[ltp] TP240 - Video problem (?) with SUSE 7.1

[Ken Firestone]

I realize this is not a "good" answer, but I always set my TP240 to do
a text based login, and then start x when I need it. One advantage is
there are some things I want to do quickly, like telnet to a single
host, that can be done much faster from a command line.

It also avoids problems like the ones described below.

On Tue, 22 May 2001, Ted Wiseman wrote:

   Any help anyone can give me with this problem would be greatly appreciated,
   as my support period with SUSE has just expired.

   After previously working fine, my TP 240 with SUSE 7.1 installed now hangs
   at the GUI login screen. I get all green OK's during the boot, but when
   arriving at the SUSE graphical login screen  the window that normally shows
   icons for the users, asks for username and password, and allows selecting
   KDE, Gnome, etc, now does not fully display. The only thing visible
   (besides the light blue background and SUSE logo) is the outline of the
   window, the GUI system scroll list, and the buttons for GO and
   SHUTDOWN..  Although the trackpoint cursor is movable, none of the buttons
   or the scroll list can be selected. Nor can I execute Ctrl -Alt-F2 to
   switch to a text-based mode. Nothing can be done except power off
   manually,. After that, I am able to do a manual boot and enter init 3 to
   get into a non GUI mode, but that's the only way at present I can run Linux.

   SUSE's main response to this, after viewing some hardware info files I
   forwarded to them, was that there was a conflict with the video controller,
   and that I should set the BIOS for a non PNP system. However there is no
   PNP option that I can find in the BIOS setup to do that. Also that
   overlooks the fact that the graphic system was working fine when SUSE 7.1
   was originally installed.

   Since this problem arose a while after I got the unit back from IBM repair,
   which replaced the 240's system board, SUSE also suggested that some prior
   settings were affected by the new system board and that I should reinstall
   Linux. I now have done a clean reinstall, choosing the option to overwrite
   the existing installation, but to no avail. The problem remains as before.

   Any ideas?


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============================================================================
Ken Firestone, W3CAT     | For every problem there is one solution
kenf@speakeasy.net	 |  which is simple, neat, and wrong.
ken@firestone.net        |   -- H. L. Mencken
============================================================================


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