Black screen before login on boot

[Bruce Marshall]

On Tuesday 19 June 2007, Chris wrote:
> > You might try adding the  "vga=normal"  at the end of the kernel line and
> > leave the quiet and splash.   It might fix the problem.
>
> Thanks Bruce
> I'll give it a try.  But I think you agree that this shouldn't happen to
> begin with...correct.  I checked with the graphics settings.  The
> settings are 1024 X 768 at 75hz...I don't have anyother option for the
> sync frequency...Iwould like to try 60 and 70Hz to test it but the
> option doesn't exist in the GUI config window.

Not sure what you are running there for a monitor but remember that the boot 
graphics environment is totally different that the KDE environment.

Booting does it's own thing and usually uses the framebuffer logic to do the 
boot.   KDE uses the X server which doesn't even start until the boot process 
is almost over.  So your question below as to "where is that file?"   
(/etc/xorg.conf)  is not something you want to mess with for the boot 
process.  It won't change a thing in the boot and you may well mess up your 
KDE environment.   

>
> Now I adjusted this before in a config file for the res. of the graphic
> display...where and what was that file again?

Don't touch unless  a) KDE is messed up  AND  b)  you know what you're doing.
>
>
> Do you have any idea what would cause this to happen during boot....I
> can understand when the GUI kicks in ...but not during boot?

You're probably running an LCD and they are funny beasts.  For example, my LCD 
requires  1600x1200 as a native mode but for booting, it runs at  1280x1040

It may well be that the boot process is making a bad choice for settings.

Here's some other settings you might use on the kernel line:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/05/24/vga-boot-modes-to-set-screen-resolution/

just add  vga=xxx   to the kernel line for boot, and remember the procedures 
for editing on the fly in grub that Derek mentioned.  If you pick a bad 
value, you may need to edit the line.