Kernel Update Breaks X-Windows

[MikeH30]

I have a 64 bit Dell Vostro 410 hooked up to dual 22" Samsung Syncmaster 2253BW LCD monitors . I have "big desktop" configured with a ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO graphics card. Since OpenSuse11.0, every time there was a kernel update, my X-windows was hosed after updating. All I would see was a black screen with squiggly muliti-colored lines and a white square for my mouse pointer. The first time this happened I re-installed my OS. The second time this happened I made a image of my OS with Clonezilla before performing the kernel update. As expected after the kernel update, my X windows was hosed again. Luckily I had my Clonezilla image to restore and have me back up and running in a matter of minutes.

So here I am again with another kernel update (2.6.27.23-0.1) on OpenSuse 11.1. Once again, my X-windows was hosed after the update. This time I did something different. I booted into safe mode and surprisingly I was able to see my desktop although not "big desktop" with dual monitors. I un-installed the ATI driver, rebooted. Then I re-installed the ATI driver, and my X-windows is back.

So my question is:

1. Why does my x-windows get hosed on my Dell Vostro with dual monitors every time there is a kernel update?

-Mike

[oz]

Proprietary video drivers usually have to be reinstalled right after a kernel upgrade.

[MikeH30]

That was easy. Thanks Ozar!

[gogalthorp]

A little more. This is the same thing as VMware. The Video divers must be linked into the Kernel. If you had used the Suse repository version of the driver the link would have automatically happened manages by Yast (actually the RPM program). Since apparently you installed manually you will have to relink manually by reinstalling the video. You can do this by booting to the command line and rerunning the driver installer app.

Once you know what to do it takes about two minutes. I do bothe the VMware reinstall and Video reinstall at the same time. Then start the GUI with init 5

[MikeH30]

So there was no need for me to first uninstall the ATI driver? I can just re-install right after the kernel update?

[devils casper]

Yes. Just re-install Driver instead of uninstalling it.

[MikeH30]

Recently there were some updates from OpenSuse that I performed. I don't remember the exact name of the updates but noticed the words "xorg-x11" and "sax2" in the file names. After the update I rebooted. I saw the OpenSuse splash screen and then afterward all I had was a black screen ( No white square for a mouse pointer like after kernel update). So I rebooted and went into safe mode. I re-installed the ATI drivers again and rebooted. My X-windows was back.

So in summary, is it correct for me to assume that I will have to re-install my proprietary video drivers after the following types of updates?

1. Kernel
2. Anything with "xorg-x11"
3. Antyhing with "sax2"

Thanks

-Mike

[gogalthorp]

Kernel for sure not sure about others. Maybe with X. I doubt with sax since it is just a configuration utility that rewrites the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Though if X is changed it may require a change to the xorg.conf file and reinstalling the driver would do that as well as running sax2

[MikeH30]

So next time should I first try opening a terminal in safe mode and type "sax2" at the command prompt? Then if that doesn't work re-install the drivers?

[D-cat]

This is something that happened to me as well, though I have the Intel driver (included). What I found out about the kernel upgrade horrified me.

For whatever glitch or whatever, the kernel update failed to also update the kernel-base (all the base modules) though I'm pretty sure it was selected. This meant upon reboot that I had no video driver, no network module, and no access no non-ext2/3 partitions. (What, reiserfs (my /home partition) isn't built into the SuSE kernel? Apparently not...) as by some miracle, iso9660 IS built into the kernel, so I was able to mount my install DVD and backtrack to the original kernel with yast and reboot.

This horrifies me because my usual method for getting around this kind of stuff (mirroring the repos) didn't work... the mirror is a virtual user!!! (/home/install) I had no idea that reiser and vfat were not built in the kernel, that really sucked!!!!
...
/# mount /home
mount: unknown file system: reiserfs

/#
...

When I first went into yast, there was a series of network related errors (unreachable repositories) which I had to turn off, then it seemed okay on dependencies until I chose "Verify System" and discovered the kernel-pae-base for 2.6.27.23 had not actually been installed, along with about a dozen other things. Checking /boot revealed that the old kernel had already been nuked, so there was no going back manually, I had to make yast work if I was going to solve this without a reinstall. I feel I got lucky.

Had the DVD failed, I'd have been in for a serious night of repairing this installation; I'd have been p1553d!!! Though I had honestly forgotten that my /home partition was reiserfs (this was from 10.2 when it was touted as a great thing), the fact that I couldn't get at it even in failsafe because a download didn't make it is disturbing at best. I would hope that the devs would take this scenario into consideration and include all major linux FS's in the kernel (I can understand not including non-linux FS's like vfat) so such an error isn't so potentially devistating in the future.