Help please - Desktop Effect / White screen.

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#1

First of all hi everyone, im new on this forum and also new on linux, ok lemme talk about my problem here, ill try to be real clear, follow my steps:

first thing i did was install openSUSE, after that i installed my video card driver from Advanced Micro Devices Inc., downloaded the lastest ati driver for my ATI radeonHD2600xt, everything went fine i logged as su and installed the .run file, ah btw im using GNOME, so after that i went to that application thing and clicked on desktop effects, when i checked the box to enable the desktop effects my screen became all white and the only thing i could see was the cursor, i could even move the cube using ctrl+alt+keyboard arrows but it was just a blank cube with nothing there, this is a brand new opensuse install i havent installed compiz or anything else there, only the graphic drivers, can anyone please help me with that? also sorry for the not so good english im actually from brazil, anyway thanks in advance ill be waiting for any help with that.

#2

Hello,

you can use this link to troubleshoot most compiz fusion related problems:

#3

edit: before I forget, welcome to the forum!! Hope you enjoy Linux.

This could have a lot to do with the ATI driver version you have installed.

Have a look through this post for possible workarounds/solutions:
ATI + Desktop Effects = White - openSUSE Forums
Have a closer look at post #23 & #24 and also # 18.

For some downgrading to an older driver version (8.4) helped.

Also have a look at the openSUSE wiki page for ATI found here : ATI - openSUSE
It mentions a solution for the ‘white screen after login’, but I don’t think it’s relevant for the driver version you are using.

Hope that helps,
Wj

#4

Thanks a lot for the replies, i have only one more extremely noob question but yea… if i dont ask ill never learn hehe, here we go, how do i edit the xorg.conf and save it, via terminal i can edit using the command

edit xorg.conf

the config opens and i can edit it, but the thing is, how do i save changes and quit? haha im lost here any help is welcome, im trying to make the same thing the other guy did in the other topic but i need to edit and im just stuck. thanks in advance!

#5

when using edit you are actually using VI… the keys are quite complex and there is lots of info if you Google for it… the basic keys are;

<Insert> to be able to edit text
<ESC> get back to command mode
: brings a command prompt
:wq writes and saves
:q just quites (only possible if you have not changed anything)
:q! quit and disguard any changes

make sure you are root when editing these files as normal users can only read the files, not write them.

Tip: if you are editing these files and have X loaded you can also use the editors in the DE’s (KDE. GNOME, etc)

from the terminal make sure you have root rights with ’ su - ’ and then launch your editor of choice, e.g.:
gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf (GNOME)
kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf (KDE)
mousepad /etc/X11/xorg.conf (XFCE)

hope that helps!
Wj

#6

I have this problem with 11.3 using the RADEON driver with my AIW 9700 Pro. The screen is completely white at boot, but I know things are running because the cursor changes as I move it around the screen. When I CTRL-ALT-F1, log in as root and type “init 3” followed by “init 5,” everything starts up normally, so I don’t buy the explanation here. Is it a race condition? Any suggestions for how to resolve?