[xubuntu-users] How to diagnose loss of X/GUI after latest kernel upgrade in 8.10?

[Chris G]

On Tue, Jul 07, 2009 at 08:23:49AM -0700, Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 1:02 PM, Chris G<cl at isbd.net> wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 09:45:30PM +0200, Steve Dodier wrote:
> >>    Does "X" in root die silently ? What about "startx" and "/etc/init.d/gdm
> >>    start" ? Any message that could help a little ?
> >
> > Both gdm and X are running, it's just (!) that they produce no display.
> >
> >    root      3854     1  0 19:57 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/gdm --config=/etc/gdm/gdm-cdd.conf
> >    root      3857  3854  0 19:57 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/gdm --config=/etc/gdm/gdm-cdd.conf
> >    root      3860  3857  0 19:57 tty7     00:00:00 /usr/bin/X :0 -br -audit 0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -nolisten tcp vt7
> >
> > --
> > Chris Green
> 
> This sounds exactly like what I'm having with my gentoo and an
> on-board ATI Rage.  It's just one of three with similar X problems, so
> I've been working on the two Ubuntu ones first.  Xorg 1.5 is a mess
> for some of us right now.
> 
This thread seems to have burst back into life a few days after I
originally had the problem.

After making sure I had really got to the latest 9.04 installation my
symptoms changed a little, I got *two* X GUIs running one of which
used the Intel drivers and one the Vesa drivers.  The Intel one
claimed it didn't have a display, went into failsafe mode and then
fell in a heap.  The Vesa one worked (on display :1, console 9).

After further Googling for possible reasons for this it turned out
that I had some sort of display (DVI-D) interface oddity as the fault
cleared when I powered down *everything* including my monitor.  I've
now got everything working as it should, only one X/GUI running with
the proper Intel drivers and all is well.

-- 
Chris Green