help - black screen

[geezer]

Using NVidia 8800GT card

Installed 8.10.

Activated the NVidia driver 177

Under system settings, I clicked on desktop enhancements.

That turned the desktop black with some faint outlines that I assume are windows.

But nothing is legible. I reinstalled, but that didn't fix the problem since I have '/home' and hence my user directory on a separate partition that survives across installation.

So now, when I log in, I get a black screen with nothing legible.

How can I correct/change the settings on the desktop to turn off desktop enhancements without being able to login

Need help - please !!!!!!

[geezer]

Re: help - black screen

read the KDE docs.

Logged on and then Ctrl-Alt-F1 for a CLI

looked in .kde and .kde4 for some kind of configuration files that the docs hint might be there.

Couldn't find anything obvious.

Seems there must be a configuration file there someplace that I could edit and take out the desktop enhancements.

[flarson]

Re: help - black screen

You're doin' some good research and almost got there, maybe. When I go into ~/.kde/share/config and run

grep effect *

kwinrc seems to be the only file in which effect is found.

less kwinrc lets me see that file and it has
[$Version]
update_info=kwin3_plugin.upd:kde3.2,kwin_focus1.up d:kwin_focus1,kwin_focus2.upd:kwin_focus2,kwin.upd :kde3.0r1,kwin.upd:kde3.2Xinerama,kwin_on_off.upd: kwin_on_off

[Compositing]
AnimationSpeed=1
Backend=OpenGL
DisableChecks=false
Enabled=true
GLDirect=true
GLMode=TFP
GLTextureFilter=1
GLVSync=true
HiddenPreviews=5
XRenderSmoothScale=false

[Desktops]
Name_1=Work
Name_2=Personal
Name_3=
Name_4=Monitor
Name_5=
Name_6=
Number=6


I suspect your file may be a little different or something in the Compositing section might be what you need. Maybe set enabled to false?

Hope that helps.

[geezer]

Re: help - black screen

mando_hacker - thanks.

I looed out and into windows and then into the KDE IRC. Asked the question there and got 2 suggestions. The first is pretty much what you suggested.

The second was to press "alt-shift-f12".

Logged out of windows and into Kubuntu, got the black screen, pressed alt-shift-f12 and the screen popped right up in all its bright colors.

Don't know exactly what that key combination does, but it solved that problem fast.

[flarson]

Re: help - black screen

To learn something I looked in K->System Settings->Keyboard&Mouse->Global and selected kwin and looked for Alt-Shift-F12 and it says "Suspend Compositing". It appears that is a keyboard short cut for the same thing, although I wonder if it is permenant?

[geezer]

Re: help - black screen

Okay - I'm a sucker for failed experiments.

Since upgrading to 8.1, I've noticed that the 180 version of NVidia driver is listed under the h/w driver dialog.

Been itching to try it to see if it solved the problems.

Installed and activated the driver using the h/w driver app.

Restarted. Everything appeared to go okay until almost the end of the start-up and then the Kubuntu startup screen with the filling bar disappeared and I got a white characters on black screen with the following message (preceded by a few others that I didn't bother to write down since this message seemed to indicate the failure):

HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error

it then stops Firestarter and attempts to stop ntpd where it hangs

Powered down and tried again - same results.

Now it appears that the NVidia driver is doing weird and strange things to a LOT MORE things than simply X

re-powered into recovery mode and ran the "fix X windows" thing again to get back to a plain vanilla X.

Here is a copy of the xconfig file that got backed up in fixing X (the xconfig that the NVidia activation created):

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

any ideas??

I'm willing to do limited experimenting so long as I can always boot back into recovery mode and have the X configuration reset back to plain vanilla. or copy back a back up xconfig file