Debug XFree86 vs X.org font rendering

[Mark Hannon <markhannon@optusnet.com.au>]

I have a dual install of sarge and etch on the one machine.  When running
sarge (with XFree86) I find the font rendering more to my taste than with
etch.  The etch configuration is a copy of my sarge installed
dist-upgraded and I can see no obvious changes in /etc/fonts between the
two installs.

It seems that in X.org my attempts to set medium autohint do not work
correctly and I can uneven font spacing in X.org.

Can anyone give me a clue as to how I can debug these two setups and try
to align them?

Regards/Mark