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Blank screen after login

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Installed Debian Etch to my computer a while ago which I would love to use, but can't because of a problem.

Basically, when the system starts and GDM starts up, I get the login screen as normal. But after typing the login details the screen pretty much goes blank. All that's on the screen is the mouse cursor which I can move around...but it gets kinda boring after a while.

Anyone know what could be wrong? I've installed the graphics card drivers and everything.

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Re: Blank screen after login

Submitted by thveillon on Sun, 2008-03-16 09:12.

Could you give some details about your hardware, especially the graphic card. Your problem is likely to be a xorg configuration problem. When your in the "mouse only black screen" can you shift to a virtual console with the key [ctrl] [alt] [F5] pressed at the same time ? (same with [F7] to come back to the black screen) ?

Can you also try [ctrl] [alt] [backspace], this should relaunch the X server and bring you back to the login screen.

If the above keys work the problem is likely to be easy to solve.

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Re: Blank screen after login

Submitted by JaMaHa on Sun, 2008-03-16 10:22.

The keys worked fine.

Also, my grahics card is Nvidia GeForce 6600GT.

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Re: Blank screen after login

Submitted by thveillon on Sun, 2008-03-16 13:46.

Ok, the video card is well supported so it's likely to be a resolution/frequency problem with your display. When on the black screen, can you try the keys [ctrl] [alt] [±] (last one is "+" or "-" from the numpad). This will cause xorg to try other resolution/frequency settings among those available in the xorg.conf file.

If it doesn't help, i would suggest reseting the xorg.conf configuration as follow :

Use [ctrl] [alt] [F6] to get to a virtual console, log as root and type : /etc/init.d/gdm stop (this will cause the x-server to stop, it can be restarted anytime with the same command ending with "start"). Alternatively, if this doesn't work you can use init 1 for pretty much the same result.(back with "init 2")

Once it is done, use dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg to force probing of your graphic hardware and the writing of a new xorg.conf file. You may be prompted to choose a correct resolution for your display, only choose the good native resolution, and just add one or two low ones (1024x768;800x600). When it's done reboot the machine (command "reboot" or "shutdown -r now") and see if it solves the issue.

If not we'll install the Nvidia proprietary drivers (did you try it already, if not correctly done it may very efficiently mess xorg...)

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Re: Blank screen after login

Submitted by JaMaHa on Sun, 2008-03-16 14:56.

Negative. Still the same.

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Re: Blank screen after login

Submitted by thveillon on Sun, 2008-03-16 20:10.

Well, before i go fishing instead of geeking out (!) lets try installing the nvidia driver for your card. This is non-free stuff if it matters to you, but when the graphical environment is set you are free to shift to free drivers more easily.

Once again you shift to a virtual console, stop gdm or go to single-user mode (init 1), and start preparing the system. You need make, gcc and the kernel headers, the easiest way to get this is :

apt-get update
apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Then you need to download the Nvidia intaller :

wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/169.12/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run if you are running 32bit, if on 64 change target to

http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/169.12/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-169.12-pkg2.run

When done, run sh NVIDIA-[tab] (the "tab" key is for auto-completion, otherwise you have to type the complete name of the Nvidia package).

Basically what's coming next is about answering a few questions, accepting license, don't try to download a binary from www.nvidia (it will fail and lose time), say "yes" or "ok" politely to any question except if warned that your gcc doesn't match the version used to compile the kernel, say "no" to keep installing anyway.

When done reboot, and come back here to say if I should definitely go fishing and sell my computer...

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Re: Blank screen after login

Submitted by pinniped on Mon, 2008-03-17 05:37.

Some of the common problems I've seen over the years:

1. The 'lo' (loopback socket interface) hasn't been started; from a command prompt (press [ctl][alt][F1] for a virtual terminal, [alt][F7] to return to X) do:
ifconfig
See if a "lo" entry appears - if you haven't got it then the system will be severely crippled until you fix the problem.

2. Wrong permissions on /tmp or one of its subdirectories. In this case you will have some clues from checking the permissions on /tmp and a few of the invisible directories (starts with a '.') inside. You will also see some information in /var/log/Xorg.0.log and maybe something in your home directory in the .xsession-errors file.

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Re: Blank screen after login

Submitted by thveillon on Mon, 2008-03-17 06:33.

Also brutally removing ~/.ICEauthority and ~/.Xauthority can solve strange problems, as can emptying /tmp and /var/tmp.

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Re: Blank screen after login

Submitted by JaMaHa on Mon, 2008-03-17 11:27.

Reinstalled the whole Debian. Solved the problem.

Something must have gone wrong in the installation.

Anyways, thanks for your help although it didn't solve the problem. I appreciate your help.

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Re: Blank screen after login

Submitted by thveillon on Mon, 2008-03-17 13:05.

Well, one more for computer x-files randomness ... See you next time ;-)

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