Hello. I use(d) openSUSE 11.1 on DELL Studio 1535. 10 minutes ago it asked for a security update for the kernel (with pae support). After installing the update it requested a reboot… I did it… Since then after grub I see my console loading services, daemons, etc. and when it tries to start the x the screen turns black and nothing happens. I have NO “ctrl + alt + backspace + backspace”, no “ctrl + alt + f(x)”, no nothing… the only thing that I can do is ctrl + alt + del which reboots in a minute… please give me a possible solution, because my ass will be toast… 
Have you video card driver installed? After a kernel update you need to recompile your video drivers.
Well… I can do a lot of checks and fixes… if only I could get my console at least… but I can’t make this black screen stop apearing…
Hi,
When you restart choose failsafe mode. This will allow you to do all your checks.
Ian
sounds like the same problem I am experiencing here :
2.6.29-62-pae & boot & blank screen - openSUSE Forums
in this case (well mine anyways) failsafe isn’t working either 
Yes, failsafe does not give any different result…
well what I have been doing as stated in the other thread is ssh to the box with no console , init 3 then install your drivers for the video card , then reboot , you eventually get a screen as soon as it hits rl 5 . They must have broken something with framebuffer or init , I dont know .
Use nofb verbose 3 as command line parameters to boot into the system - this should take you to console only.
Thanks, I hope I can fix the problems then… I will feedback as soon as I get back home and try it.
Hello… I have X again. 
Thank you for the “nofb verbose 3” hint. This saved my live. I just logged with root and ran SaX2 and what it did was to remove radonhd’s settings from xorg.conf and to setup fglrx. I guess radeonhd driver is no longer compatible with my kernel, which today patched… uname -r gave 2.6.27.21-0.1-pae. That’s all for now. I thank anyone who replied to my call for help! 
I have the same problem, but sax2 can’t fix it for me.
My thread:
After update, monitor goes into standby (res/refresh prob?) - openSUSE Forums