[SOLVED] eeepc after boot half black screen

[jurgen]

Hi all,

my daughter is still using a Asus eeepc 1000h for her schoolwork.
It actually runs fine under Kubuntu. However, after the latest update it boots fine but half of the screen stays black.
I can solve this by closing the lid to put the laptop in sleepmode. Then, when I open the screen to wake up the system the screen is normal again.
My temporary solution is to give grub a nomodeset option. The problem with this solution is that is will only display a screen with resolution of 800x600 without an option to change that to the possible 1024x600.

I think it has something to do with the speed in which the system is booting because waking up takes more time and this results in a good screen.

Jurgen

[oshunluvr]

With the screen half-black, log in and open a terminal and type this:

xdpyinfo |grep 'dim\|reso'

record the results, then type:

sudo service sddm restart

Then log in and do this again in a terminal:

xdpyinfo |grep 'dim\|reso'

and report all your results.

[Snowhog]

What version of Kubuntu is being used?

[ahaaje]

What version of Kubuntu is being used?

I have the same issue as the OP on Artful. Curiously this is only on one of three machines where I have backports enabled. After the login screen get a black screen and the mouse pointer. My wallpaper display briefly, but was replaced by the black screen. No panels are shown, but I can press F2 for the search and start programs from that.

I tried the suggestion above with moving the config, but this made no change.

[jurgen]

Hi Oshunluvr,

Thanks for replying.

xdpyinfo |grep 'dim\|reso'
Gives:
dimensions: 1024x600 pixels (270x158 millimeters)
resolution: 96x96 dots per inch

After
sudo service sddm restart
It gives the same half black screen

So I put the lid down to let the laptop go to sleep and after waking up I gave this command
xdpyinfo |grep 'dim\|reso'
with this result:
dimensions: 1024x600 pixels (270x158 millimeters)
resolution: 96x96 dots per inch

It is under Kubuntu 17.10
I already tried to remove config files and what not but without any results.

Thanks,
Jurgen

[oshunluvr]

Ok, so the screen is setting correctly. So either something is overlaying part of the screen or the screen is being offset somehow. Again, when the screen is partially black, open a terminal, enter xrandr and post the results.

I'd be interested in the contents of /var/log/Xorg.0.log and ~/.xsession-errors if you could attach them or cut and paste (please use the QUOTE tags to encase the past if you do that).

[jurgen]

Hi ,
Sorry it took a while for me to come back. My ip got banned as I tried to upload the xsession-errors.tx file. Apparently kubuntuforums.net thought that I was trying to hack the site

Anyway, here the results (attached). For the xsession-errors I deleted the old one in order to have a smaller size.

Blessings,
Jurgen

[oshunluvr]

So all that looks normal. Have you tried starting with an empty session or adding a second user and see if you get the same results?

When you say "half the screen is black" do you mean the entire desktop image is shoved to one side or is half the desktop visible and the other half covered by a black overlay?

When you side the mouse to the black area is the cursor visible or does it go behind the black part?

[jurgen]

No, the desktop is in place and the mouse is just visible. I don't even think it is a overlay.
During boot the splash (pulsing Kubuntu) is striped and smeared out over the screen. It is there but not readable.
Then, after login in, it is the same with my Desktop. Mouse is visible and everything works but because half of the screen is black I have to 'feel' with the mouse were the program is in order to drag it to the visible area of the screen.
Like I said before, when I put the system to sleep and then waking it up, all is normal.
I now start the laptop with 'nomodeset' which works but it gives me a fixed low resolution.

Oh:
killall plasmashell #to stop it
kstart plasmashell #to restart it
Doesn't work either, I really have to put the system to sleep and then wake it up again

[oshunluvr]

Boot splash is plymouth not xorg so it's a different video setup. plasmashell is the desktop display so if restarting that doesn't help then it's not the desktop.

What about turning off plymouth? Remove "quite splash" from the boot line (and nomodeset) and try that. Maybe plymouth is the problem. There used to be a "noplymouth" boot switch also, but I don't know if it still works.

Also, assuming that doesn't work, what about switching to TTY1 and back to TTY7? So boot and log in, then do CRTL-ALT-1 and CTRL-ALT-7

[jurgen]

Yes, it must be something in the hardware. Strangely the live-usb ran fine. No problems at all, everything out of the boxx
I've tried quite splash without success
switching to TTY1 and back to TTY7 no difference. Actually Switching to TTY1 give the same output, black.
I've attached some pictures so you can see the problem yourself.

Picture one is plymouth.
Picture two is the splashscreen of plasma
Picture three is when the system is up (notice the mouse in the middle)

[oshunluvr]

It almost looks like your system is trying to display two monitors. I've seen this before where a single video card had multiple outputs and the driver tried to output to both outputs. The video card - sensing only a single monitor - overlayed the two "screens" on the one monitor.

With the black screen up, can you get the output of "xrandr" ? You should only see "Screen 0" and one "Connected" line in it's output.

[oshunluvr]

Another thing to try: remove "quiet splash" from the boot line (it's just a pretty picture anyway, who needs it?) and add "vesafb.nonsense=1" instead of "nomodeset".

[jurgen]

Okay, I've put me on a track here Xrandr was normal and vesafb.nonsense=1 didn't work.
However, I started the laptop with an external screen attached... And see here, it started normal.
Then I booted without the external screen and it was black again, as soon as I plugged in the screen it went back to normal.
So, the laptop is definitely doing something with the idea of two monitors.

[oshunluvr]

You should read through your logs before and after the external monitor is plugged in. Try and find some activity and see what's happening.

Also, I'd look in your BIOS for video options since xrandr is showing normal.