[arch-general] screen goes blank on reboot after 1st pacman Su of new install!!!???

[Joe(theWordy)Philbrook]

It would appear that on Jul 5, Myra Nelson did say:

> Joe:
> 
> I've used nVidia cards for years and fought the same problems for
> years (12 or so),
> and used 3Dfx voodoo cards prior to nVidia. I've personally experienced the same
> problems with several different generations of nVidia graphics,
> especially the on
> board graphics. I finally caved and spent the money for pci cards to solve most
> of my problems (I realize that's not always an option for many people).

Believe me, if cashflow wasn't such an issue that the only way I got to
stick a working desktop under that Sony hi-res monitor again was because my
brotherNlaw bought himself a new machine I'd have ditched the nvidia just as
soon as I knew about it... But it's looking like the proprietary driver
will do the trick...
 
> Since the nouveau drivers came out I've never managed to get them working. I've
> tried several times because, like you, I don't need 3d. The xf86vesa driver has
> always worked, but for decent graphics I've always wound up installing the
> proprietary drivers. The setup utility that's installed sets up the
> xorg.conf file
> and you should be off and running.

Yup! Of course it bugs me a little that the video driver depends on xorg...
I wanted the console to work right before I started installing X...
But at lest it was relatively painless. Since pacman -S nvidia pulled in so
much of X I immediately followed it with the other packages that the
beginners guide suggests And the quickly added a couple of tolerable
DE/WM's Rebooted and the console problems were all history...

> Now on to trouble shooting. Please don't take offense at the twenty questions
> routine everyone gets from typical tech support, but without seeing your machine
> I have some suggestions.

 My feeling is that anyone who has the stones to ask for help on ANY
 technical mailing list {even friendly ones} had dag burned better be
 prepared to answer questions...
 
> 1. Have you tried hooking up a monitor from another machine and see if you can
>     reproduce the problem.

No I didn't. But then again I really wanted to use this flat screen Sony...

> 2. If you happen to have another video card (it's a nice thought), try
> putting it in and see if you can reproduce the problem.

No I didn't have one available.

> 2. I don't recall any of the older on boards have dual video ports,
> but if they do switch ports and see what happens.

I only saw one place to plug in the monitor cable...

> 3. Go into the bios and check the video and power management settings.

Now that's a thought. Even though it's now a moot point, I think I'll take
a peek, when next I boot, to see what options are in fact there.

> 4. If the manual came with the computer, RTFineM. LOL. Seriously, with HP boxes
>    it sometimes helps. The do some strange things with the Pavilion line
>    (from my personal experiences)

Nah, Charlie had this pc to long to know what he did with the fine manual. 
 
> I will again apologize if I have offended you with the above, it wasn't
> meant to just pass on some of the things I've had to do over the years
> with nVidia graphics I spent a lot of time learning to hand craft
> xorg.conf files for nVidia cards. I was actually upset when the newer
> version of x didn't need them, but have found using the proprietary
> drivers and the set up utilities work the best. I've also learned not to
> run a display manager and log in from the console.

None taken Myra, While I tend to prefer open source stuff, I'm not allergic
to using proprietary drivers, especially when I can get them via my distro's
package management system without having to write somebody a check...
And aside from the xorg dependency I have to admit as soon as I installed
nvidia, it all started working (except that I think it's blocking the gpm
daemon... {so much for copy/paste in the console...})

I never got used to using a display manager in the first place Every time I
install a new distro, one of the first things I gotta do is find out how
to avoid their preferred DM and use startx when (and if) I decide I'm ready
for X to start.

Thanks for the suggestions Myra, If I'd have had your response before I'd
installed nvidia, I'd have tried most of your suggestions. But it could be
that the next person with a similar problem will catch a clue from this
thread so I'm glad to here even the ones that no longer make sense for me.


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