Blank Screen after install and first reboot

[pulsetsar]

Hi! I'm new to the forum and to linux and am trying to transition away from Windows. I picked up a copy of SuSE linux 10.1 and had a smooth install process except the problem noted above. I was able to select the appropriate packages, yast detected all my hardware, but when it switched to the login screen at the end of installation everything went blank.

Now, when I reboot the system I get the grub screen and can select my OS, then I get a full-resolution screen with the pleasant rotating orbs at the bottom and the SuSE linux logo in the center, then everything goes blank! Any approaches I can take short of running the install all over again?

-Thanks.

[oldcpu]

Try a vesa driver.

When booting type "level 3" in the grub boot options to go to a text loggin. Loggin as a regular user.

Then type "su" to get root permissions.

Then type "sax2 -m 0=vesa" (that is zero equals vesa). Setup up your graphics to something conservative. Exit sax2.

Then type "exit" to get rid of root permissions. Type "whoami" to confirm you are no longer root.

Then type "startx" to test your xwindows install. If it works, please exit right away.

Then type "su" to get root permissions, followed by "shutdown -r now" to reboot. Do not type "level 3" this time when you reboot.

Next time you have such a querry, please state what video hardware and chipset you are using. I am guessing with the above. It may not work. But you gave me nothing to go on.

[pulsetsar]

Thanks for your help, oldcpu.

My system is as follows:
-AMD athlon64 2800
-NVIDIA NForce4 SLI motherboard
-2 NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT eVGA graphics cards, not running in SLI mode currently
-1 17-inch NEC LCD monitor, 1280x1024 native resolution

I tried the steps you outlined and after running sax while logged in as root, I had the same problem of going to a blank screen, but it would do this after displaying a black and white checkerboard pattern with an 'x' for the cursor.

I searched the forums for this problem and tried the following, which seems to work for now:

-installed the latest drivers from nvidia using the automatic update utility.
-I type 'level 3' and 'vga=794' as options in grub upon boot
-I then login at a text prompt and type startx at the shell and get a static gray pattern followed by my KDE desktop environment, in full resolution and color!

So I'm able to get to the GUI for now, but I have to perform this sequence every time. Any ideas what's going on here? It would be pretty annoying to have to do this every time I want to use linux.

[devils casper]

log in as root and open /boot/grub/menu.lst file.
replace 'vga=0x314' with 'vga=794' in kernel line under first 'title'.

title SUSE Linux 10.1
    root (hd0,9)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda10 vga=0x314 resume=/dev/hda8  splash=silent showopts
    initrd /boot/initrd

save file. in case, there is not 'vga' in kernel line, add it.







casper