuppc:~# cat /etc/pango/pango.modules 
# Pango Modules file
# Automatically generated file, do not edit
#
# ModulesPath = /usr/lib/pango/1.8.0/modules
#
/usr/lib/pango/1.8.0/modules/pango-basic-fc.so BasicScriptEngineFc PangoEngineShape PangoRenderFc common:
##################

After reboot, this issue disappears.

I took the 20130125-1 core-image-sato powerpc nightly from autobuilder and the image booted just fine.

I also compiled core-image-sato from latest (f0e02dc132c301c0a33a3a8cecddc867b1f0a70e) and it also booted just fine.

Since there is no log provided, I cannot really tell what happened...

(In reply to comment #2)
> I took the 20130125-1 core-image-sato powerpc nightly from autobuilder and
> the image booted just fine.
> 
> I also compiled core-image-sato from latest
> (f0e02dc132c301c0a33a3a8cecddc867b1f0a70e) and it also booted just fine.
> 
> Since there is no log provided, I cannot really tell what happened...

also no such error when build the qemuppc sato-sdk image (git commit: 8d6e55bf2192524bda84138b5356a2791adbbe61), and copy "/etc/pango/pango.modules" from the image to the sato-sdk images of nightly build 20130122-2 and reboot , the desktop display normally.below the contents of the file "/etc/pango/pango.modules" :

# Pango Modules file
# Automatically generated file, do not edit
#
/usr/lib/pango/1.8.0/modules/pango-basic-fc.so BasicScriptEngineFc PangoEngineShape PangoRenderFc common:

(In reply to comment #2)
> I took the 20130125-1 core-image-sato powerpc nightly from autobuilder and
> the image booted just fine.
> 
> I also compiled core-image-sato from latest
> (f0e02dc132c301c0a33a3a8cecddc867b1f0a70e) and it also booted just fine.
> 
> Since there is no log provided, I cannot really tell what happened...

The 20130125-1 build is against master_under_test branch:
#################
meta-yocto        = "stage/master_under_test:e3914a59b7a240861911153bd761b333b638a4a1"
meta-qt3          = "master:06e2fe600de962cdba53c23de1207501439a9c9f"
meta-yocto-bsp    = "stage/master_under_test:e3914a59b7a240861911153bd761b333b638a4a1"
##################

The 20130125-2 build is against the newer master branch:
##################
meta-yocto        = "master:a1ac22a73c226e268bea90eaa043b3da4695d577"
meta-qt3          = "master:06e2fe600de962cdba53c23de1207501439a9c9f"
meta-yocto-bsp    = "master:a1ac22a73c226e268bea90eaa043b3da4695d577"
##################

This issue still exists in this build. But if we build the image in local with a clean build, there is no this issue.

Is it caused by sstate file in autobuilder ?

(In reply to comment #4)
> (In reply to comment #2)
> > I took the 20130125-1 core-image-sato powerpc nightly from autobuilder and
> > the image booted just fine.
> > 
> > I also compiled core-image-sato from latest
> > (f0e02dc132c301c0a33a3a8cecddc867b1f0a70e) and it also booted just fine.
> > 
> > Since there is no log provided, I cannot really tell what happened...
> 
> The 20130125-1 build is against master_under_test branch:
> #################
> meta-yocto        =
> "stage/master_under_test:e3914a59b7a240861911153bd761b333b638a4a1"
> meta-qt3          = "master:06e2fe600de962cdba53c23de1207501439a9c9f"
> meta-yocto-bsp    =
> "stage/master_under_test:e3914a59b7a240861911153bd761b333b638a4a1"
> ##################
> 
> The 20130125-2 build is against the newer master branch:
> ##################
> meta-yocto        = "master:a1ac22a73c226e268bea90eaa043b3da4695d577"
> meta-qt3          = "master:06e2fe600de962cdba53c23de1207501439a9c9f"
> meta-yocto-bsp    = "master:a1ac22a73c226e268bea90eaa043b3da4695d577"
> ##################
> 
> This issue still exists in this build. But if we build the image in local
> with a clean build, there is no this issue.

I'm sorry I gave the wrong information. I create the qemuppc image in local again with a clean build, this issue also exists. My host is ubuntu 11.10 x86-64. The git rev is: 8d6e55bf2192524bda84138b5356a2791adbbe61 

> 
> Is it caused by sstate file in autobuilder ?

Can you attach the log.do_rootfs?

Created attachment 1028 [details]
log.do_rootfs

I compiled it again two times, from scratch. Once I used the sstate from a build server and once without any sstate cache. It worked fine both times. Could it be related to the distribution used? Here is the build configuration I used:

Build Configuration:
BB_VERSION        = "1.17.0"
BUILD_SYS         = "x86_64-linux"
NATIVELSBSTRING   = "Ubuntu-12.04"
TARGET_SYS        = "powerpc-poky-linux"
MACHINE           = "qemuppc"
DISTRO            = "poky"
DISTRO_VERSION    = "1.3+snapshot-20130129"
TUNE_FEATURES     = "m32 fpu-hard ppc603e"
TARGET_FPU        = ""
meta
meta-yocto
meta-yocto-bsp    = "master:cfb082961a6c9ac3d65738031c4071210529cd07"

I also looked in the log.do_rootfs and saw that qemu-ppc segfaults... It would be interesting to execute the command sepparately and see what happens. But before doing it, set D to the appropriate path and make sure you go to the native sysroot. Here's what, I'm guessing the paths here, you should run:

$ export D=/buildarea2/yzhao1/poky-build/build-world/tmp/work/qemuppc-poky-linux/core-image-sato/1.0-r0/rootfs/
$ cd /buildarea2/yzhao1/poky-build/build-world/tmp/sysroots/x86_64-linux
$ ./usr/bin/qemu-ppc $D$(readelf -l $D/usr/bin/gtk-query-immodules-$maj_ver.0| grep "Requesting program interpreter"|sed -e 's/^.*\[.*: \(.*\)\]/\1/') --library-path $D/lib:$D/usr/lib $D/usr/bin/gtk-query-immodules-$maj_ver.0 $IMFILES > $D/etc/gtk-$maj_ver.0/gtk.immodules

no such error using sato-sdk image from nightly build 20130131-4 (1.4 M3 RC2) below:
http://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/pub/nightly/20130131-4/machines/qemu/qemuppc/
the desktop displayed and worked normally.
test host : ubuntu 12.04.1 x86_64
git info:3ae1a4ba972cfc17ff3f2fda632da8ecc3414885
git branch:poky/1.4_M3

*** Bug 3858 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

http://git.yoctoproject.org/cgit.cgi/poky/commit/?id=8c263420eda2c2ab0e6f8bff64f965cb4cc5698b

Desktops of qemuppc sato,sato-sdk images from below displayed and work normally: 
http://autobuilder.pokylinux.org/nightly/20130213-3/machines/qemu/qemuppc/
git info :3ec4df57540421df2cda6b83c615bfb7cebccefd
git branch: poky/master