[Solved] Blank screen after clean install

[_guybrush_]

Hello,

I made a clean 10.04 install on my old Dell Inspiron 510m laptop. (It has a nvidia card I think, but I'm not sure). What happens is that I see the Kubuntu boot screen, and I am then presented with the console login. KDM doesn't start.
If I issue a start kdm or startx, the computer hangs.

I have tried to browse the forums for help on the matter, and I have seen a lot of discussions relative to nvidia drivers (nouveau and proprietary). I don't know enough about drivers to understand what I should try. Can somebody please help me by pointing me toward what I should try to do? I read that I should use the vesa driver and edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to use this driver, but the xorg.conf file is not present...

Thanks in advance for your help.

[_guybrush_]

Re: Blank screen after clean install

Hello Kubuntu community,

It's me again. I wasn't able to solve the problem and had to re-install Kubuntu 9.10, which works like a charm. However, as Lucid is a LTS, I would be really interested to upgrade. Could someone please give me a hint on how I should proceed?

Thanks in advance!

[GreyGeek]

Re: Blank screen after clean install

You could try to decode the info on this page, or do what I did: Boot the PCLinuxOS 2010 LiveCD and use its XFdrake x configuration tool to generate an xorg.conf file that worked with my video chip. Mount the HD with Kubuntu on it, copy the xorg.conf file from /etc/X11/xorg.conf to /mnt/etc/X11, unmount the HD, umount the usb stick, and reboot.

[_guybrush_]

Re: Blank screen after clean install

Thank you for your reply. I will try the second method. I hope it'll work.

[Guest]

Re: Blank screen after clean install

Taken from http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/...Known%20issues :

#

sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

(or nvidia-173 or nvidia-96)

select the alternative that matches the driver that you have installed
* (e.g. /usr/lib/nvidia-current/ld.so.conf for nvidia-current):

sudo update-alternatives --config gl_conf

update the ld cache:
*

sudo ldconfig

then configure your xorg.conf with:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

And restart your computer.

Try this... I'd made it but it didn't help me too much

[GreyGeek]

Re: Blank screen after clean install

<soapbox>
If there is one critical weakness in Ubuntu/Kubuntu it is not having an independent xserver configuration tool which one can fall back on IF hal/udev fails to properly configure the video chip and/or monitor.

This is especially critical when the vendor's latest configuration app does not support your older chip, and the older configuration app doesn't recognize the newer kernel.

Having to rely on XFdrake on a PCLinusOS LiveCD to conjure up a working xorg.conf file is embarrassing.
</soapbox>

[_guybrush_]

Re: Blank screen after clean install

Hello,

Thank you for your replies. I was able to get KDE back. I still have some troubles, but this is beyond the scope of this thread.