Just updated tumbleweed and now I am stuck with only the mouse curser appearing but no desktop environment (running gnome). Only have kernel 4.13.1 and 4.12.11 to choose from and both give me the same result. What can I do? I tried pressing e and adding nomodeset but that only resulted in flickering screen.
I am having same problem here. I am new to SUSE and not really sure what to do. I can still switch to different screen with ctrl alt f2 or whatever, and login but not seeing any error messages and not sure where to go look. I’ve seen others saying to add boot options but really not sure how to do that either.
I’m running HP Spectra 360 with all the latest updates. This happened to me after getting an alert that there were system updates and me telling it to shutdown and reload. It shutdown and never came back up. BTW: Screen 7 where the main login is, is totally locked up. The mouse moves around but the login prompt just sits and no keyboard, except to change to another session screen.
Will post whatever you need once you give me some suggestions as I have no idea what happened.
Thanks,
Glenn
Always use zypper dup on tumble weed DO NOT use zypper up or the desktop notification app these may break things!!!
So instead of using the graphical notification I just enter sudo zypper dup?
Haven’t heard of this before so will have to research it.
Thanks,
Glenn
TW is a roiling release so each update is a like a new OS so yes only use zypper dup to do updates.
Thanks, That got me going again.
Glenn
Even though I had to do a fresh install of the system, but at least now it’s working. Thanks for the help, will not use zypper up on TW anymore (unless I know better what I’m doing).
However, I’m wondering what happens if I update through check for updates. This will only do zypper up, right? Isn’t that a bit dangerous then (especially for beginners)?
Yep Not sure why TW installs it.
Hi, I had the same problem. So I reinstall Tumbleweed (formating only the root partition) and it worked again. But after run:
zypper dup --no-allow-vendor-change
I have the same problem and cannot init session. The X server is running (it show the mouse cursor over a black screen with some letters) but no session manager. So I cannot init my session. If I run “zypper dup” I get “Nothing to do”. Should I reinstall formating all the disk? Any idea to solve this problem. Thanks.
It’s probably not the same problem, just the same (or similar) symptoms I suppose… 
So I reinstall Tumbleweed (formating only the root partition) and it worked again. But after run:
zypper dup --no-allow-vendor-change
I have the same problem and cannot init session.
Might be caused by some update/change in Tumbleweed then, e.g. graphics drivers or kernel.
There are reports of problems with Intel graphics (again) and the latest Kernel 4.13.1 on the opensuse-factory mailing list:
https://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2017-09/msg00293.html
So try to boot the previous one in “Advanced Options” in the boot menu (if still installed) and see if it helps.
Also, you should tell what desktop session this is about, otherwise it’s not possible to give further suggestions.
Does choosing a different one (e.g. IceWM) at the login screen work? (if you have auto-login enabled, press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace twice to get back to the login screen)
PS: there’s also a bug report about such a problem in latest Tumbleweed with GNOME and intel graphics:
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1059430Though it might not only affect GNOME I suppose, if it’s rather a graphics driver/kernel problem.
I use the gnome desktop. The login screen don’t work. And traying with another kernel don’t solve the problem. My laptop use an AMD/ati kabi radeon hd 8210 chipset. How can I configure icewm as the desktop?
Hm, and what other kernel did you try exactly?
You could also try to add “nomodeset” to the boot options (press the key ‘e’ at the boot menu, append it to the end of the line starting with “linux” or “linuxefi” and press F10 to boot) to disable the intel kernel module. This will force a fallback to the generic framebuffer mode and software OpenGL rendering.
That will be slow as GNOME unconditionally uses OpenGL, and also have other limitations, but should show whether the problem is (graphics) driver related, or elsewhere.
How can I configure icewm as the desktop?
Well, if not even the display manager works, configuring another desktop might not help either.
You can do so in /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager (e.g. DEFAULT_WM=“icewm”), but gdm might have saved the “user’s choice” somewhere and continue to use GNOME for that user.
You could also try a different display manager (login screen) though, via /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager (e.g. DISPLAYMANAGER=“xdm”).
xdm should be installed by default, but its rather basic and doesn’t even allow to choose the desktop session, so you maybe should also change DEFAULT_WM in that case (though maybe it would be interesting to try with GNOME as well).
That said, while writing this, it occured to me that the problem might be Wayland-specific. Both gdm and GNOME in Tumbleweed run in Wayland by default AFAIK.
So maybe try switching gdm back to using X11/XOrg and see whether you get a login screen then:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GDM#Use_Xorg_backend
(GNOME may still run in Wayland though, so if you still get a black screen, try pressing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace twice to get back to the login screen)
The previous kernel I try was the 4.11.3-1.
If I disable the Wayland backend, the problem is still there. Only change the screen background (no login screen), However, If I change to xdm and icewm, all works. So the problem is gdm and gnome. Thanks.
Good to know, so it’s not related to the recent kernel update anyway.
If I disable the Wayland backend, the problem is still there. Only change the screen background (no login screen), However, If I change to xdm and icewm, all works. So the problem is gdm and gnome.
Ok.
What do you get if you start an xterm inside IceWM (there should be even a button in the panel to do that), and run the following command?
glxinfo
(you may have to install Mesa-demo-x first though)
… try Gnome again, using the XDM Display Manager, or maybe even install and try the KDM Display Manager. Does that work?
I am watching some systems where it appears the Login Manager crashes without displaying when using LightDM or gdm, but (so far) do not crash with KDM.
To further my tests, I would like to know this answer from you.
After install KDM the system is unstable and hangs after some minutes. Even I cannot use a terminal, is too slow and hangs. Seems I will need to install opensuse again.
With “terminal” you mean a text mode console?
Or an xterm/konsole/gnome-terminal/whatever inside the graphical session?
Seems I will need to install opensuse again.
If your problems are caused by bugs in the graphics drivers (e.g. Mesa, which provides OpenGL support) or the kernel, that won’t help much though.
Regarding your output, GLX is working at least, i.e. the correct driver seems to be used.
Have you tried booting with “nomodeset” yet?
As mentioned it will be slow, but it would still be interesting if GNOME works then (with the software OpenGL renderer) and if the system is stable.
I agree with Wolfi, re-installing is not the route to go at this point.
As for changing Display Manager back from the terminal, as Wolfi pointed out, I also suspect you are trying to do that from a terminal window launched from the Desktop. Better way would be to boot the machine, and when the Grub menu comes up, hit the “e” key.
That will pause the boot and put you into the mode to edit Grub (temporary change, only, not a permanent change to your system, so no need to worry).
Scroll down to the line that begins with “linux” (it may be slightly different, but will have “linux” in the start of the line in some form).
That will be the boot command line. Hit the End key to make sure you are at the end of the line (it wraps on the screen), add a space, then add:
3
Hit F10 to continue booting and you will get to a CLI login prompt. Log in there as your root User. You can run the ncurses version of Yast to change your Display Manager back:
yast
When you have done that, continue following Wolfi’s advice.