So my system has been running beautifully (12.1 - Gnome 3.2.1) for a few months until now. I approved an auto update a few days ago. I haven’t used my computer much since then. My computer has not been re-booted for weeks. I usually log off or simply lock the screen when not in use. My wife has been using it for Facebook Cafe World lately, that’s about it. I noticed this morning the computer was shut down. Nobody in the house knows how it got shutdown. We do have a storm here, so maybe that had something to do with a power outage? I dunno. So here’s the issue. I went to start it up and I get the boot screen with a choice of normal or failsafe. Either choice takes me to a black screen. So I switch from my nVidia PCI card to the internal onboard video through the BIOS setting and here I sit. I went to Software Manager to check on what got updated recently and it says libpixman was updated. To me this is the only update that looks like it could have something to do with video. So I go to uninstall the update and I get a warning that close to 400 other installations will be affected by a “deinstallation”. These “conflicts” must be “solved manually”. I’ve never had to break dependencies manually before so I’m a bit hesitant. Do I “break xorg-x11-server-extra” by ignoring dependencies? Seems like a logical choice, but I just wanna make sure. I can give a list of the other updates if necessary or any other info if needed.
I do not know what is going on there, but will throw in some ideas to let you think over them.
. I doubt that your video card died because of a software update.
. When you want to roll back the update, you do not uninstall the package because then there will of course be dependency problems. You search for it in YaST > Software > Software management, slect it and use the Version tan lower right to see what versions are available. Choose th most recent but the one you do not like and install that one.
. I had a dying NVidia card about a month ago. I do not think this is due to software. And as you say there could be a power problem, this may have been the last kick to it.
Thanks for the tip, Henk. The card is only a month or so old. I bought it brand new. Hopefully it isn’t fried already. I rolled back the update and still no joy. I’m wondering if I should:
a. re-install the nVidia driver
b. roll back all the updates from Jan 19th
c. re-install the update and use the onboard graphics / check the card out in a different environment as time permits
d. get more advice here before proceeding
Again, I should try to find a way to check out the card. And if it is broken, I do not know if you can bring it back to the shop and get a refund/replace. And, as said, I do not believe in another version of some software has done this. Thus do not await from me any advice on rolling back software.
Well, these Dell 2400 series are terrible candidates for PfCI video cards in the first place. I tried it in another 2400 XP machine and could not get it working there either. I suspect it is fried. On a side note, I ended up turning the XP Machine into opensuse since it runs so nicely on this hardware right out of the gate.