Last week, my 11.1/KDE 4.2 installation was humming along nicely, until the Updater asked that I install an update relevant to my ATI Radeon driver. The update mucked up my boot, giving me only a blank screen when there should have been a login page.
Several re-installations later, I have come to believe that a bug in one or more updates that are being pushed out for KDE 4.2 are blanking the login screen. I determined that it was not my ATI driver, nor was it a strange automatic revision to my boot options (I still have no explanation for that). Essentially, every reinstallation worked until I updated a working KDE 4.2 system, whether through Yast or the Updater applet. I have seen this problem recently scattered throughout the Forum.
If you’re stuck reinstalling, I suggest the following: 1) install 11.1 as it was released with KDE 4.1.3; 2) if necessary, immediately install your 3D graphics driver; 3) immediately go to the openSUSE website and do a One-Click Install of KDE 4.2; 4) do NOT update the resulting KDE 4.2 system unless a major announcement from openSUSE accompanies the update notification. My 4.2 installation appears fine now.
Looking back, I guess this shouldn’t have been a surprise since KDE 4.2 relies on Factory builds, and the openSUSE KDE 4.2 homepage does in fact say that most users should not update unless there is a major announcement. I’m not overly worried about missing a security update, although I woiuld prefer to keep security patches up-to-date.
But, (assuming I understood my problem correctly) a bug that blanks people’s login should have been avoided in the first place, and remedied once it was released. I am still a openSUSE fan, but this was a very annoying flub from what I consider to be one of the greatest distribution.
I have the same experience, somehow my xorg.conf was empty after an update, sometimes it is the new kernel that needs re-install of (video)drivers/modules.
For now I’ll stick to updating specific programs, like Dolphin, K3b or say Gwenview and leave the rest until a new release comes along (and even then I wait at least a week).
As I have been using (open)SuSE since 2001, I know my way around and always get a system working again, but it is an absolute showstopper for people who are new to Linux.
The boot option should have a: “Use last settings with working graphical interface”
For notice and comment.
