I have a laptop (specs in my sig) running OpenSuse 11.3 64 bit with the nouveau Gallium (7.8.2) gfx driver. I have a Geforce 9600M GT graphics card. The computer didn’t do so at first, but I don’t know what exactly I did to make it do so. It might be because I set the background to be a slide show. I noticed the black screen when I wanted to edit the settings for the slide show. So far it happens every time I try to access the ‘Desktop Activity Settings’ whether I right click or use that icon in the top right of the screen.
You know that if you have an nVidia card, all such issues go away when you use the proprietary binary driver. You should look at this document before proceeding on…
Then, take a look at the procedure I use to install the nVidia driver as I install openSUSE 11.3:
During the install, when you have the option to change your booting setup, I add nomodeset to the kernel load command for the normal load/start of openSUSE. This kernel startup option is already present for the Failsafe selection for openSUSE.
During the first start of openSUSE, I download the latest nVidia Video driver to the downloads folder.
I change/save the System/Kernel option NO_KMS_IN_INITRD from “No” to “Yes” in the /etc/sysconfig Editor in Yast.
I do an update of openSUSE on the first run of openSUSE and then a restart/reboot.
In grub OS selection I add the command line option “3” to the openSUSE start line so that I just go to the run level three terminal prompt.
I login in as root and change to the /home/user/Downloads folder.
I run/install the NVIDIA video driver using “sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-256.35.run” and answer all questions as appropriate for my system.
Type in reboot at terminal prompt to restart the system with new video driver.
I’d love to change to the nVidia drivers, but I’m very nervous about that guide. I’m not particularly skilled in these things. I’m gonna try and change the video driver as soon as I gather enough courage to do so !!
Its prolly not hard, but I won’t know until I tried…
Ok, I changed the drivers to nvidia, and it didn’t help one bit.
Once the screen has gone black, I can press [CTRL]+[ALT]+[DEL], and that small log-out/reboot/shutdown panel comes up. I can see that, logging out and then back in brings the screen picture back.
Are you able to open and view the “My Computer” icon on the desktop? I would like to see what it says in the bottom right about your video. For instance mine says:
Display Info
Vendor: nVidia Corporation
Model: GeForce 9600M GT
2D driver: nvidia
3D driver: NVIDIA 256.35
It also has the nVidia splash screen along with some nVidia x-server settings manager…
The screen also went black after exiting from dosbox, first some graphical artefacts and then black screen. It didn’t help to press [CTRL]+[ALT]+[DEL] at that point, and then the computer froze at startup, after I tried to log in. I don’t know if these issues are related…
I change/save the System/Kernel option NO_KMS_IN_INITRD from “No” to “Yes” in the /etc/sysconfig Editor in Yast.
In my video installation post I talked about setting NO_KMS_IN_INITRD=Yes in Yast / System / etc/sysconfig Editor. Can you confirm this function was done?
So, this is a long shot, but lets go to KDE / menu / Personnel Settings / Advanced Tab / Advanced User Settings / Power Management. Under General Settings on the Left, do you have “Let PowerDevel manage screen powersaving” selected with an “x”? Under Edit Profiles, select the profile you normally use when plugged into power. For instance, I use the Performance setting. Under Profile Management / Performance Screen Tab, did you uncheck Enable Display Power Management? I would do this with anything not running on batteries and use a real screensaver if I was worried about burning an image into my screen.
Which version of KDE are you using? I have version 4.4.4 release 2. How did you install openSUSE 11.3? Was this a clean install or did you upgrade from a lower version (like 11.2)? I ask this because the KDE version looks different from mine using Check blocks and not X blocks. I must say that I do not see any reason you should be having this problem, everything I can see looks normal in every way.
I installed using a dvd. I downloaded the image, burned it and installed it. Before that I had removed the partitions on the drive, so it should be a fresh install. I didn’t upgrade, I’m sure of that. I removed all partitions from my two physical harddrives, installed Windows 7 and then OpenSuse 11.3. OpenSuse is on sdb. I’m not aware of having upgraded KDE, so it should be the version that shipped with OpenSuse.
I hope you find the answer as I have the same problem but I am running
Opensuse 11.3 32-bit. I installed it from the DVD as a new install.
After I configured the desktop background to be a slideshow, it would
work perfectly. If I went back to re-edit the settings, the screen would
go black just leaving the mouse cursor.
If I setup the virtual desktops to have different activities for each
desktop I can enter the “Desktop Activity Settings” on any desktop that
does not have the slideshow enable.
My hardware is an Acer Aspire One with Intel video graphics 945 GME
using the intel video driver that was setup from the DVD. Maybe it is an
Acer problem?
Right now I can only hope that I configure the slideshow the first time
without the need for further edits. If I do need to edit it later I
will have to figure out which configuration file controls that. I am
thinking right now it is the file
~/.kde4/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc but I have not tested it yet.
On 07/29/2010 06:06 AM, Daqar wrote:
>
> Heya,
>
> I have a laptop (specs in my sig) running OpenSuse 11.3 64 bit with the
> nouveau Gallium (7.8.2) gfx driver. I have a Geforce 9600M GT graphics
> card. The computer didn’t do so at first, but I don’t know what exactly
> I did to make it do so. It might be because I set the background to be a
> slide show. I noticed the black screen when I wanted to edit the
> settings for the slide show. So far it happens every time I try to
> access the ‘Desktop Activity Settings’ whether I right click or use that
> icon in the top right of the screen.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Daqar
>
>
>>
>> Heya,
>>
>> I have a laptop (specs in my sig) running OpenSuse 11.3 64 bit with the
>> nouveau Gallium (7.8.2) gfx driver. I have a Geforce 9600M GT graphics
>> card. The computer didn’t do so at first, but I don’t know what exactly
>> I did to make it do so. It might be because I set the background to be a
>> slide show. I noticed the black screen when I wanted to edit the
>> settings for the slide show. So far it happens every time I try to
>> access the ‘Desktop Activity Settings’ whether I right click or use that
>> icon in the top right of the screen.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Daqar
>>
>>
>
> On 08/07/2010 06:42 PM, eric wrote:
I hope you find the answer as I have the same problem but I am running
Opensuse 11.3 32-bit. I installed it from the DVD as a new install.
After I configured the desktop background to be a slideshow, it would
work perfectly. If I went back to re-edit the settings, the screen would
go black just leaving the mouse cursor.
If I setup the virtual desktops to have different activities for each
desktop I can enter the “Desktop Activity Settings” on any desktop that
does not have the slideshow enable.
My hardware is an Acer Aspire One with Intel video graphics 945 GME
using the intel video driver that was setup from the DVD. Maybe it is an
Acer problem?
Right now I can only hope that I configure the slideshow the first time
without the need for further edits. If I do need to edit it later I
will have to figure out which configuration file controls that. I am
thinking right now it is the file
~/.kde4/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc but I have not tested it yet.
Sorry for the previous top post. I hope this fixes that.
I can only say that I have had only two issues that caused the screen to go blank. One was using the nouveau driver, only intended for nVidia video cards (which you solve by loading the nVidia Proprietary driver) and by apperantly the kernel screensaver, seemingly activated if the Power Savings option for “Let PowerDevel Manage screen Powersaving” is not checked. In general, one should look through all of the Power Saving features to make sure that a blank screen is not coming from there.
On 08/07/2010 06:52 PM, eric wrote:
>> On 07/29/2010 06:06 AM, Daqar wrote:
>
>>>
>>> Heya,
>>>
>>> I have a laptop (specs in my sig) running OpenSuse 11.3 64 bit with the
>>> nouveau Gallium (7.8.2) gfx driver. I have a Geforce 9600M GT graphics
>>> card. The computer didn’t do so at first, but I don’t know what exactly
>>> I did to make it do so. It might be because I set the background to be a
>>> slide show. I noticed the black screen when I wanted to edit the
>>> settings for the slide show. So far it happens every time I try to
>>> access the ‘Desktop Activity Settings’ whether I right click or use that
>>> icon in the top right of the screen.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Daqar
>>>
>>>
>>
>> On 08/07/2010 06:42 PM, eric wrote:
>
> I hope you find the answer as I have the same problem but I am running
> Opensuse 11.3 32-bit. I installed it from the DVD as a new install.
> After I configured the desktop background to be a slideshow, it would
> work perfectly. If I went back to re-edit the settings, the screen would
> go black just leaving the mouse cursor.
>
> If I setup the virtual desktops to have different activities for each
> desktop I can enter the “Desktop Activity Settings” on any desktop that
> does not have the slideshow enable.
>
> My hardware is an Acer Aspire One with Intel video graphics 945 GME
> using the intel video driver that was setup from the DVD. Maybe it is an
> Acer problem?
>
> Right now I can only hope that I configure the slideshow the first time
> without the need for further edits. If I do need to edit it later I
> will have to figure out which configuration file controls that. I am
> thinking right now it is the file
> ~/.kde4/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc but I have not tested it yet.
>
>
>
> Sorry for the previous top post. I hope this fixes that.
>
> Eric
The only work around I have found so far if the screen goes black is to
type “ALT + F2” to bring up the run command. Type in konsol and open up
a konsol. Then type in “plasma-desktop” which should restart the
plasma desktop. Then if you want to edit the slideshow configuration,
click on the plasma toolbox in the upper right hand corner of the
desktop and click on “Remove this Desktop Acivity” before you try to
edit the settings. Then you can re-apply your slideshow settings and
configuration. It is not very satisfying but it gets the job done
without logging out.
On 08/07/2010 08:06 PM, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:
>
> I can only say that I have had only two issues that caused the screen to
> go blank. One was using the nouveau driver, only intended for nVidia
> video cards (which you solve by loading the nVidia Proprietary driver)
> and by apperantly the kernel screensaver, seemingly activated if the
> Power Savings option for “Let PowerDevel Manage screen Powersaving” is
> not checked. In general, one should look through all of the Power
> Saving features to make sure that a blank screen is not coming from
> there.
>
> Thank You,
>
>
Thank you for your response. I checked the power settings and “Let
PowerDevel Manage screen Powersaving” is checked. I do not believe this
is the problem but it was worth a shot. This problem only occurs on my
Acer Aspire One netbook and not on my desktop. I did find one probable
cause that I should of thought of before and that is when I did a clean
install of 11.3 I kept my home partition from openSUSE 11.1. The main
user login I chose was the same as that from 11.1.
When I created a new user the screen saver setting problem goes away so
it is probably something left over from 11.1 in my home directory. It
is not the .kde4 directory as I renamed it and rebooted. A new .kde4
directory was created and after creating the slideshow screensaver the
problem would reappear.
