openSUSE v12.3
Gnome desktop (3.6)
ati hd 3200 graphics adapter
I performed an upgrade from 12.2 to 12.3. It booted okay, the online updates were performed, and rebooted. I then noticed that there was no hardware acceleration for the graphics: There was a “blacklist” file preventing radeon from loading. I removed the file, rebooted.
Normal boot: The boot proceeds normally, the nifty slowly brightening gecko logo brightens, then suddenly all goes black. The end.
Failsafe boot: The boot proceeds normally, the list of log entries scrolls by enthusiastically, then stops:
Starting LSB: X Display manager
OK ] Started LSB: X Display manager
OK ] Reached target Graphics Interface
It stops here. No more. The end. Zillch. Zero. Nada. Niichts.
I can log on to the machine remotely. Apparently “only” the graphics interface is dead.
What happens if you press ‘ESC’ during the boot process, so to show text. Each time the plymouth (?) graphic boot screen appears, press ESC to again show text. Does that make any difference ?
The idea here is to try and take the grub2/plymouth integration out of the picture a a possible cause.
I type this as I have an HD3450 on my laptop, and I find the above necessary sometimes with openSUSE-12.3.
Yes. The X system started as I expected when the nifty slowly brightening gecko logo was disabled. I modified the boot loader to always show the startup messages rather than the logo. It does not require manual intervention.