Re: Black screen after login

On 12/01/2010 06:44 PM, Dennis Duffner wrote:
> I've got a Radeon 9200SE video card installed in the box and upgraded to
> 2010 Spring via the live CD.
>
> Problem is that, once I log in, all I get is the taskbar and a black
 > screen.

Are you booting into run level 5, the Graphic User Interface?

Can you log into the xguest account?  (Not sure if the Live CD 
creates it, but worth a try.)  Does that work?

Can you boot into failsafe?  Can you then use startx to start up 
the gui?

If you can, as root, make sure that the top section of 
/etc/inittab contains id:3:initdefault:  rather than 
id:5:initdefault:.  Then reboot into run level 3, terminal mode, 
rather than into the GUI.  You can then try out changes, start 
the gui with startx, and if it does not work you may be able to 
use Cntl-Alt-Backspace (hit it a couple of times) to get back to 
command line if needed.

Alternately, you can use the install DVD from an earlier version 
or a rescue CD to boot into rescue mode, and on the command line
make the change in inittab to boot into run level 3.
>
> Any ideas?  I've tried XFdrake and that doesn't seem to do anything as I
> still have the black screen.

What _exactly_ does "tried XFdrake" mean?  Starting at the 
command line, as root, run XFdrake, and record/report what you do 
at each step so it might be possible to diagnose where things are 
going wrong.

What are the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf?

Odd thought:  I have a couple of computers with ATI video cards. 
  I use the proprietary drivers available from Mandriva (XFdrake 
will get them for you) and sometimes I have to use the 
radeonhd/fglrx driver and sometimes I have to use the 
radeon/fglrx driver.  This seems to vary, depending on the kernel 
and version of the drivers.  In XFdrake, you might try first one 
and then the other.

Second thought:  When 2010.1 came out, the x-windows was buggy. 
You need to update all packages.  As root, with networking 
working, from a command line,

urpmi --downloader wget --auto-update --auto

Cheers!

jim b.

-- 
UNIX is not user unfriendly; it merely
      expects users to be computer-friendly.