Problems with X Serve in both Leap and Tumbleweed

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Been running OpenSuse 13.1 on my box for several years; no problems.

Wiped box clean and did a fresh install of Leap with KDE. Good install
but black screen (except for mouse pointer) after auto-login. Opened a
console session, logged in as root and did an init 6. Same behavior
after auto-login, black screen with mouse pointer.

Wiped box clean and did a fresh install of Leap with Gnome. Exactly the
same behavior as with KDE.

Wiped box clean and did a fresh install of Tumbleweed with KDE. Exactly
the same behavior as above.

Wiped box clean and did a fresh install of Tumbleweed with Gnome.
Exactly the same behavior as above.

Wiped box clean and did a fresh install of 13.1 (can’t find copy of
13.2) with KDE. Everything works great. Same with fresh install using
Gnome.

My box is nothing more than an Intel S3210SH motherboard, no graphics
card. Since I’m able to open up a console session and run a few
commands (top, etc.) it appears it’s just the X server that’s having
problems but I have no idea why. I’d have to reinstall Leap or
Tumbleweed again if I wanted to dig deeper.

Just FYI.

Bob

#2

It sounds like a video driver issue rearing it’s head with composited desktops. Looking at Intel’s documentation, that board appears to use a Matrox G200-E?

I would look first to see if the xf86-video-mga package was installed and if the card was configured properly. I know those are vague instructions, but someone here might know if that card requires some special configuration with newer kernels and graphics stacks, or something like a specific grub entry.