KDE Base

Bug #182288
Comment #5

Comment 5 for bug 182288

Revision history for this message

Mr. Wep (subscribe-volny) wrote on 2008-03-27:

Hi all, I have a similar problem.
I'm running Kubuntu Hardy and have a Nvidia 8800GTS graphics card, drivers up to date, system updated as well.
When I activate desktop effects, everything works, they look gorgeous and seem to work nearly flawlessly. But... when I log out and attempt to log in once more, I get a nice black screen with only the mouse cursor visible. I can see that the system is running in the background, I can start an application with alt+f2, e.g. konsole, and then the cursor even changes when navigating to the area where the window should be.
In my case, I do not think it is a single desktop effect that causes the problem. Only checking "enable desktop effects" causes the problem for me, everything else can remain unchecked, it still happens after re-login. I tried all sorts of combinations, both OpenGL and XRender, all the different modes, none had any results though.

For those experiencing a similar problem and not knowing how to fix it in order to keep going without desktop effects, I have a few suggestions:
Note that I have an Nvidia video card and it will not be exactly the same with ATI or others.

Option A:
1) When booting, in GRUB instead of the normal option, choose recovery mode.
2) When this loads, choose the third option - run xfix, this will modify your xorg.conf and set it to defaults.
3) Then choose the first option - normal boot - your system will boot up without your nvidia drivers and this will stop desktop effects from starting resulting in a black screen. It will be a bit slow and laggy but you can survive the minute.
4) Then just open System settings as you are used to and disable desktop effects.
5) Once they are off, you have to get your nvidia drivers back - you do this by simply executing "sudo nvidia-xconfig" in a shell.

Option B:
You do not have to reboot to fix it, you can do the work xfix does manually.
1) Log in using a failsafe session or even console login.
2) Open your /etc/X11/xorg.conf in an editor (e.g. "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf") - you have to have permissions to modify it.
3) Replace:
Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device0"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

With:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection
4) Start the xserver - in console login, just type "startx", if in failsafe, ctrl+alt+backspace logs you out and there you can just log in as you would normally.
5) Carry on with step 3 in option A.

Option C:
Another way of fixing would be renaming or removing your .kde4 directory, but like that you would loose all your settings, like this they stay in place.

I hope this gets resolved soon because the effects look really nice and I really look forward to having them on and working.
If you require any further information please ask.

Richard

Option A:
1) When booting, in GRUB instead of the normal option, choose recovery mode.
2) When this loads, choose the third option - run xfix, this will modify your xorg.conf and set it to defaults.
3) Then choose the first option - normal boot - your system will boot up without your nvidia drivers and this will stop desktop effects from starting resulting in a black screen. It will be a bit slow and laggy but you can survive the minute. 
4) Then just open System settings as you are used to and disable desktop effects.
5) Once they are off, you have to get your nvidia drivers back - you do this by simply executing "sudo nvidia-xconfig" in a shell.

Option B:
You do not have to reboot to fix it, you can do the work xfix does manually.
1) Log in using a failsafe session or even console login.
2) Open your /etc/X11/xorg.conf in an editor (e.g. "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf") - you have to have permissions to modify it.
3) Replace:
Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

With:
Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
EndSection
4) Start the xserver - in console login, just type "startx", if in failsafe, ctrl+alt+backspace logs you out and there you can just log in as you would normally.
5) Carry on with step 3 in option A.

Option C:
Another way of fixing would be renaming or removing your .kde4 directory, but like that you would loose all your settings, like this they stay in place.

I hope this gets resolved soon because the effects look really nice and I really look forward to having them on and working.
If you require any further information please ask.

Richard